Why NTU?

In a wink of an eye, I am on the starting blocks for the fourth and final year at NTU.

But NTU was the last place that I thought I will end up in.

I always wanted to do aeronautical engineering at Imperial College, for some unknown reasons. When the A level results were out, I know that overseas dream that I harboured for a long time was not going to materialise.

I had time to think about things while in the army, or so I thought. At an air force recruitment talk, I realised the air force was the nearest place I could probably pursue my passion, and I was given the opportunity to disrupt for studies immediately.

Suddenly, I had to go back to school, and I followed my heart and my then girlfriend to NTU. Quite a mindless decision, because I could have easily qualified for NUS engineering, widely perceived to be the better of the two.

While the relationship did not work out, the journey at NTU has been very fruitful so far. I have not regretted one bit coming to NTU.

Life at NTU is enjoyable, really. I kept in touch with a few JC classmates at NJ, and they never failed to complain how tough engineering at NUS is. For one reason or another, I don't feel much pressure studying engineering at NTU. And they were always amazed how I kept up with work while putting in 4 trainings a week for canoeing and even meddled around with my Hall JCRC business.

The lack of a gauge like the GPA for my NTU cohort is probably a blessing in disguise. The NUS students I know are a fearful lot, who never fails to discuss how their GPA will be affected if they take tough general electives module, and the motivation is always to maintain their GPA. *yawnz*

I had a lot of fun taking up general electives at NTU, chalking up 15 AUs for my communication studies minor and 10 AUs of French (actually should be 13 but I crashed my level 2 French without sitting for the exams), and 2 AUs for a module called "Social Work". Thatz a whopping 30 AUs of general electives, far outstripping the 9 AUs required for engineering students. Of course, the GE results weren't always good, and I had several Cs, especially for the CS Minor. But life goes on as usual without having to worry for the GPA, and it is rumoured that GEs don't play a part in the final computation for honours. But nobody really knows how NTU calculates. *shrugz*

I benefited from NTU's push to go global as well, going on an exchange to France last year that really allowed me to widen my horizons, travelling to many places I could only imagined, working and speaking a foreign language, experiencing a bag of different cultures with many different nationalities. Studying was secondary for a semester. Haha.

After a year out of NTU with INSTEP and IA, my brain is recharged, and probably reformatted as well. It sounds bizarre. but I am raring to go back to NTU for my final year. After playing for three years, I feel like challenging myself to perform academically, something that I have not shown yet.

With canoeing out of the way, I suddenly have plenty of free time to push myself on the academic front. I haven't gotten on the dean's list before, and this is the last chance that I have. A final push to squeeze into the league of first-class honours.

An exciting final year to prove how intelligent I really am. I can't wait for it to start.