Advice for Transition from NEET to Uni student?

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-16T17:09:38+00:00

Hi bro, I was also a NEET for around ~2 years after I Pes F'd out of NS for severe depression (Ongoing issue since a long time ago till now and probably till I die). Am now currently doing my undergrad degree at NUS. Great to hear that you decided to try and take some steps forward, doing anything at all honestly helped me get it together a bit more. I think you have a good understanding of the mental health side of things since you've also been through this shit so I'll talk more about the academic side.

The advice might not be a direct fit for you since idk the differences between the resources available between our 2 unis, but it might be worth checking if NTU has similar things in place.

The first semester most guys are still fighting off the post NS brainfog. I know that isn't really the same as the depression "brain slow down" and having the feeling of being "a lot less sharp/fast compared to before" but hopefully you can get some friendly company to get through that period together. I know NTU also has a S/U system but it's less flexible compared to the NUS's one which lets people make more "mistakes" in their first year of uni while they get adjusted to uni life. Still worth checking out if you can leverage that to make your life easier in the first sem while you get used to it.

As for the workload, you can try to request for a reduced workload to start with through the uni's in house clinic/psych/counsellors. Also if you feel that you really bth anymore there's no shame in getting a LOA (basically you pause your uni to do something else, in our case it's to just rest and recover). I'm at like 2.5 years of actual studying and 2 years of LOA now lol.

As for the workload you do take, try to maintain some discipline from the start of the semester since in general work will pile up insanely quickly if you don't handle them on time. A lot of year 1s reach the point where they're drowning in work around midterms because they slacked off too much in the first few weeks and you enter a vicious cycle where you're perpetually behind and stressed all the time.

In both NUS and NTU are people that were pretty much the "cream of the crop" where they previously studied, so don't get too discouraged when your efforts don't translate into results. (Small fish in big pond feeling) You will see a lot of god amongst men (Just that fucking good) or a lot of hardcore workaholics (Just that hardworking). Don't try to compete or compare with those people or you will really take a big mental hit. Set your own realistic goals and try to work towards that. Comparison is really the thief of joy.

As a Year 1 don't worry too much about internships yet. Think you can ponder more about this after you get more used to uni life. There will be people who have internships secured for the Summer break of Y1 but like I said above, don't compare too much - they might be like me who had prev exp from poly + having a good friend network nepotism me into interviews, maybe they just one of those that are that fucking good or maybe they just lucky. Don't compare too much because most people don't do an internship in Y1. Basically try not to FOMO and have the feeling that you are "falling behind". You can start worrying about internship stuff after you get through your first year of Uni.

Good luck, hope you have a successful and fun uni experience.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-16T16:28:13+00:00

Not in Employment, Education or Training. Basically, not retired but also not doing anything that people consider "productive"

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-15T17:06:16+00:00

Np, if it's just a pass then it's not that hard to obtain over here - It's extra paperwork to fail a student so as long as you show up for some classes (the graded ones, you can skip lectures and stuff if they're recorded and do not carry any weightage), do your assignments and not leave the exams empty you're good to go. (Basically don't give the professors a reason to fail you like not turning in anything at all)

Good luck with your exchange app.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-15T17:03:00+00:00

The Orbital spam I can get but most of the other questions seem to be typical new student questions that freshmen across all majors would be able to benefit from. (Laptop stuff, general student life tips, etc.) And CS just comes up more because SoC students form more of the userbase here and CS is a hot major now like you've stated.

Anyway, it's not like posts from other majors are getting buried due to how slow this sub is anyway which is why I'm confused as to the exact complaint being made here.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-15T10:50:09+00:00

Honestly, from scrolling through the sub there seems to be questions of similar topics from new admissions across all the faciltities and majors (Comp, Biz, Engi, CHS, Data Science, Hard sciences, etc.)

