Tips for applying to UK/US universities

When I was in J2, I remember being really confused and lost about college admissions. So here’s some advice from my own/my friends’ experiences with applying for UK and US unis. 🙂

Fundamental Differences

In my opinion, applying for UK unis is way more convenient than US unis, because you don’t have to take SATs and UK unis only require 1 common application essay, unlike US ivy leagues that require near perfect SAT scores and answers to additional questions asked by the schools.

I’ve heard that the university culture in the UK is very much similar to that in Singapore (lecture/tutorial style), whereas in the US things are very different, there are a lot more open discussions and learning is apparently more self-directed. Some of my friends applied to the US as they really wanted to experience the liberal arts system and a different style of learning from what they are used to here in Singapore.

 

For the selection process, UK ivy leagues are on the look out for good grades and a good application essay. The focus is generally more academic, as compared to US unis that often seek to build a diverse class. This means that there are quotas for each nationality in the US uni, and you are essentially competing with people from your own country for entrance into that particular uni. Having good grades does not necessarily guarantee you a spot in the uni, it is important to have a good portfolio. (I’ve had many friends with straight As who were rejected by US universities but excepted into several good UK unis.) On the other hand, UK unis do not require you to submit your CCA portfolio.

SATs

Some people (including myself) would take SAT 1 at the end of sec 4 before JC starts, but I don’t really recommend this because my command of english improved drastically in J1, and I saw a +200 points improvement in my SAT score when I retook SAT1 in J1. You could take SAT1 anytime in JC, though my recommendation would be sometime early in your J2 year, because that’s when your english would be more polished.

Also do note that you cannot take SAT1 and SAT subject tests in the same sitting, and some say that retaking SATs puts you in a disadvantage because some US universities request for all of your SAT scores.

Most people would take SAT subject tests sometime in Sept/October before A levels. The biggest advantage about taking it in J2 is that preparation for A levels makes you very competent in that subject, which gives you the added advantage for SATs. Essentially, you wouldn’t need to study much for SATs, except to do some practices and get yourself familiarized with the format of the paper.

For me, I already ruled out US in the beginning because I preferred the UK culture, thus only sat for SAT1 and chose not to take the subject tests in the end.

UK Application

Most people would be eyeing OxBridge in the UK, out of the 2 unis, you can only choose to apply for one. The application dateline for OxBridge closes in September, which is way earlier than the application for the other UK unis.

Since we are considered foreign students in the UK, applications for UK unis closes in January of your J3 year. (e.g. if you are taking your A levels in 2015, application for UK closes in early January 2016). This is because the window for foreign students starts and closes earlier than the application for UK students.

This means that you will be applying for UK unis even before your actual A levels come out, and the unis will be assessing you based on your predicted grades (not sure how this is computed, some say that it’s a combination of your CT, prelims and promo grades. some say that your subject tutors are the ones who decide your predicted grades). Even if you do manage to do well for A levels, but your predicted grades aren’t that good, it would greatly affect your chances for UK unis.

Application to UK unis is done via a centralised UCAS portal, where you would have the option to apply for 5 UK schools. You are required to write 1 common application essay for the course of your choice, and you would need 1 referral (I asked my civics tutor). That being said, it would be a smart choice to apply for the same course (or at least closely related course) for all the 5 universities, so that you can focus on that particular course in your personal statement (and your interests wouldn’t seem too divided).

For personal statements, I would suggest reading up a few samples online. When I first wrote my personal statement and submitted it to my school counsellor for feedback, he told me that my personal statement was too much of a narrative of what I had accomplished, and instead there should be a stronger focus on a few academic ideas.

The UK personal statement should be one that highlights your academic interests in your chosen course of study, together with an elaboration of your own achievements and strengths. I heard that some people would pay to have their statement written by an external party, but to be very frank, I don’t think it is worth the money because it’s not that hard to write a statement, especially if you are genuinely interested in the subject. Furthermore, you won’t be able to run away if OxBridge calls you up for interviews and asks you questions about your personal statement.

