Singaporean sells house to finance daughter’s Med studies
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Angry Man sold flat to fund daughter Meds Study Overseas but PAP welcomes FT Doctors?
If NUS reject local talents with good results for their Medical Course then why welcome FT Doctors from ulu Universities and possess questionable capabilities?
No wonder we are loosing our best talents. After spending all their savings to go attend overseas Universities even when their grades are good enough for local U, would they want to come back to suffer discrimination at the workplace because they are not FTs? This is not unlike the NEP discrimination that led to M'sia loosing their best non bumiputra talents.
Angry man sells house to finance daughter’s medical studies overseas
Let me share with you my situation.
My daughter did fairly well in her ‘A’ level. She got 3As and 1B – B for Physics but scored As for the 2 most important subjects for medicine – Biology and Chemistry.
She applied to NUS and was rejected. Not even an interview. She has always wanted to be a doctor her whole life. Her studies in Biology and Chemistry were top-notched. She is very self-discipline and we never have problems telling her to do her homework or reminding her to study since young. When NUS rejected her, she cried day and night.
As parents, how can we see her cry like that? It really breaks our hearts. We then made a family decision and sold our 5-room flat to support her medicine study overseas. We moved back to my parents – imagine, both of us are now in the 50s and we have to live with my parents who are now close to 80s!
My daughter applied to the overseas universities and guess what, she was accepted by a few: Monash University, University of Western Australia, Imperial College. In the end, we chose University of Western Australia because it’s closer to Singapore and it’s also cheaper to study in Australia than in UK. Still, the tuition fee itself cost me at least A$200K+, not counting room and board. All in, it will be A$300K+. I’m glad to see her happily studying medicine in Australia now.
Reading this article (‘Doctor-to-population ratio improved through massive FT recruitment‘) even angers me further. Why are we taking in foreign doctors when we do not even want to give our own Singaporeans a chance? And to think that I’ve served NS, for what? Why is the government not taking care of our own people first??? The fact that my daughter was accepted by some of these good universities shows that she is absolutely qualified to study medicine. Furthermore, she is really passionate about it. Why is the government depriving her, our very own people, that opportunity? To add further insults, I’ve read here that these foreign doctors actually graduated from some of these dubious third world universities?
This is really a big screw up by our government. Instead of investing to train more Singaporeans to become doctors, we are recruiting more foreign doctors. This is totally unacceptable and I might add, a treacherous act by the government!
I’m actually quite apolitical but this incident of NUS rejecting my daughter to study medicine when other good universities are accepting her, has given me a new perspective. The fact that I have to sell away my house and move back with my parents who are close to 80s really hurts me a lot. At their age, I should be taking care of them and yet, they have to shelter my family! I have one more son, because of his sister’s influence, is more inclined to study biology and medicine. I really don’t know what to do if he decides to also study medicine and NUS rejects him too. I have no more houses to sell. The only left would be by then, I can take out my CPF and use it to finance his overseas study.
I really curse this government!
Angry father-------------------------------------------------------Updated : Chilakak shared a similar experience on another forum :It's got nothing to do with grades but the chenghu's manipulation of the types of graduates they want at a particular stage in their "brilliant" master plan. My own relative was a straight A student from PSLE to A Levels, with strong ECA record. Always wanted to become a doctor. Applied to NUS Medicine after A levels. Was asked to consider Engineering instead. NUS refused to give her a place in medicine. Pissed off. Applied to Cambridge and Oxford. Offered a place by both. Went to Cambridge. The father had to sell apartment and finance it.(Editor's note : Something is seriously wrong with the picture when a Singaporean is rejected a place in NUS Med, but successfully offered a place in both Cambridge Med and Oxford Med, resulting in much costly suffering for the Singaporeans involved.) -
shd go imperial college lah
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maybe u need to wear pap shirt n c mp lor.. u curse this govt also no use.. they always been like this, just that their make up much much better than your daughter..
study at australia also good, maybe marry a good citizen there.. then u whole family got chance to go there..
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be a nurse first la. doc and nurse same same, save people.
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this type of article is very one-sided. anyone and everyone can come up with one.
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I'm sorry that the daughter fought hard to pursue something she wanted badly, but couldn't get into NUS.
BUT
Triple A is no biggie seriously. I scored the same score but I hardly consider myself bright. Far from it in fact.
Perhaps it is a great score anyway, but the number of people who get 3As and wish to study medicine far far outweigh the places in Medicine.
I don't see anything wrong with the system. Do you play by the rules only because you expect everything to go your way?
That said she has gone overseas to pursue her wish. I can only wish her well and hope she can make good use of her passion.
P.S: I believe in the power of sincerity and appeal. But it looks like no mention of that was made whatsoever to NUS.
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Mmm... life does not always be on your side even if you have the best grades... Even if u follow the rule, you also have to deal with realities...
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FM, I agree with you totally that NUS must get the brightest and the smartest into their university but still cannot understand why our local is being rejected when they are taking in far greater numbers of foreign students (and fully paid scholarship with no bondage complete with English tution). Perhaps your government feels that their parents can afford to send their kids overseas. Truly, you can be a millionaire if you happened to own a 5 rooms flat in Queenstown or Bishan. On a side note, your indeed bright. I've got only an O level in my pocket :(
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These days a degree is like toilet paper. So many funny degrees these days from Universities you have never heard of
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Originally posted by SevenEleven:
FM, I agree with you totally that NUS must get the brightest and the smartest into their university but still cannot understand why our local is being rejected when they are taking in far greater numbers of foreign students (and fully paid scholarship with no bondage complete with English tution). Perhaps your government feels that their parents can afford to send their kids overseas. Truly, you can be a millionaire if you happened to own a 5 rooms flat in Queenstown or Bishan.
