<p>yep. there are two options i think. 1) China Eastern Airline Air Bus 340-600, transit at Shang Hai. 2) All Nippon Airways, transit at Narita. you can try to ask for it with any travel agency.</p>
<p>i got into sarah lawrence! i’m gonna be writing, writing writing!</p>
<p>do ntu/nus care to reply if you ask them queries through email?;)</p>
<p>^ They seem to reply selectively (I sent NUS an email last September - yet to reply :P) but seem to have gotten better recently as admissions season is under swing. But generally the replies seem quite automated so I usually write like “I understand that X is the case, but given Y, is A more likely to happen, or B?” and then they will answer A or B, if I do not do this they will respond along the lines of “X is blah blah, for more info go to our website”. </p>
<p>Capitalist: nus.edu.sg/oam has some links. I’m not sure if you need to already hold the IB Diploma to apply (last I checked they had conflicting information about whether or not predicted grades suffice) but it’s worth a shot, and if you write a nice cover letter with your supporting docs explaining the situation they’re unlikely to reject you outright. You apply to each uni separately (thankfully there are only three), NUS and NTU are S$10 each and SMU is S$15 so inexpensive overall. It’s pretty competitive for IB Diploma holders though, because ACSI bumps the expected scores up by like a lot.</p>
<p>Re: cellphone contracts, when I first moved here it made more financial sense for me to pay the monthly fee and let the contract run out than to cancel which came with a pretty hefty fee (it was one of those “2 year contract = free phone” things) so check first. Generally cellphones here are cheaper but if you like your SG phone I think you can still use it here with a different SIM card.</p>
<p>Congrats to everyone else who got accepted somewhere. I used to live in SG but am now in the Washington DC area, so I thought I’d say hello (:</p>
<p>P.S. Perk of coming to the US = get driver’s licence very cheaply. No horror stories of $2K fees, no parallel parking during exams and a ridiculously high first-time pass rate :D</p>
<p>I got into CMU Teppers, waitlisted at Computer Science (my first choice) though.</p>
<p>^ That happened to me as well, last year.</p>
<p>lestercqx, do phones in the US vary from those sold in SG? I would like to get an iPhone but can’t decide whether to buy one now before going off for studies, or to wait till I get to the US before buying it with an AT&T contract. The iPhone is at least 40% cheaper there and I’m not sure if the ones sold here are completely compatible for use in the States. The only drawback about buying it there is having to wait till August, versus purchasing it from SingTel now 
Guess I could live with that though!</p>
<p>Agneisse, what did you mean when you said it was better to let the phone contract run out? </p>
<p>Also, if you obtain the driving permit in the US, are you allowed to drive in SG indefinitely? Reversely, since I already have my SG license, does American law require me to undergo any sort of conversion (either to the American permit or the International Driving Permit)?</p>
<p>umm, i understand that in Singapore, you are given chances to pursue what you have intrests in(research projects…) , but what happens if you go overseas to study and do not have the chances? Does it affect you, or will it be taken into consideration?</p>
<p>you have to get a new license in the united states.</p>
<p>and wait till you get in the US to get that iphone because chances are it wont work because it wont be compatible.</p>
<p>Ycang: Sometimes, if you want to terminate your SG cellphone contract, they will have an “early termination fee” that can be astoundingly high - mine was S$500. My monthly fee was only ~$20 and I had about a year of contract left, so it made much more sense to pay 20*12=$240 for a contract that I wasn’t using, than to cancel the contract outright and pay $500. So, check with your phone provider as to which route makes more sense.</p>
<p>If you already have an SG licence, definitely go to the local Automobiles Association place and pay some admin fee for an International Drivers’ Licence. If you plan on driving within the first month-ish when you are here, this will let you drive. While you may not think you want to drive now, there may well be friends on road trips at school and you do want to be able to do your share of the driving (safety/fairness reasons) and it’s not like the fee’s prohibitively expensive or anything.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as an “American” DL, only ones issued by individual states 
In many many states you need a Social Security Number or proof of legal presence to get a drivers’ licence, and car insurance is scarily expensive on an IDL. So, apply for a SSN and get a local licence ASAP if you want to drive without paying through the roof. </p>
<p>The procedure for obtaining a state’s driving licence, quite unfortunately, differs by state But generally you have to take a test or two (traffic signs, common sense, etc.) and then drive a car with an examiner, this is usually very easy if you’re over 18 and rarely is there weird stuff like parallel parking or stick shift if you don’t want to (anecdotally, a family friend was chided for reverse-parking and told to “get out of the parking spot and park head-in”). The most difficult part is waiting for the scarily inefficient DMV (dept. of motor vehicles) staff to get around to serving you. For more info on the tests google the DMV website for your state.</p>