For me, I was thinking of applying to medicine or dentistry in the UK, but I did not have H2 Biology which was a mandatory requirement, and also spots for international students are very limited and it would be too competitive. I applied for Economics in the end, and was accepted into all the 5 schools I applied for:

1. University of Bristol – Economics and Management
2. University of Warwick – Economics and Management
3. University College of London – Economics
4. London School of Economics –  Economics
5. University of London – Economics

I received the offers in January before my A level results were released. All were conditional offers that required As in 3H2 subjects (including Mathematics).

The dateline for UCAS closes in early January of your J3 year, but I would strongly recommend submitting your application earlier and requesting a teacher for a referral earlier. This is because some schools use rolling admissions, and it would be advantageous to submit your application earlier.

Some of my friends received conditional offers from the universities (not OxBridge) in November before A levels (they completed UCAS in September as they applied for OxBridge), and it gave them a piece of mind knowing that they have already secured a conditional offer.

IRAS Scholarship Interview 2016

As compared to the other scholarships, the online application for IRAS was relatively easier as they only asked 1 question (What are your hobbies and interests?) with no word limit. Of course it’ll be a wise idea to try to tie in your academic interests as well (and not just elaborate about how you enjoy watching korean dramas, listening to music etc etc)

First Round

The first round of selection consisted of 2 components. First, the written assessment. I was scheduled for this round with 1 other guy. The two of us were brought into a room and each of us was given a laptop. We had 1 hour to answer 2 questions:

1. What are some of the challenges that Singapore will face in the next 5 years? What role does the tax system have to play in solving these challenges?
2. Describe an experience that changed your life.

I can’t remember the exact wording of the questions but that’s just the gist of it. I allocated around 35 minutes to the first question, and the remaining time for the second one because I thought that I should focus a little more on the academic question rather than the personal one. Plus the personal one was much easier to write so it took less time (no need for brainstorming, coming up with different points etc)

After that, there was interview with 3 HR staff. The questions asked were:

• Tell me more about yourself
• Elaborate more about your choice of undergraduate studies
• Elaborate on any leadership experiences
• Did you apply for any other scholarships? Which ones are you interested in?
• What do you know about IRAS and the IRAS scholarship?
• Why should we pick you over other candidates? What are your strengths?

They spent quite a bit of time explaining to me what the IRAS scholarship is about, because taxation is a very specific field in accounting and by choosing the scholarship, it also means that you’ll be deciding in your field of specialization even before graduating from university, so they need to be sure that applicants are fully aware of what this scholarship entails. They also gave me the opportunity to ask questions at the end.

Tea Session

Out of the 500 applicants who applied for the IRAS scholarship, the HR department interviewed about 50 applicants, and 9 were shortlisted for the final tea session.

I was invited to attend the tea session and I was really excited! I was first handed a file with my personality profile. Prior to the tea session, I was asked to complete a few questionnaires regarding my working style/personality. The personality profile was really cool and detailed and accurate.

After that, we were given a short presentation about IRAS and more about the organization. The HR department also shared with us the different career tracks (management vs specialist track), and showed us timelines of the career progression of their scholars, which was really insightful and gave me a better idea of what to expect if I were to take up the scholarship.

There were also sharing sessions by 3 IRAS scholars, who prepared powerpoint slides that showed pictures of their undergraduate days (some studied overseas), activities and projects at work.

After that, several other scholars joined us (about 10 in total) and we sat in this circle and had the opportunity to ask questions. Following that, the session broke into a more informal setting and we had the opportunity to mingle with the scholars.

One thing that struck me most was that the scholars there are really passionate about their work. The life of a scholar isn’t easy, and though scholarships are prestigious, scholars have to live up to expectations as well. The returning IRAS scholars emphasised the importance of being inquisitive and taking the initiative at work.