On a side note, your indeed bright. I’ve got only an O level in my pocket
Dunno much about the "far greater" number of FT part actually. I'm from a faculty with vast majority of locals.
But many of the FTs I have worked with convinced me that they deserve their place. Smart, driven, focused. If meritocracy is the byword of our country, then many of these FTs have been here on merit and these are really the best of the best.
Stiff competition here is but a mere reflection of the competition we face in the international arena. Would it do us good to shield ourselves from the reality? Nah...I believe even inviting FTs here can do us good by letting us learn more from them.
As for the part on bonds, the scholarships have bonds attached.
The problem is that many of these scholars also have earning potential (and even wealth in many cases) that allows them to actually consider breaking their bonds in search of greener pastures. And why not too, if you them.
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Some fac has a lot of foreigner but strangely arent popular w locals... say engrg... There is a lot of locals actually... It is better to open up, we see the world even as the kids pursue their degree...
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Originally posted by SBS2601D:
Dunno much about the "far greater" number of FT part actually. I'm from a faculty with vast majority of locals.
But many of the FTs I have worked with convinced me that they deserve their place. Smart, driven, focused. If meritocracy is the byword of our country, then many of these FTs have been here on merit and these are really the best of the best.
Stiff competition here is but a mere reflection of the competition we face in the international arena. Would it do us good to shield ourselves from the reality? Nah...I believe even inviting FTs here can do us good by letting us learn more from them.
As for the part on bonds, the scholarships have bonds attached.
The problem is that many of these scholars also have earning potential (and even wealth in many cases) that allows them to actually consider breaking their bonds in search of greener pastures. And why not too, if you them.
no, i am not xenophobic, i welcome FTs and FW. in fact i have them too. But it's the education part, we giving them scholarships and they waving goodbye for the greener pasture after graduating. It's the policies that i'm not fine with. We opened that door without guarding therefore we are to be blamed for unwelcome guest too. -
Originally posted by mario tan:
be a nurse first la. doc and nurse same same, save people.
Do you think ppl study to be doctors to save lives? More likely aspire to be like Dr Susan Lim...earn more $$$ by serving rich foreigners. Each time I go TTSH I am attended to by a FT doctor. Seems the situation here is: local doctors serve rich foreigners. Foreign doctors serve local patients...Dono who to blame also.. -
The problem is likely their investment / donor contribution is for long term infrastructure development rather than to benefit the needy student. Anyway for medical profession, do not go into the medical work performing abortion...:p
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Originally posted by SBS2601D:
I'm sorry that the daughter fought hard to pursue something she wanted badly, but couldn't get into NUS.
BUT
Triple A is no biggie seriously. I scored the same score but I hardly consider myself bright. Far from it in fact.
Perhaps it is a great score anyway, but the number of people who get 3As and wish to study medicine far far outweigh the places in Medicine.
I don't see anything wrong with the system. Do you play by the rules only because you expect everything to go your way?
That said she has gone overseas to pursue her wish. I can only wish her well and hope she can make good use of her passion.
P.S: I believe in the power of sincerity and appeal. But it looks like no mention of that was made whatsoever to NUS.
very true.. 3A1B i dun think she can get into medicine faculty? There are so many ppl with so many As plus special papers etc etc.... even NUS business now is asking for at least 3A..... in my time, ABC can get into Bizad...
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There are ppl who come n go... we cant stop them... But if ur uni dun have a mix of ppl, its not good...
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Aiyah... Dun harp on it... In life, there are many hurdles...
the old Chinese saying... æ¤å¤„ä¸�留人，自有留人处。
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NUS ranked No.2 in Asia, in Times Higher Education list
THE National University of Singapore (NUS) is now ranked No.2 in Asia, according to the first ever Asia University Rankings published by the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine.
The University of Tokyo is No 1, with the University of Hong Kong at No 3 and Peking University fourth.
The new rankings, which based on the same performance indicators and methodology as the established THE World University Rankings, list the top institutions across 15 countries or regions in Asia, included Turkey and the Middle East.
News Watch, The New Paper, Thursday, April 11 2013, Pg 8
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I tell you it's very ironic that it's foreigners who will sit up and take notice of this, but the locals who will lampoon this and say this is bull-sh*t.
It does tell you something about our attitudes?
But is it our fault when our local institutions have in recent years chosen to dedicate more assets to research work and the likes of inviting talents rather than teaching?
No...things are seldom as simple as they look.
Yet as individuals what we set out to do is simpler. To explore. To do the best each of us reckon reasonable.
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Updated : Chilakak shared a similar experience on another forum :It's got nothing to do with grades but the chenghu's manipulation of the types of graduates they want at a particular stage in their "brilliant" master plan. My own relative was a straight A student from PSLE to A Levels, with strong ECA record. Always wanted to become a doctor. Applied to NUS Medicine after A levels. Was asked to consider Engineering instead. NUS refused to give her a place in medicine. Pissed off. Applied to Cambridge and Oxford. Offered a place by both. Went to Cambridge. The father had to sell apartment and finance it.(Editor's note : Something is seriously wrong with the picture when a Singaporean is rejected a place in NUS Med, but successfully offered a place in both Cambridge Med and Oxford Med, resulting in much costly suffering for the Singaporeans involved.)