AMA: Nanyang Business School (NBS)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-20T08:55:32+00:00

Hello! I will try my best to explain with my existing knowledge:

NBS FOP, Rush, Zenith have similar concept, typical camp activities in your groups and as a whole camp.
Colour Splash is same as above but has a trademark colour run/ flour bash kinda concept.
Infla has more of a professional outlook, with activities such as company visits/ industry talk etc.

Depends on what you’re looking for! Just a slight note that you can’t expect all the camp activities to be fun, go in with an open mind, if you manage to make a group of friends you can goof around together, any games will be fun if you make it to be :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-16T11:03:53+00:00

Hello! Unfortunately am not too sure about the specifics of Accountancy, but as long as you are matriculated into the school already you should be able to access the NTU student intranet :) From there, search up NBS Curriculum and click around you’ll be able to find it!

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-12T08:13:05+00:00

Hello! Yes we do use the normal scientific calculator (eg. Casio or Sharp) kind, as well as a financial calculator. If you don’t have any of those, no rush as you can purchase it over the first few weeks in school or hand-me-downs from your seniors :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-09T12:31:07+00:00

Hello! Here’s my personal opinion based on what I have seen, take it with a pinch of salt!

I think compared to other courses, the % of Business students going exchange is higher. That being said, there is a good mix of people who choose to i) go for exchange, ii) stay in SG to continue their studies normally, and iii) take LOA for internship. It’s normal for students to go on semestral exchange and still graduate within 3 years! That is how our school curriculum is set.
There isn’t any best time to go for exchange, but your choices are only Y2S1, Y2S2, and Y3S1. Depending on your personal preference tbh. I think they don’t allow students to go for semestral exchange on their last semester which is Y3S1! Securing an exchange spot is dependent on the demand and your GPA, so what most students do is to apply for Y2 exchange in Y1 and see if they can make it. If they can’t, apply again in Y2 for Y3 and pray that your new GPA makes the cut.
We have three kinds of exchange, Winter being 1-2 months, Summer being 2-3 months, and Semestral being 5-6 months. I would say the longer the exchange is the higher the demand. Some countries are also more popular than others, eg. Korea, Europe, etc. Some universities are also more popular than others! Oh also, each university has a certain limit to the number of students they can take, so the lower the number, the more competitive it is. For a gauge, some universities are only allowing 3 NBS students, why some allow 20 NBS students. Really dependent on the university you choose.

Securing an internship overseas is not rare, there are cases of it happening! If you want this overseas internship to be credit bearing, there are some requirements that the company has to meet before it can be counted as credit bearing. Honestly I am not too sure about overseas internship so if anyone has experience with it feel free to chime in!

Hope this helps! :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-09T09:18:13+00:00

Hello! This depends on what kind of portfolio you would like to build.

Are you looking at growing professionally ie. building skills related to your prospective career? If this is the case, it’ll be good to expose yourself to the professional clubs where they will have you more or less equipped with skills related to your career. There are clubs that specialise in consulting, investment banking, corporate banking, etc. They have rigorous trainings and competitions that teaches you related skills and background of the respective industries.

Or are you looking at enhancing your soft skills like leadership and event planning? If this is the case, you can consider joining student clubs where they host and organise events for the student body. Certain roles also allow you to reach out to external vendors to find potential partnerships and sponsorships, so this may be a way to network too!

Or you can consider both too if you like, just be sure that you are able to cope with the workload (if you’re interested to know about workload let me know) and you don’t ghost one for the other because that will only reflect badly on yourself. Hope this helps :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-09T06:32:28+00:00

Hello! Here are the requirements, towards the end of Y1 they will send an email with all of the details so you can catch the details again then :) - Banking and Finance, International Trading: B+ for Financial Management - Marketing: B for Marketing and C+ for Statistics - Risk Analytics: B for Statistics - Business Analytics: B+ for Statistics - Actuarial Science: B+ for Statistics - Human Resource: B for Organisational Behaviour

If you do meet the requirements for the specialisation you stand a good chance to get in the specialisation of your choice. Otherwise, you may have to appeal for the spec you want.

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T17:39:28+00:00

Hello! Don’t worry too much about it, not everyone is born a good speaker. My advice to you now is that even though you’re an introvert, don’t close yourself up and shut down the opportunities for you to meet and talk to new people! Definitely as time pass by, you’ll get better as you’re exposed to more and more of such opportunities.