Since most of us candidates were undecided about which course/university we were going to study, and whether to stay local/go overseas, we took the opportunity to ask the returning scholars for advice. Most of the scholars advised us to go overseas if we had the opportunity to do so, simply because it is a really good experience. One scholar said that she was offered the IRAS local scholarship (comes with a 4 year bond), but she managed to discuss with the HR department and converted it to an overseas scholarship (but she had to portion of the school fees out of her own pocket) as she really wanted the overseas experience.

After that, the HR dept brought us on a mini tour of the IRAS building (we got to see the gyms, recreational areas etc) which was really cool and it made all of us motivated to do well in the final interview.

After the tea session, the HR department sent us an email with interview tips, as well as a few readings we had to read to prepare us for the final interview (e.g. budget, OECD tax reports, tax cases reported in the media etc)

Final Interview 

The IRAS board interview was my second board interview after SPRING. I was really nervous nonetheless, because I was brought into the Board of Director’s office and everything there looked really classy and cool but at the same time, foreign and intimidating. The panel consisted of 5 interviewers who looked sleepy and angry. There were 2 people from HR sitting at the table behind, and they kept smiling/laughing, which gave me a lot of reassurance haha 🙂

They focused a lot on the type of course I was going to study, which university I intended to go to, why I wanted to join IRAS (basically the standard questions, nothing really new here). Since I had been through so many interviews, I was kinda used to the process by this point.

CAAS Scholarship Interview 2016

Prior to the first round of selections, all of us applicants had to fill in the online form via BrightSparks. Apart from the usual info (e.g. family background, education, interests etc), there were also 3 additional questions (all responses below <100 words):

1. Why do you want to apply for a CAAS scholarship?
2. What are some of your strengths and weaknesses?
3. What is your greatest achievement and failure?

In the beginning, I was sitting on the fence on whether I should apply for CAAS. I wasn’t very sure whether I would like the work in CAAS, so I created a draft application (without submitting it). To my surprise, I received a call from CAAS asking if I could make it for the first round of selections. (I spoke to other applicants during the first round and some of them were in the same situation as I was, so I wasn’t the only one who received a call based on a draft application alone)

The first round of the selection process was a full day session at the CAAS scholarship assessment centre. It’s inside the CAAS building which is located at Changi Airport Terminal 2.

We were around 30 people scheduled to attend this session. To my knowledge, this wasn’t the only session as I had friends who already attended the session the week before/were scheduled to attend one next week. I am guessing that there are around 5 sessions, which adds up to more than a 100 applicants. That’s very fierce competition. We were also required to submit our official documents (A level result slip, CCA records etc) and most people there had straight As.

We were divided into groups, 10 people in each team. They gave us an introductory briefing about CAAS, and then it was time for the assessment activities. Details of the exact assessment procedure are confidential so I can’t say much, but there really isn’t much you can do to prepare for it because the activities require you to think on the spot. In that sense, your true personality really shows throughout the entire assessment process and there’s little time to think through things since everything’s so spontaneous.

Also, it is really really competitive. I found out that most people who applied for CAAS also applied for other aviation related scholarships such as SIA and CAG, which means that you’ll essentially be competing with the same pool of outstanding individuals for that limited number of scholarships.

I actually met one of my work friends at the interview (he’s studying in poly) and he left the assessment centre halfway (he essentially gave up on his chance for the scholarship) because he felt that he didn’t stand a chance anymore. Personally, I knew my chances were low when I first entered the room. I saw a lot of familiar faces from school. Still, I just decided to do my best since I was already there at the assessment centre. Also it was quite a cool experience overall 🙂

One of my friend got called up for a second round of interviews a few weeks later.

outcome: rejected

 

 

 

 

 

Spring EDS Scholarship Interview 2016

I started applying for scholarships in December 2015 after A levels ended. Spring was the only scholarship of which I was part of the early cycle (instead of the main cycle). Most early cycles close in the 3rd quarter of every year, but Spring’s early cycle closed in December 2015, to my pleasant surprise. Spring offers a local scholarship with a 2 year bond.

