Friday, Friday, gonna get down on Friday~ Yep it’s me again, and not Rebecca Black, so you don’t have to worry about which seat I’m going to take. Thank god it's the weekends finally, huh? Finally a time to catch your breath and unwind a bit before more school.
On the other hand though, graduation is coming soon (just a few weeks more!) and I’ve finally gotten my acceptance letter. I have confirmed a place in Creative Producing in Chapman University, a US-based uni which is based in NP, and I just can’t wait for school to start! Anything to break the monotonous routine I’ve fallen into would be more than welcome, though I might change my mind the moment the workload starts piling up.
Like most of my other friends, I started worrying about university admissions as the submission periods for university applications came around. In the end though, I applied only for Chapman for a couple of reasons.
- I’d heard plenty of advice from well-meaning seniors who said that a mass comm degree would largely cover what I’d already learnt in NP, and so I didn’t want to waste my time or money doing something that would be similar to what I’d already learnt. Can you imagine doing that? It’d be so boring.
- The course is only 2 years, and $6.9k per year at that. While I would love to go overseas to study, I can’t put that financial burden on my parents. Plus, there was also a chance I’d get to join the immersion programme and head over to Orange County, Cali for a 3 month long internship. Woohoo~
- Creative Producing was something I wanted to pursue, and thought would be interesting. It’s quite different from what I specialised in (Print Journalism), so more than a few people were surprised when they heard I was going to Chapman.
In any case, those are my reasons for coming back to NP, even though that means I’ll be spending 5 years here in total. Those were the pros to making this decision, and as for the cons, I guess there’s no escape from Makan Place. (Just kidding, I know there’s the new canteen – but I haven’t eaten there yet so…)
Don’t feel left out though, if you’re not from FMS! Just so you know, Chapman Uni is not the only degree option that’s available in NP.
For HMS students, there’s the Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education (which I’m sure you’ve heard of). It’s a partnership with Wheelock College and specially customised for graduates from Early Childhood Education and Child Pyschology & Early Education – and the best thing is that it’ll cost you $6.8k a year, which is a few hundred dollars cheaper than tuition fees you’ll need to pay for a local university.
There are also scholarship schemes for this particular course, unlike mine, which only has one. Other than the general NP Undergraduate Scholarship, there’s also the Lien Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship, NTUC Childcare Co-operative Ltd Scholarship and finally, the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to Encourage Upgrading (LKY-STEP).
If you’re lucky, you even get to join a 5 week summer internship at the Boston campus, which sounds pretty cool.
The other post-poly option available are the degree programmes offered by Newcastle University. There’s Marine Technology, Marine Engineering, Offshore Engineering and Naval Architecture, so there’re really quite a couple of options available there. They’re mainly catered to graduates from Marine & Offshore Engineering, other graduates from Mechanical Engineering-related courses are welcome to join. You just have to take a bridging course.
There’re also numerous scholarships available, such as the George Chow Yew Tong Scholarship, the ASMI-Naval Architecture Scholarship and the Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust Fund Scholarship – and if you do well enough, you get to participate in a 4 week immersion programme in Newcastle, UK!
For more information about the choices you have in NP, check out Degree options for Ngee Ann grads.
And that’s the end of my post for this week – I’ll be flying off to Hong Kong on Sunday, so expect a post about HK when I get back! :)