Army and college

I've been away from this site for the past two months as I've begun to do my part for the nation under Chapter 93, which guys (Singaporeans and PRs) from NUS High will inevitably do once they finish their schooling. I'm very lucky to have been able to secure my education standing for the next four years, before I enlisted, but for many of you who are going to enlist, you may not be able to do so.

From what I've experienced in the army (not a lot, 2-3 months?), the training can be both physically and mentally overwhelming at many times, and when you get to go home during the weekends, all you will want to do is just to sleep and play. For those who are intending to apply to universities/take SATs while in the army, it will be difficult to squeeze out time to prepare your numerous essays/do test preparation. Trainings usually last from Mondays to Saturdays (no SAF doesn't fully practice the 5-day work week), leaving you with only Sunday to do whatever you need to do (and you still need to report back to camp on Sunday). The key here is really to just finish at the minimum your SATs before you go into the army--do it once, and do it good. If you can secure a place in university, that would definitely be better. For everything else, it will be a matter of personal effort to squeeze out the time to study and etc.

For some universities, particularly those in the UK (UCL, King's, Imperial, Oxbridge) and the public unis in USA(UC Berkeley, UC San Diago, UCLA, UMich, UIUC, etc.) do not accept deferment of 2 years from uni studies to serve national service (NS). What this means is that unless you have a PSC scholarship, which allows you to disrupt your NS to study, you will not be able to attend that university. As Lay Kuan and Vanessa have explained, for Cambridge there's the TSA and academic interviews which you have to study for in camp to gain entry. One way out of this is to apply for a much later year, say you can straight away apply for a place 2 years in advance (and not for a place in this year's intake). For the other universities, there aren't any academic tests so what you mainly need to produce are your school results and SATs.

Local universities will hold places for all NS serving males, so there's no worry. You can apply anytime in your 1yr10months in NS, though it will be good to have a place first (saves trouble of squeezing time out during NS to fill all the forms). But for medicine, you will have to apply right after your studies end as you are only allowed to compete for a place with students from your cohort (ie. with your friends of the same age from the JCs).

For the girls, it's a lot more straightforward, isn't it? :)

PS. I'll try to write more whenever I can, but NS can be rather consuming.