Online Component 

Before the selection, there were some questions to answer on BrightSparks (the online scholarship portal).

1. Past/Current enterprising experiences/initiatives?
2. career aspirations and the field of work that interests you
3. Goals you have set for yourself in a) university and b) immediately upon graduation, and your plan to achieve them
4. A 500 word essay on either topic:Qn 1) Describe five important attributes or capabilities that you think a successful Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) should possess. OR Qn 2) In view of strong competition from MNCs, how can Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) attract and retain talents to join their businesses to help them succeed into the next phase of growth?

First Interview

I was called in for the first interview in mid-January. Needless to say, I was rather nervous as it was my stat board scholarship interview. The first interview was conducted by around 3-4 HR staff. Some of the questions I were asked were:

• Why did you apply for the scholarship? Why should we choose you?
• What differentiates you from other candidates?
• Are you a team leader or a team player?
• Are you applying for any other scholarships?
• Imagine that you’re a food manufacturer. You are given $500k. How will you allocate the money to ensure that your business is sustainable? How much, and in what proportion?

They also asked me other questions about my experiences/activities that I have participated in in JC, and told me to elaborate a bit more about them.

At the end, they asked me if I had any questions to ask them, so I asked about the work culture in Spring and the structure of the organization.

The interviewers were really scary at first (I think it was a deliberate concept that they were going for), but halfway through they loosened up by a lot and started smiling/laughing (in a good way)/showing nods of approval at some of the things I said so it was a sign that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Second Interview

I was called in for the second round of interviews in February 2016. They called it a ‘tea session’ (there was no tea or food, we were only given a glass of water) with the management. It was a group interview and there were 4 of us in the room. We were asked to bring an item to introduce ourselves.

The interviewers were rather friendly, but yet it was still quite formal. It started off with the ‘tell us more about yourself’ (using the item we brought). Then I was asked to share about my leadership experiences, my CCA etc. Then the questions became more academic in nature, mainly surrounding the challenges that SMEs face, the role of the government etc.

One of the main concerns about group interviews would be not having the chance to speak. But the interviewers made sure that everyone had the chance to speak, and my groupmates were nice and friendly (there weren’t any rude interruptions/cutting off halfway) so I was quite thankful for that 🙂

Third Interview

I was called in for the third interview with the Chairman (aka the big shots in the company HAHA) in Early April. After making it this far, it got my hopes up by a little bit. There were 6 people in total who made it to the third round for the early cycle (there’s still the main cycle where the bulk of the applicants will apply for).

We were told to report at 2pm. It was an individual interview, with each scheduled to last for 30 mins. My interview was scheduled at 3.30pm, so I had 1.5hours to kill before that. Turns out that the interview was much shorter than 30 mins. The 3 applicants in front of me left the room after 20 mins.

I was really nervous at the start of the interview, but the panel was really friendly. They made quite a lot of jokes which lightened the mood. They were really generous with their laughter HAHA. They had my brightsparks scholarship profile in front of them, so they asked some questions related to the profile (questions are quite specific in nature so it’s a bit hard to give some examples).

They then asked why I was interested to study accounting, and they kept convincing me that economics was much more interesting/worth studying than accounting…. and this discussion took quite a lot of time HAHAHAHA

I didn’t really have that many opportunities to talk during the interview because I was cut off. Before the interview, some of the staff gave tips and told us that the panel really likes it when students actively ask questions. So at the end of the interview when the panel asked if I had any questions, I asked without hesitation. I asked 2 questions, 1) their thoughts on the discontinuation of the PIC as mentioned in the budget 2016, and 2) what they thought were the greatest challenges spring would face in the next 5 years.

