Personal Experience/ Preferences
Itâs essentially a computer science course where we learn about fundamentals such as algorithms and data structures and have the chance to specialize in areas such as machine learning, fintech and cybersecurity.
I was from HCI, and I pursued Physics, Computing, Mathematics and Economics (all H2). H2 Computing was highly related, set the foundation for my course and provided the coding fundamentals that made the beginning of the course easier. I took Computing in JC out of curiosity as there was no such subject in secondary school. As the JC curriculum was much simpler, I was motivated to further explore computing in university.
I did not seriously consider SMU as it is a rather specialised business school. NTU was too distant from my house; thus my only options were either NUS or SUTD. What made me choose SUTD was the course being more project-based than theoretical, which I believed will be more beneficial for me when working in the future (which can be further proven by the 2020 Graduate Employment Survey).
My parents were initially against it as SUTD is a new school, and thus they were less familiar with the curriculum. My mum was also an alumnus of NUS Information Systems, and thus she was also hoping that I enroll in it too. To convince her, I invited her to join me for the Open House, and she eventually was alright with me registering.
My friends were okay with it too, and one of them is in the same course as me now.
I entered the course through the Early Admissions Exercise (i.e. I used my Prelim results as A-Level results were not published yet) as I have already decided to join the course at the end of J1. I also applied for the SUTD Global Distinguished Scholarship, which has benefits such as subsidised school fees for up to 4 years, programme fees and a travel grant for the Global Leadership Programme and an allowance of $5000 every 2 terms.
There was an interview to enter the course and the questions mostly revolved around SUTDâs school values of Leadership, Integrity, Passion, Collaboration and Creativity.
SUTD has a unique curriculum as the first 3 terms out of the 8 total terms will be dedicated to mandatory core modules. It is only in the 4th term that we get to take modules pertaining to our majors.
One thing to note is that as of the incoming batch in 2020, SUTD has changed the first-year curriculum, so what I will be sharing regarding the first 3 terms will be mostly based on my understanding of the changes and what I have seen and heard from the junior batches. Of course, for modules that I also took under the old first-year curriculum, I will be speaking based on personal experience.
The first 3 terms are known as freshmore terms. For the first 2 terms, freshies will be placed into fixed freshmore classes, and will take the same compulsory modules together. These modules cover topics such as introduction to programming, probability and statistics and physics. There is also a module touching on chemistry and biology, but from what I have heard, that module is not very in-depth and is not a big concern for anyone who has not touched biology or chemistry since secondary school. In the third term, freshies will have to take 2 compulsory core modules but they are also given the chance to pick 2 elective modules based on their indicated majors.
From term 4 onwards, we begin taking modules specific to our majors (also known as pillars in SUTD). For term 4 and 5, we take compulsory pillar-specific core modules. For me, I am in the Computer Science and Design (CSD) pillar, so the core modules I took taught things related to Java programming, basic computer hardware, algorithms and data structure and introduction to networks and operating systems.
From term 6 onwards, we are free to pick our own pillar-specific electives to create our specialization tracks. We can also take electives offered by other pillars to create our own custom tracks or to fulfil requirements for minors.
As for the term-by-term course structure, each term, all students will take 4 modules whereby 3 are core modules and 1 is a humanities, arts, and social science (HASS) module. There is not much difference between lectures and tutorials in my course as the class size is small and thus we are still going to meet the same people. Each core module usually lasts for has 5 hours every week per module of weekly class time and this will be split into 3h of lecture and 2h of tutorials. The lecture can either be a 3h session or split into two 1.5h sessions. For some modules where there is only one class, there is little difference between what is done during lectures and tutorials. For HASS modules, there will be 3 hours of class time each week. (except Humanities lessons generally lasting for 3 hours per week). We have some unique Humanities HASS modules such as The Chinese Lyrical Translation, Urban Theory, Business Ethics and even Shakespeare, Race and Religion in the Renaissance World.
With regards to assessment, most modules will include some form of a group project in our grade, which usually takes place over a few weeks but can sometimes also be a term-long project (these will usually be of higher weightage). We would usually be tasked with group assignments that could last up to a term, These projects will be graded on both group and individual components and higher-weightage projects tend to include peer evaluations at the end. Professors will take contribution into account when assigning final grades but there are individual components.
