Course + Year:Yale-NUS Global Affairs
Yale-NUS offers a liberal arts education. That means that for the first 2 years at Yale-NUS, you have to go through a common curriculum like everyone else, which covers subjects from Philosophy, Math, Science, Sociology etc. These are subjects considered to be the backbone of other subjects offered at Yale-NUS. After the first 2 years, you would have to pick a major from the list provided.
The common core really appealed to me because I wanted to do literature again and I wanted an excuse to do Philosophy one last time after my Theory of Knowledge paper. I wasn’t really looking forward to Math but I guess statistics is an important area of study for everyone and everyone should have some form of exposure to it.
“Common curriculum allows you to explore various areas of subjects freely without feeling guilty of wasting time on something that doesn’t contribute to your major which was something I was interested in.”
If you’re a person with a lot of interests, a liberal arts education can be interesting. It also helps you to view issues through an interdisciplinary lens. For example, even though I am doing global affairs, I can see its inter-linkages with Philosophy and Sociology and the other subjects. That’s a good thing about a liberal arts education.
You have to apply through the US Common Applications. You’ll be asked to fill in what you’d like to major in but I think it’s not really taken into account. Yale NUS will then email you, asking for an interview. If you want to know more about the requirements, you might want to take a look at this thread.
I’d say the interview was pretty chill. They just wanted to know my plans if I came to Yale NUS. The interview was about 45 mins. My interviewer was Filipino too so we ended up talking about Philippines. They also asked questions like what course I’d teach if I were a Professor at Yale NUS.
Yale-NUS really equips you with an interdisciplinary outlook on any subject you’re going to do. Let’s say you are looking to do Economics. At Yale-NUS, you can see that there’s a link between various subjects of study whenever an issue is being discussed. However, the fact that you’re doing your major over only 2 years compared to 4 years at NUS also means that you’d have to pick up content at twice the speed compared to a student from NUS. Content at Yale-NUS could be a bit more condensed as well. If you’re someone who wants more depth in your subject of study, you should go to NUS. If you want exposure to various areas of study, you might want to consider Yale-NUS.
“It depends on what you want and how you want to spend your last few years of education.“
Global Affairs major focuses on a few main areas like International Relations, International Organisations which includes the study of organisations like WTO, IMF, ICG, Unicef. One of the first courses I took was Ethics and Global Affairs. We talked about the Ethics of Humanitarian Aid. We also do Ancient Political Philosophy, like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle etc.
We’ve done Chinese Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy, and modern thinkers like John Mills. The Common Curriculum gives an overview of both Ancient and Modern Philosophy. For example, we covered philosopher Hannah Arendt, a Jewish thinker who rose after post-World War and she wrote about the collapse of Nazi Germany. Outside the common core, we tackle more specific questions like “How do you resolve the problem of evil?” “Why be moral?” “The Philosophy of Religion”. When you do Philosophy, you can see how various Ancient Philosophers came to the same conclusion albeit they didn’t know what the other Philosophers thought.
The grading system is similar to that of US Universities where GPA is over 5. Since I’m a humanities student, most of our graded assignments are essays. Economics and Math modules would probably have exams whereas Social Sciences would focus more on doing essays. Class participation is also a huge thing at Yale NUS.
There might also be secondary quizzes. For example, we have to do discussion posts which are basically 100-200 word write-ups on the readings given by professors. Readings can be very excruciating as well and can go up to 60 pages for a 1.5-hour class but realistically speaking, we students have things to prioritize as well so all these discussion posts we do aren’t really perfect. Sometimes we just flip to a page and write down whatever is interesting.
My internship last year was with Learning Lab because I am very interested in teaching. Now, I am going to go to Bangkok to do an internship with a think tank that focuses on activist movements. It does research on humanitarian issues and international law. I was also offered an internship by an aspect of Unicef in Korea which is dedicated to peace studies between the Koreas. There are a lot more internship opportunities all around the world that are available to Yale NUS students, such as internships at ASEAN.
Apart from internships, I’m also going to the US soon for a summer programme well. It is a completely different set of classes. It is about global strategies and leadership, which are relevant to my major.
One of the guys that I know who was in my major is working as a Political Risk Analyst at Oliver Wyman, which is very lucrative. Some of them go for post-grad. Some join NGOs. Some go into banking. So it really depends on your goals in life and how you’ve shaped yourself during your time at Yale NUS, be it the internships you’ve done or the hard skills you have picked.
For liberal arts degrees, you won’t get any hard skills that you can put on your resume.
“Hence, I would say that a liberal arts degree equips you with flexibility in thought but doesn’t equip you with any hard skills.”
What my classmates do is teach themselves these hard skills employers are looking for. One is learning Python for data analytics even though he’s a Philosophy major. It is something you can show off to your employers and sets you apart from the rest. Others also teach themselves graphic designing etc. because they know that the school won’t equip you with these hard skills because it is geared towards a certain type of education but they still need these hard skills to successfully gain employment in that profession. Hence, If you want to differentiate yourself, you need to learn the hard skills your profession needs by yourself.
With that said, not everyone has to go out and do coding. Some employers may require a different kind of skill set. In such cases, a liberal arts degree can still be quite useful, contrary to the common belief that a liberal arts education is useless. An education from Yale NUS does not put you at a disadvantage and Yale-NUS graduates are still very employable, just like every other degree out there. I have friends that work for NGOs which require organisational ability and not those hard skills like coding. I know of people going to think tanks, which require research skills and language ability to create papers, something Yale NUS definitely prepares you for.
Some of our classes are semi-lectures, especially for subjects that have a lot of content to cover. For maybe subjects like Humanities, a lot of them are seminar-based with a heavy emphasis on discussions stimulated by certain questions professors may pose. One big difference is that classes are really small. Class size is capped at 18 which forces people to be more involved in the class. This allows for the classes to be driven by discussions.
Quite a number of people will meet the professors after class as well. Professors here are very chill and are close to students. Some of the professors stay on campus and join students at the dining halls, which allows you to form good relationships with them. The dining hall experience is something that Yale-NUS proudly boasts on its website.
A lot of people are really involved in extracurricular activities even though they aren’t a requirement at Yale-NUS. Moreover, the residential living at Yale-NUS is a fun experience as well. However, one drawback of residential colleges is that students tend to organise meetings for extracurriculars late into the night just because everyone lives within the campus, which can be annoying for someone who sleeps early. Trainings can go on late into the night as well.
To learn more about the Student Life at Yale-NUS, you can click here to visit their website.
I chose Yale-NUS because I wanted to be challenged mentally and I wanted to mix around with the international students. I just knew I wanted to get out of the local system.
You should really look at various factors like what kind of internships the university wants, what kind of extracurricular activities the university offers. If you want to go to a familiar environment, maybe local schools like NUS would be better for you.
“It all really depends on what you want out of your last 4 years of education.”
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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