Their answers were really insightful and I actually learnt quite a bit though it was meant to be an interview session lol. 🙂

final outcome: scholarship offered

SIA Scholarship Interview 2016

In the online application form, applicants had to answer 1 essay question:

(a) For those in universities, please tell us your intended study and why you selected this course and why you want to be a SIA scholar. (in about 500 words) OR
(b) For those entering university, please explain your choice(s) and state how SIA’s needs can be met. (in about 500 words)

I was called in for the first round of selection in early April 2016. It was a half-day event at the SIA training centre, which is a really ulu location and it’s located quite a distance from the bus stop. I alighted at Expo MRT and took the bus and did quite a bit of walking. By the time I reached at 830am I was sweating buckets HAHA

There were about 15-20 applicants who were scheduled on the same day as me. We entered this theatre like place and sat at our assigned seats. We were given a briefing about SIA and the SIA scholarship, and we shown a corporate video.

The selection considered of 2 main components: an interview and a written assessment.

I went for the interview first. It was an individual interview, and there were 2 interview rooms. For my room, the interviews lasted much longer as compared to the other room which could be a good thing because it would mean that I have more opportunities to talk (instead of being cut off).

Some of the questions asked were:

• Tell us more about yourself and why you chose to apply for the SIA scholarship
• What are you interested in studying? Local or overseas?
• Did you apply for other scholarships?
• Any leadership experiences?
• Any hobbies?
• Any questions for us?

The interviewers looked quite tired so I tried to make my answers more interesting, and they responded quite well to it HAHA 🙂

After the interview, I went back to the theatre for the written assessment. It was a 2h 10 mins paper (felt kinda like GP) with 2 sections. First section was a 3 choose 1 essay question, second section was a 200-250 word summary based on the given passage (OH NO I just remembered that I forgot to give a title for my summary HAHAHA even though the instructions said to give it a title). It is precisely things like this that make you feel super grateful for all the drilling during GP lessons back in JC. 🙂

Though they requested us to bring our supporting documents along, they didn’t collect it from me in the end. I heard they collected it from some other girl, so I’m not sure if it’s a sign that they’re not interested to know more about me HAHA.

outcome: rejected

 

Driving – Signing up + Basic Theory Test (BTT)

One of the first few things I did after A levels ended was to sign up for driving! I went to the driving school nearest to my place, which is Comfort Delgro Driving Centre (CDC Ubi).

Signing up 

When I first went there I was really clueless about the types of programmes they had (e.g. school learner vs private candidate, auto vs manual course) and I was really at a loss of what to do when I first entered the driving centre hahaha.

Basically there are 2 sections in the CDC, the one nearest/next to to the passport photo booth & the snacks vending machine is the area where you can register as a school student. There’s another reception area opposite to this and you go there if you want to register for BTT/FTT as a private candidate.

I went to the driving centre with the intention of signing up for the BTT as a private candidate, but somehow I was speaking to the lady and she convinced me to sign up under the school. Which on hindsight was a good choice because:

1. School learner’s have priority for BTT/FTT dates, which means they can sit for the theory tests earlier, whereas private candidates have to wait for later test dates (which is a con if you want to get your driving license ASAP)
2. The school learner’s package comes with the BTT & FTT guidebooks (save the hassle from getting it from popular!)
3. and e-trials which are basically practices (kinda like a ten year series for driving) where you can go practice old theory test questions

The lady at the counter convinced me to sign up for manual (at that time, I was really clueless so I asked her for her opinion, and she recommended manual because you can drive manual cars overseas and your future company may not provide an auto car etc hahahaha). But when I went home my mum was rather shocked that I signed up for manual because manual is apparently a lot tougher than auto. So I was a little worried and went down to the driving centre the next day to switch to auto instead hahaah.

E-trials

How it works is that you get to book your e-trial sessions (which you can do via the CDC online portal). As a school student you get 6 e-trial sessions for free! Head to Level 3 of CDC Ubi for the e-trial session, and bring your IC along so it can be scanned (otherwise you can’t sit for the e-trial).

The room has plenty of computers, the computer is touch screen (I didn’t know that hahaha until much later) and a mouse. Try getting the computers with the mouse because the touch screen sometimes isn’t very sensitive and it affects how fast you can do the questions.