Most modules will also include mid-term and final examinations. The modules without examinations are typically HASS modules and project-based/studio modules. Examinations will take place over 3 days after the end during the last week of each 14- week semester term and a short study break. We do not have an official study break, so preparations for the exams tended to be quite rushed and there have been times that I had to study the relevant materials the day before a paper.
Besides group projects and examinations, we also tend to have marks allocated to homework, lab assignments and participation, though most professors tend to be more lenient on the participation marks.
In my freshmore year, we had a fixed class and a fixed classroom that we can enter at any time (might not be true anymore during the Covid period). Hostel stay is also compulsory for first years. Hence, most of my days were spent in the classroom rushing projects, hanging out with friends in the hostel or at co-curricular activities (also known as Fifth Rows in SUTD).
Each day, commuting to class from the hostel took about 5-10min and I usually walk over with my roommate (all first years must stay in double rooms so everyone has a roommate). Classes in SUTD start earliest at 8.30am and can end as late as 9pm (though these are rare and usually only for less popular modules in Year 3 or 4).
Freshmore classes typically have about 50 students per class, with a 60-40 guys-to-girls gender ratio. In class, I typically do not interact much with the professors and just learn from the questions asked by other students. Most modules have some group exercises during the class, so we get the chance to work with the people sitting in our area to solve these exercises too.
For lunch, we would usually eat at the canteen due to time constraints. If there was more time, we would go out to Bedok, Changi City Point, Tampines and sometimes even Jewel. As a vegetarian, there is very little variety in the canteen, so I will sometimes spend a little more and dine at the eateries in SUTD instead of just at the canteen.
As I was in cheerleading in my first year, I tended to spend a lot of time after classes at Fifth Row. Cheerleading practice is usually held 2-3 times per week from 6.30pm to 10.30pm and we almost always went out for supper afterwards till 1-2am at Simpang Bedok (a popular supper place among SUTD students).
Now, with Covid, while Year 1 students still have in-person lessons, Year 2-4 students usually have their classes shifted online, so I usually only go back to campus for Fifth Row activities now. I prefer online lessons as I could learn at my own pace and time(Year 1 and 2 students were still attending classes in person).
The weightage of projects in determining our GPAs grades vary based on the module and the size of the project, with most projects having weightage of around 20-30% while some larger term-long projects can have weightage as heavy as was relatively high at about 60%. The remaining 40% weightage would be based on our class participation, homework, lab assignments and individual examinations.
Our projects tend to be rather time-consuming, especially if group members are uncooperative. There have been instances whereby I chose to skip lectures closer to project deadlines so that I could rush out a quality submission and ended up behind on lessons for a while. Projects typically also end with final presentations to professors (and external clients for projects that involve companies) and written reports.
The unique part about our projects was that we would have to spend a lot of time(so much that I had to skip lectures and was behind schedule for a while) executing our ideas and eventually presenting them to the school at the end of the semester.
For Computer Science exams, writing pseudocode (code without any correct syntax, its purpose is just to show our general idea) or Python/Java code by hand was common. There were only 1-2 modules whereby examinations involved writing actual code online. Most exams also tested theories that we learnt, so we had to write explanations and fill in diagrams, so not everything was coding. we had to write codes(except for a first-year exam held online) and solve related questions, similar to a Maths and Science exam.
For Humanities, there was were usually no exams, and the grade was determined based on essay assignments, and class participation and sometimes regular short write-ups/homework.
It is rather difficult to compare as there are only five majors in SUTD, namely Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD), Engineering Systems and Design (ESD, similar to business analytics in NUS), Design and Artificial Intelligence (DAI, a new major that takes in its first batch in 2022), Computer Science and Design (CSD) and Engineering Product Development (EPD, more traditional engineering); thus the selection pool is too small. Personally, I feel that in different terms, the workload for each major will vary, which makes it tough to compare in general. However, there is a common consensus that ASD has the heaviest workload while ESD has the lightest workload. As DAI is new, no one knows how heavy the workload will be yet.
