Junior college scholarships

For those who are about to hit year 5 and onwards (and year 3s, but I'll focus mainly on the year 5s), there's going to be a slew of junior college scholarships and book prizes available. I've attached the summary of the scholarships as a googledoc at the end of this post, so if you want to just go grab a quick look, feel free to skip ahead.

As much as these scholarships connote the usual terms of bond and contracts, there isn't much of a bond to speak of. In some sense, they can be taken as awards given on a general level to students who have done well. As the school has changed their policy of how they shortlist and nominate students for these scholarships, I will write more about the portions of way before the nominations open, after you know you are shortlisted, and what each scholarship looks out for.

But first of all, why take up such a scholarship? Take it as a form of recognition for your efforts in all that you've done in Years 1-4. For me, I applied mainly because I needed a JC scholarship to help pay for the growing cost of a NUS High education ($320 a month is not small). Perhaps many of you are already on scholarships such as EESIS, ESIP, etc., and so do not require the scholarship in terms of the monetary amount.

A natural question that one will proceed to ask is "what will I gain out of getting these scholarships?" Well for some of these scholarships, your name will be logged into their system prior to others, and you will stand some advantages for the undergraduate scholarships (at some stages, even though it may be very subtle). I must stress that the advantage for the undergraduate scholarships should not be THE factor why you will want to work towards these scholarships. I will elaborate subsequently on what advantages you can have. Nevertheless, please please don't treat this as a TROPHY you want to collect.

Common criteria for choosing (those with an asterisk indicates it is also an internal criteria)

• CAP score*
• Teacher nomination*/recommendation
• Co-curricular* (not just CCA, but what you do outside of classes)
• Interest as a person
• Potential undergraduate scholarship awardee (for certain agencies)
• Character (some request for essays and etc)

Scholarship window opens in Jan/Feb, so the school will usually send an email.

Interviews:

1) MOE Pre-University Scholarship

This scholarship's only criteria is that it looks at how well you do. In that sense, I mean people who generally do well in more than one aspect in school, such as leadership and studies. By "well" I don't mean being winner in 10+ competitions, but to have put your heart and gotten some recognition. Being in a math and science school doesn't help, as they want to know your more humanistic side. So your results are not so so important, since it is given you've done well enough to be shortlisted by the school. Be prepared to answer random activities, such as CIP, on your student development transcript, or views on recent headline-grabbing news, e.g. the Budget, and Singapore related issues. The panel isn't out to kill, so it isn't too difficult, so long as you are confident in what you say (it takes practice!) , I think they won't hesitate to give it.

The good thing about this is, there's no "bond".

2) A-Star JC Science Award

This one I think is not so hard on NUS High students, because the key factor (after school selection) is on your passion in the sciences. Well, being in this school gives you some subtle advantage since you will have many interesting experiences of science to speak about. Who else in Singapore besides top schools' science clubs get to build a mini-trebuchet or Galileo thermometer or do research. The interview I had wasn't that difficult, because I could really relate to why I like science. Be prepared to ask which institute of A*Star you know about and want to work for in your month long attachment. Again, this interview isn't out to kill, they give a decent number, like 100+ a year to the whole nation.

It's a good scholarship, because it gives you a one month attachment, yes everyday from 9-5, to A*Star. Some call it bad, but if you want to be a scientist, then real exposure to the A*Star labs can give you a preview. See those Science-Cafe emails the Office of Research sends out? A*Star sends out even more with prominent scientists, including Nobel Laureates, as the speakers.

3) DSTA JC Scholarship

If A*Star is related to biological sciences (or that's what it's perceived in our school), then DSTA is related to physical sciences. They give out only 30 a year, so its quite selective. The interview is also the toughest amongst the three, at least from what I gather. The interviewers can just ask anything, like what did you learn in this HYXXXX module; or whether you are dating anyone (editor's note: i think this was asked once only, out of fun I suppose), just to test your response. So be really prepared to know whatever you submitted very well.

They also have a session before that interview where you have to sit for an online psychology test and a chit-chat session of 5 minutes with their researchers. Not sure if you still have to spend 20 minutes typing an essay into notepad (it happened for my year), but in any case, be prepared.

This scholarship doesn't pay school fees, even though it has its monetary award. Unlike A*Star which has a compulsory research programme, they encourage you to join their YDSP research programme, which is not compulsory, and can be on a longer term.

I don't think I'll post about the others as of now because very very few people will apply/be asked to apply. If you do want to know about the others, drop a comment, and I'll try to answer.

Meanwhile:

Click here for the google doc.