For people interested in a career in science and engineering, these are the two scholarships they are most likely to apply for. Chances are, if you can get one, you can get the other. It was a tough choice, really, since they both looked so good and offered exciting career paths.
For me, what really tipped the balance in my favor was the fact that A*STAR scholars are encouraged to do a PhD. I decided that since I really wanted to do a PhD, I might as well choose A*STAR. I liked the way they structured the PhD programme for their scholars. Counting from the time you sign the contract to the time you finish serving your bond, its 3 years for undergraduate degree + 1 year research attachment at an A*STAR institute + 5 years PhD + 2 years working at an A*STAR research institute + 3 years where you can choose from 4 career tracks. Quoting a piece of advice someone gave me at a (non-A*STAR) scholarship fair: "If you don't do a PhD straight after your bachelor's degree, you may not do it after you start working and get promoted". (Disclaimer: I didn't say it, nor do I think that applies to everyone.)
The choice to choose between 4 career paths two years into the 5-year-bond after my PhD was also attractive. There are four tracks to choose from: Research, Academic, Management, and Industry. So even if I decided I didn’t want to do research anymore then, I could still have a position where I could do something useful. By then, my thoughts on my career progression should be pretty set.
While I was on attachment at A*STAR. I decided I could see myself working there in the future. The strength in the biological sciences was also a factor - what if I wanted to crossover to bio next time? Even for bio haters, don't rule this out. Quite a lot of people start out in physics and ended up in bio at the postgraduate level - I know at least one such person personally.
In DSTA, its not so clear cut about whether their scholars end up getting a PhD or not. That said, I think DSTA is an awesome place to go if you’re not completely sure if you want to do a PhD, but like science and engineering! And they do really cool stuff too. You can always graduate and work first before deciding if you want to stick to DSTA or go do a PhD.
Showing posts with label dsta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dsta. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
DSTA Undergraduate Scholarship
If you are nominated to apply for the DSTA Scholarship early, you must submit your application before the mid-December early cycle deadline in 2009. Once you’ve filled up the form on the Brightsparks Portal, which I've wrote about extensively in earlier posts, you should mail to the scholarship office all your transcripts, certificates, etc.
If you applied early, you will be called for interviews around early January. If you submit after the early cycle closing dateline, even on 01 January 2010, you will be called in March as you are considered a regular deadline applicant. DSTA gives around 50-70 people per year, depending on the quality of applicants and yield rate (% of successful applicants who accept the scholarship). About 75% of scholars do electrical and electronic engineering; the other 25% study the sciences and other fields of engineering. If you want to do Physics, you will be called to DSO to work, that much I can say. As you can see, DSTA is heavy on the physical sciences, so that's where many of the Math, Physics, and Chemistry people apply to.
There are three rounds of selection, all conducted at the headquarters. Dress like you are going to work but don't overdo it. Guys try to get of of army uniform if possible and change but I guess they will understand if you can't book out in time.
First round is with some department heads who will give some general questions about yourself – you’ve seen it all before. Read the DSTA Horizons publication if you can get hold if it; its a journal on what DSTA has achieved in technology. You need to take some sort of personality and motivating test there, it's a very long set of questions about what motivates you. Just answer honestly, as in, honestly, since psychometric tests tend to repeat questions to make sure unscrupulous candidates are not faking their personality. Can't remember if you need to write an essay; it was required for the JC Scholarship, topics will be a bit like filling up the scholarship application form, along the lines of what you want to be a defence scientist. You've seen it all before also. If you want examples of how you could possible write your essay, go read the DSTA scholars featured in the annual Brightsparks magazine. If you’ve applied for the scholarship for, even the Junior College one, the scholarship officers will have to reset your account for you to repeat the test.
Second round – the assessment center, is the interesting and stressful one. The assessment center will last at least half a day. Basically, they put you in a mock situation where you are an employee of DSTA. You’ll be put into some scenarios to test how you react and interact with people in real life. I think they give out same few topics every year. Watch your words and behavior, and don’t worry if you can’t finish doing everything you are given; most people find the time very tight. Just do a good job on what you can, answer what you feel is right. Remember to check the DSTA website about what research they are doing, and read up about the organizational culture in DSTA if possible, weeks ahead and the night before. That’s all I’m going to say.
Third round. By the time you’ve got here, you’ll get to fill in the G50 form. It’s a form for people going into government service. You'll need two referees for them to contact to check your background. Don’t get complacent though, you still get some people kicked out in the third round. The Chief Defence Scientist was the person who chaired my interview, but I think you might get any one of the board members. You'll get some questions based on what you wrote in your application form, and might be asked to talk a bit about yourself and your goals for your future. You get time to ask him about one question.
What else can I say? I think the selection process can be quite stressful, but not as stressful as the PSC interviews, from what I can tell. Oh, and they offer food to candidates while waiting for your turn with ther interviewer, though no one seemed to be eating - all too stressed perhaps? And demonstrate you know when it is appropriate to keep secrets. Defence Science and Technology Agency, see? No use having some wonderful strategy if the enemy knows all about it.