Learning was more structured in the university which can be hard to achieve when learning independently. Additionally, in university, I had opportunities to apply my knowledge based on real-world problems that various companies have faced and shared, opportunities that an individual will not come across outside of school. It was through these opportunities that I could build connections and expand my network with friends(possibly future industry partners) and companies(which could allow me to be able to contribute more in the future).
In SUTD, there are 2 âspecialâ keywords: pillars and tracks. Pillars can be thought of as majors and must be declared and confirmed by the start of Term 4. Tracks can be thought of as specialisations and will only be recognized after all 8 terms.
In Term 6, when we get to pick our own pillar-specific electives, we can choose to follow certain pre-defined tracks (ie. specialisations) or to create our own custom tracks, though we will have to seek approval from the school in this case. Tracks are not set in stone at this point as the school will only recognize that track at the end of all 8 terms based on whether the electives that you took fulfill the track requirements. Since no one will be able to guarantee their places in each elective, choosing to follow a certain track in Term 6 does not automatically mean that you will be part of that track. However, it is quite rare for someone to not be able to fulfill their track requirements as the school and professors will try their best to open enough slots for everyone in their desired classes. Surveys are sent out in previous terms to gauge the interest in each module to help determine class scheduling and class sizes. I chose Computer Science and Design(CSD) in Term 4 and soon after took its core modules. I then took the elective modules in Term 6.
I chose to create a custom track for software engineering and submitted my study plan to the school during the summer before Term 6 started to seek approval. However, after taking the modules in Term 6, I am now thinking of switching to the cybersecurity track instead.
I was not very bonded with the professors as I did not talk a lot in class. However, some professors were approachable, and one of them that I met was genuinely helping the students to learn to prepare for the real world instead of just sharing facts. She even gave her Telegram handle so that students could talk to her after class and answer our questions at late hours like 2am. On the other end of the spectrum, there was one professor that I also remember that was less approachable and one of my HASS professors was not fond of students sharing alternative opinions about specific topics, which made me less participate less in class.
In Terms 7 and 8, the seniors will be taking on the Capstone project from January to August. The Capstone project is a design project (design as in design thinking, not artistic/aesthetic design) whereby students are given a real-world problem statement and they must use the 2 terms to come up with a final prototype that will be displayed at an exhibition at the end of Term 8.
Companies who wished to be a Capstone partner would apply the year before, and the projects would be selected by the students in November the year back. Seniors could also choose to have a start-up or choose their own companies to work with. Though selecting a Capstone Partner was the most convenient option, seniors were not allowed to pick their groupmates and thus, many seniors chose the latter two options. For the self-sourced option, either the company would issue a problem statement to the students, or the students would propose a problem statement to the company. This problem statement would then have to be approved by the school before it can become an official Capstone project. The school also had to approve the proposed draft before the final product could be presented.
In Term 7, the Capstone project would mainly involve the ideation and iterative prototyping phase of the design process. Groups would also have regular check-ins with their industry mentors from the partner companies and Capstone mentors from the school. In Term 8, groups will mainly work on the final prototype of their project and present it at an exhibition at the end of the term. Groups will be graded not just on the final product, but also on the entire design process.
Up to Term 5, I liked the introduction to the Operating Systems and Networks module (Computer System Engineering) and basics of computer hardware classes module (Computation Structures) the most, both because of the course content and the professor because I understood the lessons much better, and I was not a fan of algorithms.
I also liked the feeling of accomplishment when our products the final products from our projects were completed after weeks of hard work and sleepless nights.
Before I entered university, there was a joke about SUTD being an acronym of âStay Up till Dawnâ as we had to pull up many all-nighters to complete projects. As such, I already had sort of mentally prepared myself, but the workload was could still be somewhat overwhelming at times. Moreover, due to the lack of time, not all the knowledge required for projects was taught in school and some projects required knowledge of frameworks and libraries that were not taught in class, so we sometimes had to self-study a lot such as from using platforms such as the library and YoutubeYouTube and Udemy..