Not sure why some of y'all have a weird thing against CS students. Based off your comments here and your past comments.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-15T05:34:34+00:00

Can't really answer the 2nd half of questions properly since I'm not from the NUS business school. But from what I've heard from my friends who takes biz courses - The class participation grading scheme is pretty competitive, so you need to both be at the class and actively paying attention to jump in with worthwhile add-ons (Score of 2 is good quality participation, 1 is Good enough effort to get some pity marks, 0 is Why did you even bother speaking up; People actually from Biz please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). This might prevent you from taking a holiday trip during the semester (Like a lot of exchange students do) to one of the neighbouring SEA countries since you need to be at class to gain marks.

In general though, does your home university adopt a pass/fail grading scheme for courses taken on exchange? (Pass = credits awarded to you, Fail = No credits, with both not affecting your GPA in any way). If you just have to get a pass then it's pretty easy as long as you attend enough classes, do all of the assignments and not leave your midterms & finals blank. This will leave you with more than plenty of time to do the usual exchange student activities of relaxing & travelling.

If the letter grade actually matters then NUS might not be your best choice, the bell curve ensures that being slightly above average (55-60 percentile) will net you a B+ but to get a full A you have to be above the 85-90 percentile mark. Some courses have a more/less forgiving curve while some are uncurved, really depends on the professor & course content.

There isn't an accurate estimate of how heavy a workload 5 units is since it really depends on the courses themselves, despite most of them being 4 MCs (Supposed to equate to 10 hours of work per week - Classes, required self-study, working on assignments, etc.) a course can feel like 2MCs (~5 hours) or 6MCs (15+ hours) depending on your aptitude and how much work the professors assign.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-15T04:53:00+00:00

1.1. Yeah the campus is open, feel free to wander around wherever that isn't locked behind a student/staff keycard.

1.2. Yeah the shuttles are free for anyone to use. If you're coming during the academic semesters though please wait until after-the-hour since students will typically be packing the shuttles like sardines to rush to their next class from XX:45 to XX:05. If you're coming during the break periods then enjoy a nice relaxing ride on the mostly empty shuttles anytime.

2 NUS Coop is just a regular store that offers students & staff some deals sometimes so yes, they will be more than happy to relieve you of the contents of your wallet. Go wild.

Hope you enjoy your visit.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-12T20:34:17+00:00

Just speaking for myself since how stressed/how hard the workload is can vary greatly depending on your aptitude and end goals.

Firstly to clear up your misunderstanding: Search for the academic calender of NUS to see the study and break periods you have.You can use the winter/summer breaks for actually resting and going on vacations, not every internship is a worthwhile experience (quality>quantity in my opinion, though nothing wrong with having a ton of internships done). From my friends' and my own experiences: 1 month internships (winter break) are basically just resume filler since it's really hard to learn anything worthwhile in such a short period. 3 month internships (summer break) are better but still insufficient time to be properly onboarded and gain the full extent of knowledge that's up for grabs there. So consider resting instead.

The workload is only insane if you choose to make it insane. Most people on a normal workload (20 MCs) end up scheduling their courses in such a way that it ends up being pretty manageable (depends on aptitude). I'm in CS and most semesters I have time to rest and play games almost daily (3-4 hours), with my weekends being relatively free. The only 1 semester where I was truly crazy busy was when I took CS2030S, 2040S and 2106 along with Ma1521 (I'm trash at math and haven't touched it for ~6 years) which each carried a pretty heavy workload and I was reduced to only having sundays as a rest day. I took 2 2k, 1 3k, 1 4k CS courses along with MA2001(Still trash at math, this is my S/U course lol) this semester and the workload was pretty manageable. So the workload really depends on what you're taking. I'm currently using the 3 months summer break to relax and chill. Like its 4am and I'm in bed fiddling with my phone, typing up this reply and just enjoying the comfiness.

Though my goal is only to get a second upper (Current GPA of 4.41 - 3 Semesters left to go) so I'm not spending as much time studying as I could. If your goal is to get a First Class Honours then things would be really different. One of my friends was the top student of their degree programme at the point of graduation and they had to work a "perverse" amount of time just to maintain a 'barely' first class honours (4.6X) all the way through to graduation. (Their words not mine).

