<p>Agniesse: Six yr bond means I have to find work in Singapore and not that the govt will give me one.</p>
<p>You want to teach in NUS/NTU’s physics department as a fresh graduate with a BSc? Sorry, don’t think that’s going to happen. The classes I’ve taken at NUS were taught by graduate students or assistant lecturers (or professors…)</p>
<p>Teaching. I’m not sure… My school is NUS High School, a specialized Math/Sci secondary school which does hire teachers fresh out of NUS/NTU. Sorry, can’t advise you on that.</p>
<p>Well - if you study in NIE they pay for your 1-year postgrad teaching diploma + you get an allowance (I think), so essentially you’re being paid for your teaching qualification. You do have to fulfill a three-year teaching bond after that, I’m not sure if it runs concurrently with the six-year bond. If it doesn’t then uh it doesn’t seem like a good idea unless you want to stay in Singapore for another 10 years after your first degree.</p>
<p>And yeah pretty impossible to get a teaching position at NUS as a fresh grad unless you’re also doing graduate studies.</p>
<p>Either way, teaching = must do graduate studies.</p>
<p>…so if I can’t find work in Sngapore, how exactly will I fulfill my bond requirement?</p>
<p>I’m sure you can find work, there’s always a real job out there in the world 
I’m not a physics major, so I can’t advise you on that. I’m just saying that, if your passion is theoretical physics, Singapore isn’t the best place to pursue that passion.</p>
<p>If you ask me, I suggest doing theoretical physics in the United States. Take a look at what Obama intends to do about basic research in the US: [Obama’s</a> Call to Create, Not Just Consume - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/obamas-call-to-create-not-just-consume/]Obama’s”>Obama's Call to Create, Not Just Consume - The New York Times)</p>
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<p>Singapore isn’t a great place for theoretical anything. As a country, we don’t handle abstraction very well :p</p>
<p>Woohoo!! Who says NUS doesn’t recruit fresh grads? A NUS student recommended this to me. Yaay :D</p>
<p>[NUS</a> : Department of Physics : Teaching Assistants](<a href=“http://www.physics.nus.edu.sg/corporate/employment/ta_post.html]NUS”>http://www.physics.nus.edu.sg/corporate/employment/ta_post.html)</p>
<p>Oh and phantompong… Singapore (and most other countries in the world) doesn’t do theoretical anything cos its not rich enough. Only the USA and some European places have enough money to pump into fields that don’t give you any tangible returns. It really hasn’t got anything to do with ability though I guess you’re joking about it :D</p>
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<p>Don’t worry, I understand the economic realities of academic research, and yes, I was joking… but I do think it has some truth.</p>
<p>hi sorry for crashing the physics conversation . i’m not on scholarship, and i just found out that georgetown is offering me zero aid …so essentially i’ll have to take out a loan to finance my education there (approx cost USD 55K/ year).
in that light, is a georgetown education worth that sort of money?
i also got accepted into berkeley (USD 32K /year) …how do these two universities compare, especially since i’ll be doing political science /economics, and i would really like to work in an ngo in the future?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>^ I personally feel that it would be more realistic for you to go to Berkeley. 20K per year, meaning 80K by the end of your education, is still a lot of money.</p>
<p>Plus, it is not like Stanford V.S. Berkeley. Georgetown is not that great in Econs/political science, it is more of IR. Berkeley’s econs is recognised.</p>
<p>Berkeley is definitely on par with Georgetown (if not better) for those subjects. Berkeley is also more reputable outside of the US. One thing you have to consider is the possible difference in class size. As Berkeley is a much larger school, your class size for certain courses may be rather big. This may or may not be an important factor to you, but personally I would take Berkeley over Georgetown in a heartbeat. Not only is Berkeley a good choice for those two subjects you mentioned, it is also highly rated in many other fields.</p>
<p>I think it’s good to expose yourself to a diverse learning environment in college, as opposed to a more specialized institute that may be very good for what you set out to study but offers nothing much else. The kind of interactions you get is very different in a more diversified institute.</p>
<p>Not to mention the huge difference in tuition fees.</p>
<p>I totally agree you should take Berkeley over Georgetown. For both economics and polsci, Berkeley beats Georgetown outright, and it’s cheaper to boot. Berkeley has much better name recognition here and it’s ranked just slightly higher than Georgetown (even the SFS) on the USNews rankings.</p>
<p>But you might want to re-check the costs. I don’t think you included room and board and living expenses in the 32K you stated for Berkeley.</p>
<p>I’d go for Cal. It’s much more famous in Singapore than Georgetown (you know, home-country backup-option thing), not exactly shabby in Econs/polisci (and very good in other fields too, in case you change your mind), and as for large classes - I’m of the opinion that a lecture with 10 people and a lecture with 500 people is still a lecture with a professor ranting. Besides, the quality of life in the Bay Area is so much better than Washington DC (I live in the DC area). And while there are lots of NGO/internships in DC, you can always do them in the summer anyway (:</p>
<p>IR undergrad rankings:</p>
<p>[Foreign</a> Policy: Inside the Ivory Tower](<a href=“http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4685&page=1]Foreign”>http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4685&page=1)</p>
<p>hmm
i’m surprised at how high cal is ranked</p>
<p>… also, it’s really funny how few of those schools actually have “international relations” majors</p>
<p>I would go for Berkeley over Georgetown anyday.</p>
<p>thank you for your help everybody!!
i just put down my deposit for berkeley (:</p>
<p>^ Smart choice 
Are you going this year? I may see you at frosh orientation then (:</p>
<p>gluegunned: i think that’s a brilliant choice
(please check out the total costs though… i’m pretty sure a berkeley education will cost more than 32k/year)</p>