The Biggest Dilemma for Soon-To-Be Undergraduates Part-3

And now to the 2nd Big Question!


2. Which undergraduate course should I apply? 


There are all sorts of tertiary courses for students to apply in different universities. There are courses like business, accountancy, hospitality, tourism, marketing and management, law, medicine, nursing, engineering, building and construction, mathematics, sciences, IT, computing, social sciences, languages... from private and local universities.

Out of so many courses, how to determine which one to take up?

Usually, people make choices based on...

i) Grades
ii) Popularity
iii) Job Demand
iv) Interest
v) University

(P.S. Choices are not ranked...)

Let's look at each choice, one by one...

1. Grades

Different courses have different cut-off points or criteria for application. Those courses with only little slots, like medicine and law, require applicants to have excellent academic results, and required to pass several interviews. There are also some courses which have more slots than the number of applicants, hence, the cut-off points are not so high, or selection process is not that stringent.

Hence, grades can affect a person's choice for a course. If he can't apply for a particular course, e.g. Electrical Engineering, he may decide to go for another engineering course, or go for another course in a different field.

2. Popularity

Before you apply for any course, you ask what your friends in your class apply. You ask what your friends taking the same subjects as you apply. You ask what your best friends apply. You do a weighing of advantages and disadvantages, then decide if you should follow your friends.

You went to a school open house. You attend a talk which talks about the latest course offered in the school. The professor pitch that this is going to be the 'hottest' and 'most popular' course in the university right now, and probably the 'first ever course offered' in Singapore. He shows you statistics of how this course is going to be the 'most sought-after' course in Singapore, and how you can be a pioneer of this course, by applying for the course Today!

Popularity.

3. Job Demand

Most(not all) students think of getting their first job when they graduate. Before they apply for any course, they checked up websites and forums and ask 'What is the basic salary for a student with degree in (whatever the course is)?' They go to BrightSpark magazines, browse the sections which shows them the 'basic pay', 'average pay', 'highest pay', whatever salary data they can find about the job salary that the degree offers.

They use that data to determine which course they should pursue. Let's say, the data shows that a Bachelor of Accountancy earns more than a Bachelor of Business Administration, they will choose to pursue accountancy (without knowing the difference between accountancy and business admin in general).

If they see a Bachelor of Accountacy from SMU earns $5000/month, and a Bachelor of Accountancy from NTU earns $4000/month, they will go to SMU and pursue accountancy instead of NTU (without understanding the difference in curriculum between accountancy in SMU and NTU).

4. Interest

Different people have different interests. There are people who take up sciences degrees, all the way up to PhD level, may be because they like to do scientific research, and keen to invent something in the future. Some took business degrees to understand how businesses are run, how international businesses are run...etc. Some took up psychology may be because they are interested about how human thinks or how human brains works...etc

People who manage to study for a course they like, tend to do every well in those subjects. If someone is of interest to them, they will have the passion to find out more, read more, and may explore more than what the school will teach. To them, they are not studying the course. Instead, they are using the information learned from the course to fulfill their passion.

5. University

This method of choosing, is to choose the university first, then choose the course they want.

They may choose the university first, because they have good impression of it, near their house, did internships before, knew some good professors there, recommended by seniors, top in university rankings or being offered a scholarship there...etc

Or another case is, they want to get into a local university, but they can't get a course they want, so they try to squeeze into any course being offered to them.


Here are basically the 5 types of choices students ask themselves when they are applying for the course they want.

Which one do you use to choose the course you want?

However, I must say that there is A Very Important Question the student must ask, before they ask the above 5 choices. If you DID NOT ask yourself this question, I can say that the 5 choices you make later on Don't Mean Anything, aka Useless.


So What's the Important Question to Ask Yourself first?

That's what you will find out soon :D