NUS all the way, and this is coming from a current UCL student.

firstly, keep in mind that the 95% of graduates who were offered a job includes those who went back. If you ask anyone who is applying for jobs in the UK right now, getting a job in any sector other than finance is an uphill struggle and it will only get worse.

secondly, you do not want to be limited by a set budget in the most expensive city in the world. In the event of something going wrong, you won't have backup. For instance, one of my classmates lost everything when her flat burned down a couple of months ago. Luckily, she's from sweden so affording a new wardrobe, laptop etc. wasnt too much of a stretch.

Work on getting scholarships for the UK, but if you cant... take the NUS route.

just my two cents

erm, im pretty sure i already said i was in my first post.

FYI, I havent met anyone doing econs on a JPA scholarship. GLCs, yes. Give Petronas or Bank Negara a shot

good luck in the EPF scholarship!

just so you know, a lot of my friends who did get jobs in the UK aren't planning to stay long for reasons such as incredibly high tax AND cost of living as well as lower chance of progression due to the competition. Most of them are just staying until they complete their certification papers (ICAEW and CFA) and are then planning to apply to Singapore or HK.

So technically, as a Singapore grad you're already ahead of the game.

Personally, since I'm not in finance, I decided to come back because I believe the opportunities in Malaysia are better.

Lower initial salary? yes.
Better chance of progression? Definite.

Of course, I may be wrong and get stuck in a dead end job but I'll deal with that should the need arise.

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Added on May 25, 2010, 7:06 pmdepends on what course. Anyone who goes to Bartlett will basically not have a life until they graduate. the econs program is one of the top 3 in the country and the Biochem Eng department is ranked second in the world.

then again, I dont know what NUS acceptance requires but Im pretty sure that depends on the course as well.

This post has been edited by 0mars: May 25 2010, 07:06 PM

career progression in terms of say, promotions or being chosen for further training i.e. MBA's or in a technical career, specialist training.
What I mean by having a lower chance of progression (at least in my opinion) is that, from my experience, although I'm a first class honours student, I'm still simply on par with the top of my class. The bar is set quite high and as each of us reaches it, someone pushes it higher. The general culture within my course is too perform and continuously grow and improve. However, when I then carried out an internship in Malaysia, I found that the general mentality was not to compete and be the best, but simply to "do enough" to get by.

Now, keeping in mind that I do not believe the whole workforce can be generalized like that, the simple fact that this culture exists allows the high performers to really stand out (with less competitors than you would have in the UK) which in itself should lead to more opportunities to progress.

I do hope I have not insulted anyone with the opinions above. It was not my intention in any way.

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