Once the interviews start, expect the next ones to come very soon, like within two weeks of each other, or faster. When the final interview concludes, the notification of success comes quickly. If you didn’t hear back from them after three weeks or more – sorry, you probably didn’t get it. They will eventually mail you a letter informing you of your status, regardless of the outcome. Its the same as with the universities, a small, thin envelope for rejects and a large one for admits.
If you want to do a Ph.D, you must apply again for a Ph.D award, or apply for a graduate school and ask DSTA to put your bond on hold until you return to serve when you have your Ph.D. Whether you get to do a Ph.D. will also depend on whether the department you are working in wants a Ph.D holder or not - check with DSTA on the minutes of this one.
Once you get the scholarship, you only have a couple of weeks to think through what you really want for the next ten years of your life, before you are obliged to sign the contract. Sponsorship for studies is for four years. Most scholars take 3 years to do their Bachelor's and 1 to do their Masters. Attachment during one of your summers included.
If you missed applying during your undergraduate years and went to a local university, you can apply for the DSTA Academic Exchange scholarship to go on an exchange programme overseas. There will be 3 years bond for this. I saw quite a few candidates going for this programme at my interview.
If you applied early, you will be called for interviews around early January. If you submit after the early cycle closing dateline, even on 01 January 2010, you will be called in March as you are considered a regular deadline applicant. DSTA gives around 50-70 people per year, depending on the quality of applicants and yield rate (% of successful applicants who accept the scholarship). About 75% of scholars do electrical and electronic engineering; the other 25% study the sciences and other fields of engineering. If you want to do Physics, you will be called to DSO to work, that much I can say. As you can see, DSTA is heavy on the physical sciences, so that's where many of the Math, Physics, and Chemistry people apply to.
There are three rounds of selection, all conducted at the headquarters. Dress like you are going to work but don't overdo it. Guys try to get of of army uniform if possible and change but I guess they will understand if you can't book out in time.
First round is with some department heads who will give some general questions about yourself – you’ve seen it all before. Read the DSTA Horizons publication if you can get hold if it; its a journal on what DSTA has achieved in technology. You need to take some sort of personality and motivating test there, it's a very long set of questions about what motivates you. Just answer honestly, as in, honestly, since psychometric tests tend to repeat questions to make sure unscrupulous candidates are not faking their personality. Can't remember if you need to write an essay; it was required for the JC Scholarship, topics will be a bit like filling up the scholarship application form, along the lines of what you want to be a defence scientist. You've seen it all before also. If you want examples of how you could possible write your essay, go read the DSTA scholars featured in the annual Brightsparks magazine. If you’ve applied for the scholarship for, even the Junior College one, the scholarship officers will have to reset your account for you to repeat the test.
Second round – the assessment center, is the interesting and stressful one. The assessment center will last at least half a day. Basically, they put you in a mock situation where you are an employee of DSTA. You’ll be put into some scenarios to test how you react and interact with people in real life. I think they give out same few topics every year. Watch your words and behavior, and don’t worry if you can’t finish doing everything you are given; most people find the time very tight. Just do a good job on what you can, answer what you feel is right. Remember to check the DSTA website about what research they are doing, and read up about the organizational culture in DSTA if possible, weeks ahead and the night before. That’s all I’m going to say.
Third round. By the time you’ve got here, you’ll get to fill in the G50 form. It’s a form for people going into government service. You'll need two referees for them to contact to check your background. Don’t get complacent though, you still get some people kicked out in the third round. The Chief Defence Scientist was the person who chaired my interview, but I think you might get any one of the board members. You'll get some questions based on what you wrote in your application form, and might be asked to talk a bit about yourself and your goals for your future. You get time to ask him about one question.
What else can I say? I think the selection process can be quite stressful, but not as stressful as the PSC interviews, from what I can tell. Oh, and they offer food to candidates while waiting for your turn with ther interviewer, though no one seemed to be eating - all too stressed perhaps? And demonstrate you know when it is appropriate to keep secrets. Defence Science and Technology Agency, see? No use having some wonderful strategy if the enemy knows all about it.
Once the interviews start, expect the next ones to come very soon, like within two weeks of each other, or faster. When the final interview concludes, the notification of success comes quickly. If you didn’t hear back from them after three weeks or more – sorry, you probably didn’t get it. They will eventually mail you a letter informing you of your status, regardless of the outcome. Its the same as with the universities, a small, thin envelope for rejects and a large one for admits.
If you want to do a Ph.D, you must apply again for a Ph.D award, or apply for a graduate school and ask DSTA to put your bond on hold until you return to serve when you have your Ph.D. Whether you get to do a Ph.D. will also depend on whether the department you are working in wants a Ph.D holder or not - check with DSTA on the minutes of this one.
Once you get the scholarship, you only have a couple of weeks to think through what you really want for the next ten years of your life, before you are obliged to sign the contract. Sponsorship for studies is for four years. Most scholars take 3 years to do their Bachelor's and 1 to do their Masters. Attachment during one of your summers included.
If you missed applying during your undergraduate years and went to a local university, you can apply for the DSTA Academic Exchange scholarship to go on an exchange programme overseas. There will be 3 years bond for this. I saw quite a few candidates going for this programme at my interview.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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.
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)
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:
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