Yay! I got offered to read Bachelor's Degree by NUS

 

Congratulations to me for receiving the offers to read Bachelor of Technology at NUS! 

Other than providing for two cats, pursuing a bachelor degree with a local uni is another thing on my list of  "Things I Want To Do After Saving $300K" :D

I have been thinking and preparing for this for many months. 

Even though NUS has launched Advance@NUS to offer a more variety of full-time courses including non-tech-related courses for working adults, I still decide to bite the bullet and pick up a computing course under the part-time programme.

There are a few reasons for this. For starters, part-time degrees are way cheaper than full-time degrees. For the same cohort, the tuition fees for a full-time computing programme is $8,200 per year which amount to $32,800 for four years, while the part-time degree costs only $23,520 for the whole course of 160 module credits, without factoring in any exemptions that are granted for polytechnic diploma holders.

Part-time students are also exempted from internships, where you are usually paid peanuts for mundane work that doesn't really add concrete value, because no company would assign important/accountable tasks to an intern. Another bonus is that you can also claim $5,000 course fee relief for your income tax every year throughout the course!

The decision to go back to tech course is really simply because there's only computing or engineering offered under NUS part-time programmes, and I would have a better chance of graduating from a computing course compared to engineering :') 

But hey, NUS introduced these computing courses in 2017 to meet the increasingly high demand for professionals, so on a brighter note, I supposed that means that I will not be out of jobs any time soon after graduation if my current industry doesn't work out for me.

There are of course less quantitative part-time programme offered by local uni such as SUSS, but it's still much cheaper in NUS and I really want the NUS brand name. After all, NUS is currently ranked 11th on QS World University Rankings and 1st on Asia University Rankings. It would be another gem to add to my resume that will help me bring food to the table before my investment does. 

Also, I insisted on studying for a local degree because the cheapo side of me just could not bring myself to leave the citizen benefits (tuition grant) unutilised.

While I'm currently considering taking a short career break to focus on at least the first semester of my studies so that I have a better gauge of how well I am able to cope, I would also very much like to reserve the capacity to pick up a full-time job again in case a need arises, a more attractive opportunity is offered, or I may even opt to take a pay cut and change to a less hectic job to stay relevant to the working world, accumulate more working experience and save more money :)

I will be sharing the cost of my education along the way since this is a personal finance blog after all and I guess it will be a good way to document my education expenses and motivate me to study harder?

Registration Fees: $150 

$50 per course - My target is Business Analytics but I applied for three courses as I was not confident that I would be able to get the course of my choice. The application was done in January.

Mathematics Bridging Course and Mathematics Test: $588.50

Received the application outcome on 9 March that I will need to take the bridging course before considering my application for admission.

This is for applicants who did not meet their maths pre-requisites. The syllabus is O Level Additional Mathematics equivalent, and yes, I did not take A Math in my secondary school years and I went to poly after that so I didn't get to take H1 Math either. There are also some classmates whose requirement is just to attend the course and not required to take the test

It took 6 weeks after the Math test to receive the offer letter. No marks were released but I was told that you would be offered the course as long as you pass the test. 

Tuition Fees for students admitted in AY2021/2022

The fees for my batch are $147 per module credit, subsidised with the MOE Tuition Grant and inclusive of GST. The fees will be fixed over the course for the students admitting in that year

Students would need to complete a minimum of 160 module credits with a minimum CAP of 2.0 in order to be considered for graduation.

20 MCs from the Unrestricted Elective Modules will normally be given as Advanced Placement Credits to holders of diploma or higher qualifications. (yay, saved $147 x 20 = $2,940!) 

Now that I only have to complete 140 MC, the expected tuition fees would be $147 x 140 = $20,580

Request for Additional APCs/Exemptio

Applicants fulfilling any of the following criteria can request additional APCs

• Successfully completed modules at degree level in any local/overseas tertiary University within the last 5 years prior to the date of admission to the BTech Computing programme (i.e. no earlier than August 2016); and/or
•  Awarded ICT-related Specialist Diploma under SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programmes (ELPs); and/or
• Previously completed the Certificate Course or Modular Course (via NUS Lifelong Learners/CET500) in SCALE; and/or
• 10 years of working experience as a computing professional

Thankfully, I jumped at the chance to pursue a Specialist Diploma with SkillsFuture Earn and Learn right after I graduated from poly! That's probably one of the best choices I ever made! 

By choosing to work right after graduation, not only do I get to join the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn Programmes, where I receive on the job training with an MNC, have my Specialist Diploma fully paid for and get $5,000 cash, now I may even be able to use the Specialist Diploma to get more exemptions and save more time + money!

Pre-Admission Medical Exam

All students are required to take the medical exam before admission. I have already scheduled the yearly routine executive health screening that is fully covered under my company insurance, so there is a possibility that I would be able to use the results for submission and save money on the medical exam, which cost from $40 - 55 excluding GST with NUS University Health Centre.

That's all for today, will provide further updates in another post. Many thanks for reading!