$$$ and scholarships.

So the ever elusive question about $$$.

$$$ is needed to fund your university education. You need to take into account the following factors that will affect the cost of education:
1. Location and hence corresponding currency rate and cost of living
Staying in Singapore is probably the cheapest as you dont need to pay for boarding and the Singapore Government subsidizes your studies heavily.
2. Private/public university
Private universities cost more than public universities, but they also have more funds available for financial aid.
3. Course
Cost for Medicine >>>>>> Other courses

$$$ will need to be paid for (you can add or subtract based on this list):
1. Living expenses
2. Tuition fees
3. Boarding
4. Books, clothes, laptop? allowance
5. Airfare if applicable
6. Special programmes (e.g. exchange programmes) you may want to go for

A guide for some universities is as follows. It probably will be higher when you apply due to inflation etc. You can always find information specific about the university you want on their website, this is just to give you a rough idea of the $ needed.

From Cambridge:
Overseas students – Band 1 Arts (this includes Mathematics)
Tuition Fee: £9747
College Fee: £3956 (please expect this fee to increase in line with inflation for the 2009/10 academic year)
Anticipated maintenance costs: £8050
Estimated annual cost: £21753

Overseas students – Band 2 Sciences (this includes Geography and Music)
Tuition Fee: £12768
College Fee: £3956 (please expect this fee to increase in line with inflation for the 2009/10 academic year)
Anticipated maintenance costs: £8050
Estimated annual cost: £24774

That was from the email they sent me. I would expect cost of living in London universities to be higher.

From Stanford (you have to pardon me, as a Stanford ProFro I am probably more familiar with Stanford than other universities):

Student Budget
2009–2010 Academic Year
Budget Item
Tuition 37,380
Room and Board* 11,463
Books and Supplies 1,485
Personal 2,385
Orientation Fee (1st year only) 438
Campus Health Service Fee 501
Transportation Varies
Total $53,652

The transportation allowance reflects the estimated cost of two trips home per academic year for U. S. residents and one trip home per academic year for students who live abroad.

Books, supplies, personal expenses and transportation costs are estimates of your actual expenses and included for the purpose of determining the full cost of attendance and eligibility for aid. They are not part of the university bill. If your actual costs for books/supplies or transportation are significantly higher than the budget allowances, you can submit a Request for Revision (PDF) with documentation of your actual costs.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/undergrad/budget/index.html

(everything there is in USD)

From NUS:
https://share.nus.edu.sg/registrar/info/ug/UGTuitionCurrent.pdf

Very much cheaper.

Now I will talk about sources of $$. Possible sources include:
1. Scholarships
2. Financial aid
3. Loans
4. FAM (Father and Mother :) )

Now I am not aware of any other avenues with which you can get $$ (trust me, I have researched on this so thoroughly already), but do correct me if you know more about it so that I can update this accordingly.

1. Scholarships
- I am a Singapore citizen born and bred, so I never had the need to research on scholarships for foreign students (sorry scholars) but from what I know most scholarships require you to be a citizen or PR intending to take up citizenship.

Most scholarships come with a bond. Some, like the university scholarships, dont come with bonds but are a lot harder to get and a lot more competitive, naturally. But dont forget that a bonded scholarship is more about the career than the $$!

Good scholarship sources include:
a) Scholars' Guide by ST
Get your hands on this one if possible. It has an extremely comprehensive list of scholarships (it's the list I swear by) at the end of the guide that is very useful for shortlisting what you want.
b) Brightsparks' Scholarship Guide
c) Today's Scholarship magazine

And if you are wondering, the only scholarships that allow you to defer NS is the PSC President's scholar, SAFOS/SPFOS, OMS, LOMS, LMS (I am not too sure about LMS, maybe someone can tell me)

I will talk more about scholarships in another post.

2. Financial Aid
For overseas universities, financial aid is often available only for their local students. However, very few universities practise a need-blind policy for international students. DONT GO THINKING THAT "NEED BLIND" MEANS NEED BLIND FOR SG STUDENTS. There are only 7 US colleges that are need-blind all applicants, including international students, as follows:
a) Dartmouth
b) Harvard
c) Yale
d) Princeton
e) MIT
f) Amherst
g) Williams

Reason why they are need blind for internationals too is because they have a very HUGE endowment fund. This means that yes, if you get in these universities you wont have to pay beyond your means.

Q: What does "need-blind" mean?
A: It means that your admission chances are not affected by you saying you need more $$ than someone else who doesnt need so much $$.

Q: How about non-need blind universities?
A: When you apply for financial aid, your chances go down by a lot. This is because they have a limited amount of $ that they can give to international students, with so many students fighting for that aid. The more $$ you need, the more your chances hit the ground. This is because if one student needs x amount, and you need 3x amount of that money, you better be 3 times better than the other student to be worth the $$ because I can use that same amount to get 3 other good students.

3. Loans
Loans here refer to study loans, not the loans from your relative or something. Assuming you have $0 to fund your university education, most bank loans provide nowhere near what you will need. Plus, most bank loans are catered for those who need $$ to study locally. Try some overseas banks if you want, e.g. citibank:

"Highest available loan amount You can borrow up to 6 times of your monthly gross income or up to S$150,000, whichever is lower. (Up to 8 times may be allowed for overseas study, only for standard repayment plan)

Up to 3 applicants Obtain your desired loan amount either as an individual applicant or with up to 3 applicants. You or your immediate family members may apply along with relatives & friends. No guarantors "

http://www.citibank.com.sg/SGGCB/APPS/portal/loadPage.do?tabId=loans&path=/prod/det/cfl_eduloan.htm

However, if you really need to take loans, I think it would be very prudent to consider:
a) Is the extra $$ for an overseas education really worth it? After all, NUS is a very good university too and a lot cheaper.
b) Are you prepared to pay $ in instalments when you start working? How much / month and how long will you need to be in debt?

Q: Can I use my parents' CPF to pay?
A: Yes for local universities, no for overseas. This falls under the Education Scheme in CPF.
"The scheme covers all approved full-time subsidised undergraduate courses leading to a degree at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU); and approved full-time diploma courses at LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts (LAS), Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), Republic Polytechnic (RP), Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Temasek Polytechnic (TP)."

This is from the CPF website: http://www.cpf.gov.sg

4. Father and Mother scholarship. Self explanatory.