Also, during the Open House, the school placed a relatively heavy emphasis on collaboration, but when I enrolled in the course (not sure if it was only my class), the people were much quieter than I expected, and most of them were not that proactive. Thus, sometimes I may have to redo the project from the start(fortunately this only happened for smaller projects). This made some group projects difficult as I had to do more work or help to redo some portions that were not done up to standard.
There were times when I might have had slight regrets, but overall, I am still glad that I chose to come to SUTD. The reason behind those moments of regret is that because of the common first year, we only had 2.5 years for learning actual computer science content (at least with the old curriculum and calendar) while computer science courses in NUS and NTU give students 4 full years dedicated to computer science modules. I felt that this made me miss out on learning some key content in time for my internship (this might not be as relevant with the new calendar now since the internship window has been shifted from the old calendar). However, SUTD students may have the edge in adapting to the workplace environment faster than others due to our extensive practical experience, which is why I donât regret my decision overall.
I had 2 internship experiences during my time in university. The first was during the summer after my first 3 terms and the second was during the summer after Term 5. At SUTD, a 16-week internship is a graduation requirement so all students will definitely have at least one internship experience during their time at university.
My first internship was at an ed-tech startup as a software engineer intern. I had worked at this company before the start of university, so I got this internship when the founders of the startup contacted me about doing another internship there. For this internship, I must admit that school did not prepare me much for it as the first year was a common year that had little to do with programming or software engineering. Hence, I picked up the skills needed for the internship by watching tutorials online and purchasing courses from Udemy. I had also had some experience with the technology used by the company as I had interned with them before.
My second internship was at a multinational corporation (MNC). I managed to get this internship through my schoolâs career fair, which is held every year at the start of February. At this fair, companies Every year at about the start of February, there would be a career fair whereby companies would set up booths and offer internships and full-time positions. We could indicate our interests directly with them or through the school portal (which had more companies listed), and the companies would contact us after that. There were three application windows, and for each application window, we were allowed to pick up to 4 companies.
However, before the career fair started, I searched online for internship positions and found a major firm beforehand. I didnât choose that firm in the end though, as they didnât seem interested in hiring me after the hackathon and an interview. So instead, I applied for another firm during the career fair. I wanted to try working at a big firm too, as I wanted to experience working in both a start-up(worked in my 1st year) and an established firm before deciding where to work after I graduate.
For my second internship, I felt that I was more prepared by the school as I had already built some foundation in software development, algorithms, and backend engineering concepts. However, I still had to self-learn as school mainly taught us about fundamental concepts. New technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes were not taught in school and required me to quickly pick them up. Thankfully, my supervisor was extremely understanding and even gave me a learning period for me to pick up the technology and get familiar with the existing codebase and systems before beginning actual tasks.
The internship lasted for 16 weeks as one of SUTDâs requirements. For my second internship, most of my work (I was in the product development group) was done online due to COVID and the office renovation. There were so many surprisingly many meetings, but everyone was easily contactable during the day. I was lucky that everyone on my team was accommodating and supportive, and the manager was very attentive to the employeesâ growth.
I observed that there were quite a lot of skilled foreign employees in the firm, but there were also quite a few locals (My friendâs team had more locals though).
Sadly, due to most of the work being done online, there wasnât much time for bonding except during farewell sessions or the occasional virtual team lunch and occasional rock-climbing sessions with my supervisor.
There were internship reports submitted to the school written by us, and at the end of the internship, every all interns working in that company would have to design a poster for the schoolâs upcoming learning carnival together.
A key difference I noticed between my two internships is that team sizes in start-ups are much smaller in major firms. This may be quite obvious, but the implications of it were quite interesting as I got to experience firsthand the significance of communication in large and trans-national teams. The scale of products was also different due to the difference in staffing, capital etc. The start-up culture is also quite different from working in an MNC. The founders of the start-up that I interned at worked extremely hard, even throughout the night sometimes, and was generally more work-oriented. Meanwhile, the MNC encouraged employees to adopt a work-life balance and regularly held bonding activities for employees and their families, even during working hours. However, this is not to say that the workers at the MNC did not work as I could clearly see how passionate and knowledgeable my teammates were in both the product we were developing and the technology we were using.