Each e-trial session is around 55 minutes long, which is the actual time duration given for the BTT/FTT. However most people (I think) can finish the test before the 55 minute mark, so once you’re done with 1 practice test, you can move on to the next one and keep doing questions until the 55 minute mark is up (and you’ll be invited to leave).

I signed up for 2 e-trial sessions in a row because I thought it would be a hassle to go down to the driving centre 6 times for each of the 6 sessions, so I went to the centre thrice (2 e-trial sessions each time).

Online e-learning material

School learners also have access to online e-learning material (20 hours or so I think), which I personally didn’t find very useful because the videos move at a rather slow pace. Also, you have to complete one unit before you can move on to the next unit (in other words, you can’t skip units), and some of the first few units are rather basic, so it would be more efficient just reading the book instead 🙂

BTT 

I first signed up at the CDC driving centre in mid-December 2015, and my Basic Theory Test (BTT) was scheduled on 7th January 2016, which was much earlier than I had expected it to be.

I browsed through the theory book once before the e-trials, and once the day before the actual BTT. Most of the e-trial questions can be quite repetitive and can be classified into a few broad categories, so I familiarized myself with the e-trial questions and took mental note of the questions which I got wrong during the e-trial.

You need to get 90% and above to pass BTT, and during the e-trials I failed 2 out of the 10 practices given (not a surprise because I didn’t really read the BTT book in detail!), but I also learnt a lot from doing the e-trials (so I don’t think it was a bad idea signing up as a school student after all).

My score for BTT was 49/50, after which I immediately went to the counter to apply for the provisional driving license (PDL), which would allow me to start taking practical lessons. At the same time I got a test date for the Final Theory Test (booked online through the CDC online portal).

Induction Programme

Before the BTT test date, I also attended this compulsory induction programme. Basically there were 3 of us and 1 instructor. We sat in the car while the instructor explained the different parts of the car (e.g. signals, speed indicators, brakes, gears etc). The induction programme is a pre-requisite for taking practical driving lessons. The lady at the counter fixed the induction programme date for me when I first signed up, so I went for it even before taking my BTT.

Private Candidate

One of my friends is taking driving lessons as a private candidate, so she didn’t get the e-trials (which I think can be rather useful). However there are pros to being a private candidate as well, for example having more liberty in arranging practical driving lesson days/dates, not having to book one month in advance for practical lessons (which is what students have to do, and the competition for booking slots can get really fierce). [But this also depends on whether you can find a good private instructor! That friend of mine is learning manual because the private instructor she found only teaches manual.]

 

Okie that’s all for now 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

SMU Accountancy Interview Experience 2016

My second university interview was the SMU Accountancy interview (one day after my SMU-SUTD DDP which I wrote about in the post earlier)!

I was called in for an interview in mid-January 2016 as I had applied for SMU under the early admission category. My first choice was Accountancy, followed by business, and I indicated interest in the SMU double degree programme. The interview however, was only for my first choice (which is Accountancy), and it was both a scholarship and admissions interview together.

The interview was held at the Deans’ Office at the SMU School of Accountancy. Unlike the SMU-SUTD DDP interview, this interview was an individual one (again, I asked for details over the phone and they told me it was one-on-one). Coincidentally I met an acquaintance the day before whose interview slot was 15 minutes before mine, so I kinda figured out that the interview would be about 15 minutes long.

The interview was conducted by 2 profs from the faculty of accounting. The interview slots were dragged on (as expected), I went in 5 minutes later than my stipulated time (not to mention that my acquaintance didn’t make it for the interview as she was sick).

The interview was rather informal, it started off with a handshake, and they asked questions like: what did you do over the holidays, why do you want to study accountancy, what other universities did you apply for and how would you decide which university to choose?

It felt more like a casual conversation rather than a formal interview, for that I felt pretty relaxed and calm throughout. To my pleasant surprise, the interviewers offered me a verbal offer of acceptance at the end of the interview, and said that I would be receiving a written offer of confirmation a few days later. (one of my other friend who applied for accountancy also had a similar experience, whereas my friend who applied for business (business has this group interview thing) did not receive any verbal offer at the end of the interview).

