More writers needed?

I’m been thinking that there are some issues which would be good to have someone to write about, but I’m not qualified to comment since I never went through them. To my knowledge, there are few, if any Collegetalk writers who are able to write about the following issues from their own experience.

1. Applying for medicine to the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Australia, and the UK. What should you do to increase your chances of getting into medical school? What’s the interview like? The tests? No alumni writer for Collegetalk seems to have applied for Medicine yet, and most of the information on the medical admissions process is catered to A level graduates. Did you have to fly to the respective overseas universities to go for the interview, or were the interviews held in Singapore? Would there be a disadvantage for you if you didn’t do biology in high school but wanted to do medicine, both in terms of chances of admission and prior knowledge once admitted? Seeing how popular medicine is as a career choice for NUSH students, it’ll be great if someone could write about this. And also, what about doing medicine in Hong Kong? HK has some great universities offering medicine as well.

2. How do you secure internship placements at hospitals? Which hospitals tend to take in a lot of interns? Whats the minimum time commitment for interns? Is two weeks or one month the minimum? Would you be allowed to intern on a part time basis if you are still in school? Is there a certain minimum age you must be to be accepted by a hospital? Maybe you should be at least 15, perhaps? What do you do as an intern there? Filling papers, preparing equipment, research, job-shadiwing other things??? Learning points? I heard it’s very hard to get into medical school if you’ve never done an internship at a hospital/ clinic – how true is this stereotype? Personally, unless I'm absolutely outstanding, I won't apply for NUS medicine without doing some form of hospital internship.

3. Applying to countries other than Singapore, the US, or UK. I’m talking about places such as Australia, China, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. So far it seems most Collegetalk writers only applied for colleges in the first three countries mentioned. Even if they applied outside of those three countries, they did not take up their place there. How did the application process go, especially if the form had to be filled up in a foreign language? What were the problems faced and how were they tackled? And questions for someone who did go there to study: If you had to learn a whole new language to study in say, France; what were the problems you faced? Was it challenging to catch up with your peers due to the language barrier? Maybe someone can write about their experience applying to, say, Y school in Germany, as an NUS High School student. What are the pitfalls and how to avoid them?

4. The problems or advantages with applying to a school during NS, not during Year 6. Your teachers may have changed already. Would you ask your superior in NS to write a recommendation letter? Would you have problems getting leave from NS to go for scholarship interviews, etc? Is there enough time to do all the application necessities up once you are in NS? Do you have time to mug for the selection tests, etc. How did you cope? Would you have applied for college in High School if you had the chance to redo the application process? Oh, and some scholarships require entrance to SISPEC/ OCS. Advice for the wannabes?

5. I don't know how important this is - but for those who went out of Singapore to study - did you get culture shock? What were the things about the new country and people which surprised you? In what way was the country different from Singapore? Did you have problems adapting? What advice would you give to a Singaporean trying to settle in that country to study?