Wah, Courses

One of the most fundamental questions to consider when pursuing higher education is what you want to study. This decision may appear intimidating, and rightly so - you are choosing to specialise in a particular field, and your university course choice can go on to influence your career choice! We hope this article can help guide you through this decision-making process.

Looking Forward and Looking Backward/Inward

There are two ways that you can approach your choice of course - looking forward: choosing based on what career you wish to pursue; or looking backward/inward: choosing based on what you know, have experienced so far and enjoy doing. Often people think that choosing a course is just all about the first approach, but the WahTeam believes that there is value in looking both forward and backward/inward.

Let’s start off by discussing the ‘looking forward’ option - do you already have a specific career in mind that you wish to pursue? For instance, if you want to become a doctor or a dentist or an engineer or a lawyer, it would be a no-brainer to take the corresponding degree that you have to study in order to have a career in one of those industries. That being said, if you are pursuing Law, Medicine or Business in the US, these degrees are only offered at the graduate level and so you would still need to choose an undergraduate degree. In addition, there are increasingly more varied pathways to these professions that do not require you to have studied a particular course, and this gives you greater flexibility in deciding what to study in university. For example, even if you did not do medicine at the undergraduate level (maybe you did Life Sciences, or Biomedical Engineering instead), you can still pursue a medical degree at Duke-NUS Medical School at the graduate level. For professions like Architecture, there are also several different variations of the traditional Architecture course that also lead to an Architecture degree / accreditation, and these options are all worth exploring when choosing your course of study.

Now, as mentioned, we believe that a big part of this choice should be informed by looking backward/inward as well, even if you have decided to pursue one of the abovementioned professional careers.

Looking backward/inward requires a good understanding of yourself, what you enjoy, what you are good at, what kind of environment you thrive in, what (you think) you want out of life, etc. Since you are making a choice about higher education, you can start by thinking about which academic subjects you enjoyed most in school. This does not mean that your choice of course has to be a 1-to-1 match like “I love math so I should study math in university”. Bear in mind that in your education so far, the subjects you have been offered are only a limited few, and there are many more options when choosing a university course. For instance, if you like math, this may mean that you like working with numbers as opposed to reading long passages, so you can think about what courses might be more suitable for you in that case (of course, we need to caveat here that STEM courses at the university level still involve a lot of reading, so don’t think that just because you chose a STEM major you are free from reading for the rest of your life, haha).

Beyond interest, it would also be beneficial to consider which subjects you do well in because while interest is important, it would make your life a bit harder if you decide to study something that you may not be strong in (Vanessa from the WahTeam would tell you that this is not always the case and that you can still do something simply because you are passionate about it, even if you aren’t very good at it!)

Apart from considering what you do in school academically, you can also consider things you have done outside of school. This includes extracurricular activities you are involved in, internships or jobs you have taken on before, volunteering or service opportunities you have had, and other experiences. Think about:

• What do you enjoy doing? What about it do you enjoy?

• What motivates you? Why do you think it motivates you?

• What are you good at? Do you wish to pursue what you are good at? Or do you think your calling is elsewhere?

• Was there a particular experience that stuck with you or opened your eyes to something you’ve never considered before? Is there someone who inspires you whose footsteps you wish to follow?

For instance, Sophie from the WahTeam participated in a lot of Model United Nations conferences, and she enjoyed the public speaking and negotiation elements of it, which helped inform her choice to study law. Vanessa from the WahTeam spent quite a bit of time working in a research lab and was inspired to pursue Chemical Engineering.

The looking inward part of this process is probably the most difficult, but nonetheless important. We at the WahTeam hope that you will take the time to think about what your short term and long term goals are, what do you want to achieve? What do you want out of life? This is difficult to pin down, and you don’t have to give yourself a concrete answer, but it is useful to think about. For instance, if your goal for the immediate future is to earn money and achieve financial independence as early as possible (or, as the young people say it, “get that bread”), then maybe you should be considering courses that both fit your interest and lead to a profitable career. If instead, your dream is to join Greenpeace and be a climate change activist, then allow that to guide your choice.