I plan to find a full-time job as a software engineer. The MNC from my second internship has welcomed me to rejoin them after I graduate and I am considering it, though I am on the lookout for other firms as well. That major firm offered me a full-time job, and I am considering it as the people are friendly and the type of work is unique.
Yes, so that I have more time for my projects and rest. The fees were slightly on the high side at about $3000 2000 per term and there were only double rooms available for the first two terms(air conditioning is provided). Hostel stay is also compulsory for the first 2 terms and only double rooms are offered to first years. All rooms in the SUTD hostel are also air-conditioned. The hall activities were pretty normal so I didnât take part in quite a lot of them. There were hostel activities but I did not take part in most of them as they were not particularly exciting.
SUTD brands itself as having a collaborative and innovative school culture where there is a strong entrepreneurial spirit. However, after being at the school, this seems to only be present in a smaller subset of the student population. There are certainly students that are more passionate about technology and entrepreneurship creating their own start-ups and self-initiated projects, but there are also students who are more focused on grades and spend their time mugging.
Most students at SUTD also take part in Fifth Row activities. Many Term 1 students tend to take part in many Fifth-Row activities as the entire first term is a pass/fail term (no GPA yet) to let students participate in more of such activities. We have many clubs and interest groups, from sports like basketball and bouldering, to performing arts like dance and bands, to clubs like SOAR (a robotics club) and ROOT (student council). Some of these clubs hold school-wide events such as some students creating groups called SUTD Band and holding concerts every half a year. There is also a student council known as ROOT, and the current batch has liaised with the school to improve the studentsâ lives, such as rectifying the portal crash due to the overloading of biddings. such as SUTD Bands organizing concerts and Athletics holding a virtual run event with free shirts.
One thing to note about SUTD Fifth-Rows is that anyone can join any Fifth Row, even if they do not have prior experience in the sport or performing art etc. This makes for a more inclusive community within the school, but the downside is that our sports teams tend to do poorly, though this may also have to do with the small pool of students (intake is ~500 per year for the entire university).
According to the school, Wednesdays and Fridays are dedicated to Fifth Row Activities (extra-curricular activities); thus lessons on these days end at about 1pm. However, Fifth Row Activities still occur in the evenings of every weekday regardless of what time lessons end.
For the first term, I was in Cheerleading which is a very tiring yet bonded CCA/Fifth Row. Once my lessons ended at around 4-5, I would take a short break before attending a session at about 6.45 pm. Sessions will usually end at around 10-11pm, and as staying in a hostel was compulsory, I had time to chill and have supper with my CCA mates. However, I chose to quit as I felt that training was too frequent and too intense for my liking.
From the second term onwards, I joined Rock Climbing, and I preferred that as training was more flexible and I could just climb a wall at my own time (as compared to having to find a common time to train with my Cheerleading mates), thus allowing myself to have more time and freedom to complete my personal projects.
Some opportunities that I had but could not take due to COVID include a sponsored 8-week overseas exchange at the University of California, Berkeley, and a term-long exchange at Tampere University, Finland. I was disappointed as overseas exchanges are rare opportunities that we donât get after university, and I heard from the seniors about how fun the exchange was(I cannot remember the details as the sharing sessions were 2 years ago). For my exchange opportunity to Berkley, as that was a sponsored trip covered by my scholarship, the school offered compensation in the form of topping up our internship pay to $1000 if it was under that. However, that was not really applicable to many people as the pay for IT internships was usually more than $1000. The school also gave us the chance of going for Singapore Universities Student Exchange Programme(SUSEP) where we spend a term as an exchange student at a local university to make up for the cancellation of the long-term overseas exchange. However, there were extremely few spots for that programme and a very tight timeline to submit the relevant documents. Hence, I did not go for that as well.
Join a course you are interested in and if you are interested in collaboration and technology, do consider SUTD.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the interviewees and do not reflect the official policy or position of any institution. They are also not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, class, individual or organisation.
The information contained in this website is intended to provide general guidance only. It should not be relied upon as professional advice and does not 100% guarantee admission into any course.
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