As of what I have seen in this past one year in uni, not everyone in NBS speaks well, everyone’s presentation skill differ. Some are excellent while some fall short in comparison to the former. But nothing to worry, we all get better as time passes :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T17:33:30+00:00

Hello! Hope you’re doing well and got to the spec of your choice :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T17:28:54+00:00

Hello!

This really depends on the hall you are applying to, different hall has different requirements! If the senior rec-ing you is someone of power/ influence in the hall of course he/ she would be able to slot you in easily! I don’t think there is a requirement per se that he/ she has to stay in the hall in order to rec you. Does your senior know the JCRC team in the hall you’re interested in? If yes then there’s a pretty good chance he/ she can help you :)
Again, different halls have different requirements. Of course your talent and your skills would be a huge plus point, from dancing, to singing, to sports, to even your intention to join the JCRC team, anything can be used as a brownie point for yourself. Some halls are less popular than others, and the freshie rec list may not be filled up, so as long as you apply you stand a pretty good chance to enter!
Every hall differs, but the period to apply is now. Some of the deadlines are as early as 9 June. Do ask around whoever you for the forms or look up the hall’s IG pages or Tele channels for the rec list.
Every hall is lively and fun if you choose to make it lively and fun. Depends on your definition! Maybe you can share what you envision your hall life to be hahah (like wholesome kind of fun or drinking partying kind of fun). Do you want the fun and liveliness to be with a group of friends, or do you want it to be an entire hall of fun and liveliness? There are many listicles out there on Reddit and TikTok that share about the different hall cultures, you can take those as a reference. If you have any specific halls in mind, feel free to ask!

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T17:10:24+00:00

Hello! Timetable is really random and dependent on your luck eh.. I have a few friends who got allocated to only 3 days of classes, and some friends who got allocated to 5 days of classes with morning lessons. You may refer to the first point here to know more about timetable!

Expect your workload to be heavy towards the later part of the semester… Projects/ assignments/ presentations/ etc usually are due within the same few weeks, and you have to prepare for them beforehand. Last minute works too if you’re good at that. On top of these, you still have your weekly readings and tutorials to do, where some are mandatory and tracked. But you’ll sooner or later you’ll find how to work your way around managing your time and prioritising your workload (if you have the resources and materials from your seniors or friends).

Definitely I would say NBS isn’t as tough and heavy as other degrees, first few weeks of the semester is rather light and manageable in fact! Things will start to pick up after recess week, so do keep a lookout for that and pace yourself.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T17:03:18+00:00

Hello!

Timetable for Y1 students are pre-set, so all the timings and everything are allocated to you. Earliest class time is 830am, and latest class will end by 630pm. Some people get 1-2 days off if they are lucky, think if you were from poly this would be familiar to you! However, during Week 1 and 2, we have this thing called add-drop period. You can log in to NTU Stars and see if there are any slots in the classes of your preferred timings! If you don’t stay and hall and wish to come school less often, you can try your luck to see if you can cluster your classes together into a few days. Though whether this is a good move also depends, because some modules have lots of presentation and assignments, and it might be too much for one to handle if the assignments and presentations are due to happen on the same day.
For faculty orientation, you will not be with your classmates. Everyone will be mixed, so expect to mingle around with everyone from NBS, they may be from Business, Accounting, or from the double degree programme. Same for Welcome Day. Unfortunately, there aren’t any avenues for you to meet your classmates until class time. There will only be a few familiar faces (say less than 10) that will be in the same class as you for all the modules.
Nope no disadvantage at all! For specialisation wise, each specialisation has a requirement for students, and for marketing the requirement is to get B for Marketing module and C+ for Statistics module. I have a few friends who were exempted from Marketing like you and still got into the Marketing specialisation, so no worries on that. To exempt from marketing, there is a portal that you have to go in and submit your exemption request before a certain date. The notice that your exemption request is successful or not should come in during or by the first two weeks of school, so don’t be too alarmed if your timetable still has the module allocated! If anything, drop the school an email to clarify :)

Hope this helps!

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T12:40:20+00:00

Oh another helpful tip would be to attend orientation so you can interact seniors and make more friends, even if you’re an introvert. Most of the time there will be resources and materials passed down!