Researching Courses

Once you have a slightly better idea of your interests, abilities, and aspirations, you can start researching to see which course at which university would best fit your interests, skills and goals. You can go to websites that talk about these courses generally (e.g. QS Top Universities subject guides), but also make sure to visit individual universities’ websites to read about what is covered under the course at that specific university. This is because even though the course goes by the same name, not all universities cover the same things or have the same focus. Potentially useful information you can look out for when reading about courses:

• What is the length of the course? What is the course structure?

• What is the degree your graduate with? e.g. some Engineering courses lead you to a B.Eng, while others lead you to a B.Sc or B.S.Eng (yes there is a difference, but some may say it doesn’t really matter. You can research a bit into this if you want and decide for yourself.)

• Does it fulfill your accreditation requirements (if any)?

• What are the classes that you will take under this course/major?

• Is there a “signature” class that you should be excited about? Or an outstanding faculty member you will get the chance to learn under?

• What is the teaching style / lesson format? For STEM courses it is useful to find out if the classes tend to be more theory-based or hands-on, or a good balance of both (based on your interests and understanding of yourself you may have a preference for a certain format of classes)

• What careers do graduates from this course typically go on to pursue? (Is this something you want to do or can see yourself doing?)

• What is the average starting salary for graduates of this course?

A side FAQ about Engineering vs Science: Pure sciences tend to be more like what you have been exposed to in JC science subjects, and tend to lead to careers in research. Engineering is more similar to applied science and is more focused on large-scale systems. For example, Chemical Engineering is not so much about discovering new chemistry, but about how to scale-up chemical processes. In this sense, Science is more “upstream” while Engineering is more “downstream” - scientists make discoveries in the lab or through theoretical study, and Engineers figure out how these discoveries can be applied and made into real-world solutions. Engineering usually also has a lot more physics, like, a lot more.

Disclaimer: this is all based on our own individual experiences and understanding; feel free to read up on different science and engineering courses to make this comparison yourself!

In addition to reading about courses online, it is very useful to talk to seniors who are currently studying, or have studied, the courses that you have set your sights on. They will be able to provide first-hand information on how the course is actually like, and as they are further along in the process, they can also help you understand what this course choice means for you in terms of your future career. You can then consider if the course and the future career possibilities that come with it excite you and matches your perceived skill set, or if you would actually prefer studying and pursuing something else in the future.

About taking a gap year…

On the gap year idea, you can use the extra year to take on internships in fields that you have an interest in, and better develop your understanding of these careers. If you manage to find a job that you think you will really enjoy through these internships, you can then choose a course that can develop your interest and skills in that area. However, the WahTeam strongly recommends that if you are going to take a gap year, make sure you have a plan for what you are going to do during your extra year, so that you do not end up wasting time. This is also important because in some university applications, admissions officers may be interested to find out why you took a gap year, and being able to talk about what you did and what you learnt is a great way to help you stand out as a candidate (you can show that you are driven, independent, and have some unique experiences other applicants may not have!). For more on taking a gap year, check out this video!

Ok, I’ve thought about all the above but I still can’t decide! How??

If you think you aren’t ready to commit to a career or even a course, don’t. There are options out there that give you the flexibility to explore before deciding on your course/major, such as Yale-NUS or US universities. In addition, if none of the conventional majors you are reading about seem to resonate with you, do you perhaps want to go somewhere where you can design your own course of study? Even if you go to a university in the UK or Singapore, it might still be possible for you to change your major midway, but you’ll have to do your research for this, it differs from school to school.

At the end of the day….

No matter what you decide in the end, don’t worry! This is only your first degree! There is still too much life ahead of you for this decision to irreversibly affect your entire future :) There are plenty of folks who don’t know what they want to do and only figure out later on, or even much later in life, so keep calm and remember that EVERYTHING WILL WORK OUT! <3

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