<p>To summarise (I’m terrible at being concise), get an IDL if you want to drive in the first month or so that you’re here, and you will have to do a few tests to get issued a state’s drivers licence. Once you qualify to drive here, you can get a Singaporean licence very easily (I think the only thing is the Basic Theory Test - traffic signs etc.).</p>
<p>Driving in the US is <em>very</em> easy if you’re not in the heart of NYC or something; the roads are really wide and the parking spots are humongous too (and no such thing as those swirly spiraly tunnels at multistorey carparks), so once you get over the right-left thing you’re pretty much all set.</p>
<p>bump 10char</p>
<p>4 days until Wednesday morning, the next American Idol episode.</p>
<p>I mean, decision day for all the Ivies and most other schools :D</p>
<p>hi everyone, i think its wonderful that there is a dedicated thread for all singaporeans. just an observation, but other than HYP, it appears that most singaporeans (students my age too) are generally ignorant of other american schools of decent calibre - UMich, UWis-Mad etc. Question is, if we do come back to work in Singapore and HR goes over our resume, what goes through their mind when they see such schools?</p>
<p>For those of you who have had some job experience, is there any difficulty in securing internships and jobs even though you’re an “alien”? How feasible is it to stay on in the US for another 4-6 years after doing a BA?</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments!</p>
<p>^ Staying on the US - it depends on whether there is a company willing to sponsor a H-1B working visa for you and whether you can win the lottery for said visas. Staying on and working for 12 months generally shouldn’t be a problem with the OPT portion of your F-1 visa, but any longer than that and you will need a H-1B visa (unless you have a science/engineering degree, which then qualifies you for an additional 18 months of “extended” OPT). The exact rules are quite complex.</p>
<p>Hi Ycang, to my knowledge, Iphones sold in Singapore are unlocked versions since Singapore’s law require that they do so. Hence, I would venture to say that your phone would be usable here. Note, I had an unlocked version of the first gen Iphone back in Singapore and it worked fine here with both T-mobile and Att networks. However, I am not too sure about data plans and the ability to surf the internet since I am not a mobile surfer in any sense of the word. It wouldn’t hurt if you checked with Singtel and explain the situation to them. Just say something like whether “Will the phone work in the US if I’m travelling there for three months on an exchange program and need to pop in a US Sim card ?” or something in that sense. </p>
<p>About jobs, well, HYPS is the equivalent of Oxbridge in the UK. One issue though that I realize is that most Singaporeans who enter those universities are under either PSC or President’s scholarships. In my cohort, there were less than 20 students who managed to enter those universities. Getting those scholarships meant that you’ve went through a self selection process back in your own country and even then, HYPS might or might not accept you. One reason why universities in the UK are more prone to accepting Singaporean students is because they are on the same system and US admissions are looking more for students with character to fit a specific class profile instead of getting cut offs. Of course, applicants are normally self selecting too so it makes it easier for them to justify their choices. </p>
<p>About the driving, if you’re heading to California, having a Singapore license will not enable you to drive. They do not accept any form of international driving permits and if you’re here on an F1 visa, you will have to proceed to the local DMV to get a license. I got mine within 3 weeks so it isn’t a hassle at all. You are able to convert your American license back in Singapore as long as you have proof of residency in the country that you obtained your license from for at least 2 years. </p>
<p>Cheers! Hope everyone is getting good news for their US applications.</p>
<p>Just freeze your contract. </p>
<p>It’s about 10$ to do it. you can unfreeze it when you return to Singapore for the summer</p>
<p>@nicchansy: scholarship boards like a*star generally send their scholars to a large range of schools in the US, not just the brand name ones, including umich and wisconsin. a sampling: duke, carnegie mellon, georgia tech, purdue, uiuc. so you probably only have to worry about name recognition if you’re applying to small liberal arts colleges. </p>
<p>i suppose that when people get to j2 they actually will do more research if they have some sense. especially if they want to find out which schools are strong in which programs. and they will find that there is more to life than HYPS…</p>
<p>@clichedanomaly Agree. A*Star highly recommended Mudd to me during a scholarship interview–that agency is not a prestige-whore, they really know what’s the best schools in each field.</p>
<p>actually, ASTAR is a anti-prestige whore.
i.e. i’ve heard that they try to prevent their scholarship recipents from attending certain top-tier schools to curb bond-breaking. rumor mill, shrug.</p>
<p>(how is duke non-brand name?!?!!)</p>
<p>For those who have gone through the painful process - how long does it take to get a student visa for the US?</p>