Exchange Journal

This is going to be a really long, detailed report about my exchange semester at NUS. Some parts are just about administrative processes and paperwork, which may be boring, so feel free to skip and read as needed. I’m simply going into a lot of detail as I myself wished I had known everything about what to expect before my exchange. Also, get ready to remember a whole lot of abbreviations. ...

There were many things I wish I did differently for my exchange, so I’ve decided to break down everything I would do or wish I’d known if I were to do this all over again. Pre-departure Glossary: SEA: Southeast Asian EA: Eastern Asian AC: Air Conditioning OSE: Offsite Enrollment IPA: In-principle Approval NIR: National Immunisation Registry Course Selection Check NUSMods for course reviews by previous local students to get a grasp of what the courses are like. If you want to travel: Pick courses that have no midterms (then you’re free to travel for ~11 days during recess week) Recess week is good for travelling to Australia + other SEA countries. EA countries (China, Japan, Korea) are likely near 0 degrees, so I’d save that for reading week/exam week. Pick courses that have no final exam (then you’re free to travel for ~25 days) Reading week + exam week is great for travelling to EA countries, but try avoiding Golden Week to avoid crowds. Try cramming your courses into consecutive such that you will have 3-day weekends (or even better, 4-day weekends). If you aim to live in a hall or a house, avoid selecting courses with evening lectures (6-9 PM), because they are likely to interfere with hall/house events. If you are aiming for PGPR or UTR, then there won’t be many events to worry about skipping. On-Campus Accommodation At NUS, there are three types of accommodations: ...

Course Selection At Aalto, our course selection process simply involves checking Sisu (our course management system) and registering for courses during their registration period. They rarely check for prerequisites, and it’s almost guaranteed to get any course you need. Registering for exercise sessions is done alongside the course registration; you simply select which exercise group you wish to be in as part of the course registration process. It sounds a little complicated, but in reality, it involves ticking a few checkboxes before hitting the “register” button. ...

Landing After landing in Singapore, I went to pick up my SIM card from one of Singtel’s pickup points. Upon picking up my SIM, the person working at the kiosk also offered to sell me a NETS card. Transport/General-use Prepaid Cards Singapore has a couple prepaid cards they use. These cards are usually used for public transport, but some of the types of cards can be used elsewhere for paying for other things. The two primary ones used are EZ-Link cards and NETS cards. Both can be used for public transport as well as for purchases, but NETS cards are much more accepted as a general payment method compared to EZ-Link cards. ...

Applying In January 2023, I applied to go on an exchange semester at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for spring of 2024. It was a all-in decision, as in that if I didn’t get the opportunity, I wouldn’t go on exchange at all. Luckily, my application was successful and I was nominated to go on the exchange by my home university, despite NUS being the second most applied to exchange destination at Aalto. ...