NUS vs NTU III: Honours

Unfortunately, honours is not something that you can work on in a different university from your basic degree. If you get a basic degree from NUS, you cannot go overseas to complete your honours. As mentioned above, NTU IS a FOUR-year course. You cannot drop off after 3 years and earn a basic degree. You do ALL four years and whether you get honours or just pass depends on your results.

The question becomes: how important is an honours? Well, you probably get a bit more pay with honours and some government agencies are dead set on getting honours students as their employees. It probably allows you to go straight into Masters or phD without working experience. But that is about it so consider carefully.

What are the chances of getting honours in NUS for poly students?
From anecdotal evidence, most poly grads do not continue with honours. Some of course choose not to and not because they cannot.

What are the chances of getting honours in NTU for poly students?
At this point of time, no idea. The first batch of CBC students have yet to graduate.

If I get 2nd lower honours or worse, it is as good as not getting any, right?
For those not familiar with the honours system, it goes in this order from the best to the worst:

1. First class honours
2. Second class upper honours
3. Second class lower honours
4. Third class honours
5. Pass with merit (this is not honours)
6. Pass (this is not honours)

Normally, 2nd lower is still considered honours. But anything less.... well....

NUS vs NTU II: Chemistry

With regards to your question about the migration of experienced professors from NUS to NTU, I shall not comment much except to say that you will find both good and not so good staff on both sides. And be careful when someone uses the word "good" as it can mean many different things. E.g. "Good" staff doing good research may not mean they teach well. Generally in the universities (incl. NUS, NTU), staff are appraised based more on their research than teaching.

One common misconception about NTU is its direct honours system. The often heard advertisement is getting honours after 4 years of study in CBC. HOWEVER, this is true only if your results are good. If you just scrape through, you either get a "pass", "pass with merit" or "3rd class honours" (many consider this as no honours at all) after 4 years. On the other hand, NUS system is study 3 years. If your results are not good, you immediately get a degree. If your results are good, you are allowed to continue for another year to get your honours. Therefore, the NTU system carrries a greater risk in terms of opportunity cost.

NUS vs. NTU: Environmental Engineering

Excerpted from my email to a SP graduate dated 18/8/08:

NUS Env eng is normally quite hard to get in for poly grads. On the other hand, NTU env eng is more open to poly grads. In NUS, its env eng originally branched off from chem eng so its syllabus involves a large does of chem eng contents e.g. thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, process control. NTU env eng branched off from civil eng so it tends to lean more towards materials of construction, building design etc. But of course, env eng in both unis converge on common topics especially in the final years.

The labour market in Singapore right now is quite tight. Env eng grads are no exception. Even chem grads are finding it difficult to get relevant jobs. In fact, the trend now is for employers to hire someone who can multitask. E.g. why employ an env eng grad when a chem eng grad can do the same job and other things too? A good indication is the no. of classes in NUS chem eng and env eng. 10 yrs back: 4 classes chem eng, 1 class env eng. 2 yrs back (this year I am not exactly sure): 10 classes chem eng, 2 classes env eng. It appears that demand for env eng grads has always been small.

Don't misunderstand. I am not trying to discourage you. If your interest is there, you can always shine in whatever you study and still gain employment. Furthermore, who knows what will happen in 4 or 5 years time? There may be a sudden surge in env eng grads by then. However, I personally feel that env eng will always be less versatile, especially compared to chem eng.

NUS vs. NTU: Chemistry

Excerpted from my email to a SP graduate dated 16/4/08:

Ok, just my opinion. If you can, try for NUS chem. I feel that NUS applied chem is too hybridised to be useful. It has quite a few engineering elements and yet does not make you an engineer. Of course, that doesn't mean chem (or appl chem) is easy. I feel that NUS chem is better established with many alumni and more companies willing to employ NUS chem grads.

NTU chem n bio chem is simply too new and uncertain. Will employers want grads from NTU CBC? Is the syllabus rigorous enough? No idea as of now. On the bright side, I heard that NTU has a large budget and will be acquiring (or has already acquired) many new equipment and facilities so you are likely to have a fresh environment in NTU.

Lecturer wise, based on the feedback from my graduates, both sides are just as bad (or good). But it seems NTU is more lenient with their "A"s.

If I were to decide, I will choose NUS.

Fw: TÜV SÜD PSB - Job Openings

These are jobs that are suitable for students who are fresh graduate as well as alumni who have 1-2 years of working experience.

(See attached file: Company's Profile - TUV SUD PSB.pdf)(See attached file: TUV SUD PSB - Available Positions.pdf)

immediate job opportunities for Fresh Graduates/Diploma holders with Chemistry Background

Aerotek, Allegis group, (www.aerotek.com) has immediate job opportunities for Fresh Graduates/Diploma holders with Chemistry Background for Singapore location. This is a position of Analytical Chemist.

Interested parties please write in to the technical recruiter below.

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Rineesh Raveendran Technical Recruiter
Aerotek
RMZ NXT, Campus 1B, #401-402, EPIP Zone
Whitefield, Bangalore- 560 066
T +91 80 30705354
M +91 99161 40156
www.aerotek.com
rraveend@teksystems.com

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TÜV SÜD PSB - Job Openings

These are jobs that are suitable for students who are fresh graduate as well as alumni who have 1-2 years of working experience.

(See attached file: TUV SUD PSB - Available Positions.pdf)(See attached file: Company's Profile - TUV SUD PSB.pdf)

Quick Update

Some of you may have realised that it has been some time since any news was sent out to you. The reason is my laptop has just been replaced with a new one. Yes, that is good news. Unfortunately, the vendor did not perform a satisfactory data transfer and I found out to my horror that all the data in my old address book is lost.

I am in the process of salvaging the situation by retrieving my old name lists in both hardcopy and softcopy. I will next have to rekey all these data into my new address book. Considering that I have more than a thousand records, this will take some time. Please bear with me till all records have been keyed in before receiving the much awaited news.