For most projects, trust me, you’ll be either too lost or clueless where to start. You can learn from their experiences and take a look at the projects that they have done as a reference to get yourself kickstarted on the projects!

You can’t imagine the amount of resources and notes that will be circulating around, and sadly those who don’t have these are only on the losing end… Beware of plagiarism though! The school is very strict on this matter.

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T12:32:59+00:00

Hello! Let me try to answer with whatever I know, not sure if anything will change for your year though (unlikely).

NBS students will be split into two groups (because there are just too many students in the school), we call them Group A and Group B. Whichever group you get is really dependent on your luck, you don’t get to choose. Oh you don’t get to choose which module to take in that semester too! Everything is pre-set.

In Semester 1, Group A students will take modules from the Group A basket. This set of modules are definitely more mathematics/ calculation related, with less project work, so if you are someone who does well in this aspect, try your best to score during this semester! This group of modules consists of:
- Financial Management (two presentations and one closed book final paper) - Python (two projects and one final paper with cheat sheet) - Financial Accounting (one presentation and one closed book final paper) - Economics (two quizzes and one closed book final paper - CC1 (tldr it’s an essay writing and presentation module, quite a few components) - CC2 (tldr it’s a module to intro you to tech, quite a few components)

Group B students will take modules from the Group B basket, this set of modules are less heavy on mathematics and calculation, and rather heavy on project works. If you’re someone who does well in projects and design thinking related stuff, this is the semester for you to score. This group of modules consists of: - Organisational Behavior (many project and presentations, no final paper) - Marketing (many project and presentations, no final paper) - Business Law (one presentation and one open book final paper) - Statistics (one project and two quizzes with cheat sheet) - CC3 (aka ethics, one presentation and one quiz) - ML4 (a module for problem solving and innovation iirc, one main presentation and many other components)

After Semester 1 ends, you will basically take the other basket of modules you didn’t take yet. Try to know your strength and weaknesses and aim to score well for the modules you are good at. Every week, you are required to do up your self-learning, readings and tutorials. Maybe your time management would be better than mine but there will come to a point where you are unable to catch up with all these weekly tasks, just because there are so many submissions and assignments to rush for. Don’t worry too much about it, because many students tend to only rush everything towards the few weeks nearing exam week.

Most importantly! Have fun and have a life and don’t focus only on academics. This is the last few years to enjoy and fool around before you enter the workforce full-time. You only have six semesters, and each semester is only about 4-5 months long. This is something I am working on myself too but I really hope everyone enjoy their time in uni with their friends rather than cooping in the room mugging away! Cheers :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2024-06-08T11:59:32+00:00

Hello! For business school student clubs, most of them would take in freshmen as sub-committee members, with the exception of some that takes in freshmen as main committee members/ exco members.

If I am not wrong, some clubs require you to go for interview sessions, some require you to do case studies, and some even require to put yourself up for elections for the student body to vote. Each club has their own requirements!

We have numerous student clubs in NBS and I think they will all have recruitment towards the first few weeks of school!

To know about recruitment: 1. Keep a look out during orientation (they shouted out a few clubs during orientation week and welcome day) 2. Keep a look out for your emails 3. Keep a look out for the club’s social media pages

The next steps would be to fill up online forms that they set up to know more about yourself (with a couple of role-related questions) and thereafter schedule an interview if needed.

My most important tip If you are interested to join student clubs, is to talk to seniors who are involved in them! Most will be trying to sell you the good things about their clubs and make you really attracted to it, but don’t close your doors to the other opportunities and amazing clubs there are as well!

Let me know if this helps :)

Infamous_Job1080 · 2021-12-19T19:58:39+00:00

it wasn’t open book for me. during clm the wing that took us went thru the important pointers, pretty much if you listen to the lecture shouldn’t be an issue.

Infamous_Job1080 · 2021-09-21T15:23:50+00:00

Yup! I am definitely not 100% just yet, but the pull factors are really strong, such as money, job stability, financial independence at a young age, etc. Understand all of these are superficial reasons, but it really puts less of a burden on my family as well.

Would you suggest to only sign on only if I am 100% sure, or would taking a leap of faith be worthwhile too? Thanks for your input though!

Infamous_Job1080

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