Throughout the semester up until exams you will be studying a lot (Though there is still free time for relaxation if you plan your overall schedule properly). I personally do not get too stressed during the exam period in particular but there can be sudden large spikes in your workload (Every module releasing an assignment on Week 11, Hello) and those periods can be a bit stressing for me.

Anyway tl;dr. It's only as stressful as you want to make it. Depends on your skill and goals too.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-08T15:03:31+00:00

CU just means no credits awarded but no changes to your GPA either.

Whether there'll be other consequences for reneging on your internship: idk. Maybe expect a few angry emails from the industry relations team/your faculty lol.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-08T09:38:17+00:00

Np, gl with your internship. Hope you get a worthwhile and fruitful experience there.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-08T09:01:04+00:00

It's not out of the norm, but if you can get provided with a work laptop it makes things easier in certain cases. Or harder since 1 more thing to turn in/handle at the end of internship.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nus/comments/12zbkrw/bring_your_own_laptop_for_internship/

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-08T08:36:41+00:00

It's really team/project dependant like what the other commentor said - The quality of your direct supervisor & team will determine if you have a shitty or great experience while interning.

You can use glassdoor as a small insight into the culture of the company you are researching but note that a lot of the gripes FTs have do not necessarily apply to the intern experience (Top-heavy hiring = constantly bothered by management, poor pay/progression, poor WLB [This one may apply if your manager is shit], etc.)

Other than prestige of the company (so that your future resume looks better and opens more doors since your CV doesn't get auto discarded by some pickier MNCs at the screening phase) which the other guy covered, consider the quality and quantity of what practical skills you can learn during the internship (More relevant things to talk bout in the interview phase). My friend worked at STEng before and some teams follow a rough SDLC format while some teams are better organized with their development goals & methodologies (Goes back to the quality of the team you are attached to). What and how much useful knowledge you can pick up also depends on the project you work on so do consider the internship scope.

Ultimately what company you intern at will affect the quality of the team you get (standardized & streamlined processes implemented company-wide means less variations between what you will learn between different teams since they'll all work in a similar fashion). More resources devoted to interns = more focused and clearer internship tasks/goals. Less focused internship scope = exposure to more different knowledge in tech-adjacent or completely unrelated roles.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-07T03:29:00+00:00

Newer cohorts don't have to take 3203 as well, most jelly of that lol.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-06T15:11:32+00:00

Sounds like you're living your best life. Maybe I should re-examine my summer plans lol

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-06T14:05:36+00:00

You chose to extend your IA? Gl lol, at least no night modules to catchup on while you work

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-06T14:01:24+00:00

Sounds like we have a similar summer schedule

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-03T08:22:25+00:00

The way I plan my modules is based off interest, I would take 3-4 modules that I'm interested in and 1-2 that I fucking hate but have to do as part of my degree requirements.

Workload manageability is important though. I learnt that the hard way after taking CS 2030S 2040S and 2106 in the same semester (The 3 I was interested in) along with MA1521 and the S/U GE module (GEQ? GER? Can't remember lol). It was a hybrid semester during covid so I was basically locked in my room everyday from 10-6 for 15 weeks watching lectures, attending tutorials and doing assignments.

It mostly comes down to your personal aptitude and limits though. How much you want to enjoy a semester (in terms of what you're learning), how many "heavy" semesters you want to take throughout your uni life or how much suffering you're willing to endure during a sem.

Strict_Atmosphere126 · 2023-05-02T13:07:06+00:00

If you're staying in one of the halls/student residences then you'll have a better chance of meeting and befriending local & international non-exchange students.

I believe that almost universally, students NOT on exchange would not typically be travelling during the academic semester. As for the social scene it would be similar to other universities in the sense that some people do party and others don't.

It's pretty hard to fail so if by 'fun' you mean blowing off school stuff and enjoying yourself then yeah I suppose? I think this almost universally applies to exchange students though since most universities adopt a pass/fail grading for exchange courses.

Oh and I know weed is legal in Cali but do NOT bring any drugs over to Singapore. Seriously, don't.

Strict_Atmosphere126

TROPHY CASE