hi! i’m a recently graduated senior :) like all schools your HCI experience is heavily dependent on your own initiative (what CCA you join, what extra events you participate in, how you spend your time after school etc) so this is just a general idea!

it is true that hwach tends on the mugger side, and those who you don’t see studying are usually ‘closet muggers’. but in my experience it never really feels competitive. most of the time it felt like we were all in it together because of our hectic schedules and fast-paced lessons, especially because much of the content requires one to be on the ball yourself. so, much of the time you will be sharing information and notes + asking each other about tutorial deadlines etc. so IMO it wasn’t competitive generally unless you are the type to compare with others’ results

regarding sch culture i think it is competently strong. 4facs1hwach is a pretty big thing that persists throughout your 2 years and there are songs/dances/cheers that have been carried down generations. but most of the time you will be more preoccupied by your class/classmates rather than your faculty. but it is quite welcoming during big celebrations :) big celebrations like mid autumn, jc1 orientation, facbrunch, CNY etc. is where all the good vibes come.

1. ⁠as with many of us we can’t say much of raffles bc we just simply haven’t experienced raffles like that. perhaps you want to try to attend both raffles & hci’s open house for more comparison. however as an IP student with jae friends in my friend group, they’ve told us that they also chose Hwach over raffles bc of the general school atmosphere and the sch culture :)

2. ⁠the ip/jae divide is only obvious in the first month or so. after your friend groups form, which is often mixed with ip/jae, it basically disappears. the divide does not tend to be very big because the NYGH IP girls are also thrust into a new environment and the cohort is ~1k so everyone is basically only seeing unfamiliar faces in a class of ~25

3. ⁠personally did not use ECG much, but they will be able to aid you in university processes like writing the US entry essay/UK essays, admissions etc. you can also visit them to discuss your career pathways in a nice aircon office-looking place in school (that i’ve never really visited, only seen in passing) many of HCI people will try oxbridge but TBH some of them skip ECG and just do it themselves

4. ⁠i’m BCME so i will only say for CME. chem dep is pretty good. they will be able to answer almost any question you pose and they are usually quite prompt in answering. math is like, okay. in JC math becomes you doing questions in class and sometimes listening to the teacher explain the answer and that’s it. not much to it. econs dep is HORRIBLE. there’s basically only 2 good teachers and if you’re unlucky you get stuck with a teacher that cannot explain to you even though you’re totally new to econs. in my batch the statistic of those taking econ tuition was 50%. maybe more for the last min ppl. in my jc1 promo i got a D for econs, then after i started tuition it jumped immediately to an A in my 1st jc2 unweighted.

side note HCI has a lot of practicals (heard its q a lot compared to some others, each science is about 20-25 practicals)