Hi, I'm going to be a 2nd year student in FSKTM! Currently staying in KK8, nice to see so many FSKTM folks.

Some stuffs I'd like to share to those wondering (all from my point of view, VERY long winded and may be biased):

Orientation week
Do your own part, read all the paperworks provided on the websites, read carefully what documents are needed, and it's always better to bring extra than not enough. For what I remember, you'll definitely need SPM, MUET, and STPM/matriculation/A-level(?)/whatever-preU-course(?) certs which are certified true. You can use result slips for whatever qualifications that are not 1.5 or 2(?)years old.

It's very tiring, you often have to walk here and there, listen to speeches and whatever taklimat, but it's pretty fun to cheer. Some think it's silly, but please, just take it as a last chance for you to feel the cheering fun like what you would do in your schooling years, and go wild. You also get to sing songs and dance together on the last day where all the freshies from each college gather for the last time.

Pembantu Mahasiswa/siswi (PM)
For my batch, they're really nice and caring. The disciplinary PMs are way stricter and may be harder to approach, but once orientation's over, you'll see they're really just putting up those faces to keep the discipline.


KK8 animals
Many cats. YAY--- wait, cat shits too. There are generally certain spots they plant their landmines, but just take extra care whenever nasty smell is detected.
There are monkeys, usually harmless but i heard they may walk around your corridors especially on higher floors, and yes if there's an opportunity, they WILL take your food. I've seen a few monkeys carrying an apple and a chicken wing, then seconds after, a spilled bento on the floor.

I heard there may be rats lurking around, and they're more likely to invade your room if your window is left open. I've only heard a friend or 2 complaining about that, but general advice would be: don't open your windows unless you're there and you want fresh air.

Rooms
For KK8, it's 3 in a room, usually 1 senior on single bed with 2 juniors on double decker bed. The junior who comes first gets to choose top or bottom. I personally prefer top, cuz btm is kinda hot, you'll most prolly have to bring your own fan. A typical room is generally 'split' into 2, obviously the senior would have one half and the juniors the other half. There are cupboards, tables and chairs, 1 for each. You might need to bring some kind of divider for the cupboard cuz it doesn't have much compartments. Don't forget to bring air freshener or something, 1 for your cupboard (woody smell!), another perhaps a spare for the room in case the food smell gets too much when you eat something there.

White bedsheet?
There's an 'interesting' rule which nobody follows anymore: "use plain white bedsheet for your bed". Back in the years where my uncle got great results in SPM, appeared in newspapers and finally entering UM, everyone followed that rule. So my mom was so worried about it but hey, even when you get spot-checks, they aren't going to talk about your mickey mouse bedsheet.

Speaking of which, spot-checks aren't something regular. What I know is that they do it for a particular block if there are unexpectedly high electricity usage that caused occasional power blackout (you're supposed to pay like RM20 for the laptop you bring in, and more if you bring any other electrical appliance), or if they heard news of people bringing in illegal stuffs or whatnot (eg. cigarette).

Safety in residential colleges (RC)
Generally good, and here's the usual saying: always better to be safe than sorry. Personally I have a laptop lock, but I'm so lazy I hardly used it (don't follow me!). YES there are thefts, but so far cases that I've heard of:
- 1 roommate forget to lock the door before leaving it empty, making everyone in the room victim (most of the cases)
- thief stole something via an opened window (only 1 case happened as such)
Rule of thumb: always carry your key whenever you leave the room even if your roommate(s) is/are still there, unless it's a short trip then inform them. Always lock your door if you're the last to exit, even though it's only a walk to the toilet or to your neighbour to hand over something.
There are cases where some keys can end up opening another room, i heard rumour saying one went to the wrong floor and opened another door by accident, don't know how credible is that but just beware that locking the door at all times doesn't 100% guarantee your item safety.

How to stay in college?
Participate in the events. There are a few ways:
1. involve yourself in organising an event in your RC. This is time consuming BUT i can assure you: you WILL learn A LOT from this. Take the chance to join while you're on your 1st year. You'll get to know MANY friends, you get to learn how to deal with certain stuffs depending on which department you get in. It's really fun and worth the time.
2. joining the event (sitting in for the speech, joining whatever competition)
If you want to slack or whatever, doing only #2 would suffice, but make sure you join enough events to ensure your stay for next year.

Food
I was given the luxury to enjoy cheap canteen food on my 1st year, but they're going to remove this convenience for all colleges (eventually), and 8th college got the axe, no more food providing anymore. Well like the other seniors said, 3rd college has great food (mamak stall), and personally i think 12th and 11th are pretty good too, and a shop I'd love to highlight at FSSS (fakulti sastera and sains sosial, just opposite the library bus stop): you get your rice and pick the dishes, and I looooove the tofu there and it's freakin cheap - discovered this when we went there for food after exam.

Bring some snacks (cookies? Preferably those with little packets so you can keep them longer) and instant drinks, maybe some instant noodles or instant soup as well. Comes handy when you refuse to leave your room (study, assignment, whatever you do on your computer..).

There are many more stuffs but i can't think of atm, and it's just so long lol. But I wanna take this chance to ask as well:
I'm a computer science student, and now I have to choose which major to go for: AI, Networking, SE or MIS.
MIS is out for me (i heard it's mostly memorising with little programming and i hate that), and AI is most probably out too (low prospect in Malaysia and a really hard course to handle).
I'm stuck between Networking and SE, both of which I heard have quite a lot of programming (I enjoy programming). I would love to play more with programming (like the Programming I course WXES1116 and Data Structure WXES1117), or learn whatever new/fun things that need more understanding than memorising.
I don't have a job target for now, so which could be better for me? Perhaps redscorpion can tell me more about SE, and hidzwan/megahertz for Networking? Thanks in advance >_<