Graduating from NUS
Hi friends,
This week marks a significant milestone in my journey as I proudly graduated from NUS School of Computing, officially earning the title of Master's in Computing (Artificial Intelligence) 😄. The graduation celebration was an absolute blast, made all the more special by the presence of my parents and extended family who came to celebrate with me. During the ceremony, I also reconnected with some course-mates as we cross paths again this time.
During the celebration, we received a lot of heartfelt messages from our Professors and an inspiring speech from Mr. Heng Eng Han, who is the managing director of Defense at Accenture. It was also mind-blowing to find out that the Auditorium I graduated from used to be the place where Mr Lee Kuan Yew held the annual Singapore national rally speech.
The journey studying AI at NUS has been a rollercoaster of challenges, but rewarding in the end :). During this time, I was actually having a full-time job as well, working at Shopee as a Software Engineer. I initially went to Singapore for NUS. But 1 month into the program, I got a job offer at Shopee, and was lucky to be able to convert my degree to part-time. Having said that, I’m here to share my experience during my time at NUS, and why I think it is a great place to study.
Why I think its a great place to study
1. Amazing peers
When I first started the MComp AI program, I admit I felt a bit intimidated. It seemed like everyone in NUS was so much ahead of me, especially in their ability to comprehend math notations in the lectures. In most courses in NUS, you are graded based on a bell curve. So even if you think you are doing well in the course - there’s no guarantee you’ll get a good grade. Understandably, this caused serious competition among peers, which forced you to work harder than everyone else. The saying "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with" quickly became evident during my time there.
But wait, why is this a good thing? Well, the good thing is that most people I encounter here are actually very helpful (maybe the right word is camaraderie). For example, in a class project, Its very hard to find someone who does not deliver the work they are supposed to do. You can also find many “large” telegram groups where people share lecture notes and exchange questions regarding topics in the lectures.
A highlight during my time in the master's program was the diversity of people I encountered. The students that were enrolled in my batch had a very large spectrum of experiences and expertise. On one hand, there were people more than 10 years of job experience. There were also people who had just graduated from Bachelor’s degree. Singapore itself is a very globalised country, so you can find a super wide range of students from all corners of the world studying here.
2. Exceptional professors
I was impressed by the expertise of NUS professors. In fact, I had the privilege of being taught by Professor Xavier Bresson, a renowned figure in the field of graph AI.
Of course, let's talk about the workload. The workload in the MCOMP program varies a lot from course to course. There were some courses which are notoriously, and people usually try to avoid them as much as possible.
3. Very nice environment to learn in
In every course, Professors were very professional - yet understanding. Courses had:
- Clear and well-structured course outlines
- Detailed syllabus that leaves no room for ambiguity
- Clear dates communicated - all dates are predetermined before the course starts.
A lot of things you need to do are also online. You have NUSmods for scheduling courses. There is also the self-serve portal for all of the administrative stuff in the uni (enrolling courses, registering for them, finding grades, etc.), aptly named NUSNET.
I’d like to emphasise that NUS gives you a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. You can always find many interesting seminars/research opportunities announced via email. There is also the NUS Overseas College (NOC) where students can attend overseas programs in cities such as Stanford. Furthermore, while NUS may be more compact than some universities, it's by no means short on facilities and resources.
4. Nice campus :)
💻 + ☕ = Good grades
Speaking of resources, the NUS campus is super duper nice. The study rooms, particularly the Mac Room, are very nice if you want to have a quiet space to study. An added bonus is the Starbucks conveniently located below to keep you caffeinated.
In UTown (University town), there's also the campus canteen which has a very famous Mala stall and a lot of cheap alternatives as well. The campus itself is very green, with trees and plants everywhere. I’m not sure why they are super well-groomed as well. Of course, the entire campus maintains Singapore's reputation for cleanliness.
Summary
In a nutshell, my time at NUS has been a very fun and rewarding journey. I made me more resilient, adaptable, and hardworking. Here's to the future, one that's been significantly shaped by my time at NUS 🎓🌟.