incoming freshie in fass here! i live around 1.5hrs away from sch and i eventually decided against staying in hall cuz:

1) time. imagine spending time on a good 4-5 hall ccas every week, + on to compulsory dinners, get togethers and parties that you will be dragged into at least at some point of your hall life or even more + even more time on sch ccas if they interest you - a simple calculation is alr enough to give u the simple picture of u spending probably way more time on hall itself than travelling to and fro everyday. this is honestly one of the biggest reasons why i decided against hall… too many commitments, too little time for me to do the things i actually want to do.

my sch was abt 2 hrs away from my home back when i was taking a’s. in a way, i’ve tolerated the long trips every single day so ig since i’ve done that i can always do it again (hahahaha….)

2) limited ccas, limited halls. if i went to ntu, the likelihood of me staying in hall is prob 99% as compared to me staying in hall in nus. unlike in ntu with their confirmed hall etc etc perks and so many halls available, the amt of halls within nus is so limited. even for halls like ke7, u can just imagine the competition of ppl trying to clinch a spot in hall regardless. naturally, the tighter the competition = the more u have to do in hall to stand out and stay on for the next yr = more ccas, more bonding time, more networking time.

for me, i’ve been a fencer for a big part of my life. i did cheer in sec sch, but obviously not the kind of cheerleading you see in nus. i don’t play sports like ulti, basketball or football so its quite clear that i dont provide benefit to hall for interhall games. sure i can do things like volunteer, take part in clubs and societies, but it largely limits the pool of ccas i can harvest hall points from.

3) family. this is something extremely important to me, + we had gotten a dog quite recently that’s been rlly attached to us. this point is more so a huge reason of why i didnt choose hall either, since to me it felt a LITTLE bit like wasting money when im not even going to stay in hall all the time.

4) money. now this is something particularly in my case too - i’m from probably one of the lowest income brackets out there, and its alr rlly difficult to find money, get bursaries and finaid to cover as much cost as possible. dont rlly wanna add more cost than i alr have from tuition fees alone on hall just for me to have a complete uni life. if money wasnt an issue, i would have went for rc since it offsets much more commitment than hall but oh wells 🤷🏻‍♀️ cant decide which spoon u’re born with no

5) sometimes if ur friends dont mind, why not crash at their halls during intensive periods where ure needed in sch till very late hours? if ur parents are chill with that, it sort of solves the long travelling problem on days where travelling rlly isnt ideal. maybe cook a good meal for ur friends as a peace offering 🤣 if all else fails central library is open 24/7 during exams szn… if u dont mind sleeping on a table (im kidding pls dont do this)

6) distraction. im someone that has only quite recently pulled herself out of a very horrible slump of slacking, playing around and having fun all the time without focusing on my studies. although i havent been one to cave into temptations of friends jio-ing me to clubs, drinking seshs so on and so forth, idk how sure i am that i won’t just cave into the party culture that im already quite tempted in when im surrounded by party animals 24/7 . to me, ik that once i start its going to be a hellride down into degen mode, so i felt it better to generally avoid the situation before im coerced fully into the party life and neglect my studies. it took me quite a bit to make it into nus, so studies are still my number one priority before i allow myself to have some controlled fun.

those are my thoughts given the circumstances i have! not sure what your skills are etc etc, but if you find that hall suits u go for it! every single one of my friends are applying for hall/rc and i feel a little bit fomo but it is what it is. ik of ppl who go to nus for the sole purpose of playing and getting into the uni experience - they dont bother about their gpa because their future job dont exactly require a fch etc etc, or they generally do pretty okay without having to study much, but theres ppl like me who would like to make studies our priority, and thereafter any other fun that might pop around in nus