About a week or so later, I received the written offer of acceptance by post 🙂 The offer of acceptance was for Accountancy; acceptance for the double degree programme and any scholarships would only be after the official release of the A level results in early March.

All the best to whoever’s reading this if you intend to apply for SMU! 🙂

Update: After the release of the A level results, I was informed that I was offered a place in the double degree programme for Accountancy and Business. There was also a tea session for the LKC Scholarship at SMU (with interviews for the scholarship afterwards) which I didn’t attend in the end.

Update 2: One of my friends attended the LKC scholarship selection process. It’s a one day selection assessment centre (similar to the scholarship assessment centre) with a few group activities. Apparently out of the hundreds who applied, around 50+ were shortlisted for the next round of panel interviews.

 

 

 

SMU-SUTD Double Degree Programme (DDP) Interview Experience 2016 :)

The SMU-SUTD Double Degree Programme (DDP) interview was my very first university interview after my A levels ended. I first applied for the DDP through the SUTD portal (early application cycle), was invited to fill in a scholarship questionnaire sometime in early January, and was called in for an interview in mid-January 2016.

Needless to say I was really nervous before the interview and I couldn’t sleep the night before. I couldn’t find much information online about the interview process as the course was relatively new. I read online that the pioneer batch of the DDP programme saw 500 applicants fight for 45 places. Furthermore, I had asked over the phone what the interview format would be like, and was informed that it be a group interview comprising of a discussion of an unseen passage.

The interview was held at the SUTD campus (near Singapore Expo), which was a (not really short) walk from the Expo MRT station. My interview was at 2+pm so I had to brave the scorching weather (there weren’t any trees that provided much needed shade, sadly).

I brought a hardcopy of my portfolio along as requested, together with my CCA records and prelim grades, which was then scanned and returned to me at the end of the interview.

There were 5 people in my interview group. We were first brought into a small room, where we were given 15 minutes to read a short passage about creating a revolution in the education system and how the education system has to be improved to keep up with the changing times. There was also a tad bit of emphasis placed on innovation and how technology can be incorporated into education. The passage had quite a few abstract ideas which required some thinking. At the 10 minute mark, we were asked to discuss among ourselves what the article was about, but the discussion wasn’t monitored by anyone (i.e. there weren’t any interviewers in the room).

After 15 minutes, we were led into the interview room (set-up was like a formal meeting room). There were 2 interviewers – one from the Business faculty in SMU, one was a prof from SUTD. We were asked questions related to the article, in fact the first half of the interview was solely based on the article. We were asked for our own personal take on the passage and were asked to decode some of the ideas mentioned.

The second half of the interview drifted away from the article, and we were asked questions related to our personal interests and what we wanted to study/what we were interested in.

After which, we were given time to ask questions about the course. I didn’t really have much to ask because I did a fair bit of reading up about the course before the interview, but some people in my group asked questions (e.g. what the school term would be like as students belong to 2 universities, what’s the most important trait a student of the DDP should have etc).

But the main thing I learnt from the interview was what the direction of the DDP course was about, and what the aims of the DDP programme were (what kind of students they aim to develop at the end of the programme) which I realised I did not have a comprehensive understanding of prior to the interview. The interviewers were looking for students who could use their business acumen (from the business degree in SMU) to come up with technological innovations (from the design/engineering degree in SUTD). The impression I got from the interview was that the course seems to be leaning towards cultivating students interested in research and development, innovation and technology (and using relevant business knowledge to aid developments in technology).

I personally didn’t think I performed that well for the interview and was in fact (to be honest) a little disappointed with my own performance for the interview.

About a few weeks later I received an email saying that I was accepted into the SMU-SUTD DDP and would be invited to attend a tea session sometime next month, which was really truly a pleasant surprise 🙂