NUS Denies Scholarship to Top Local Talent
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I chanced upon this article on TR Emeriteus.
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The recent flood of reports about discrimination against local-born Singaporeans in our tertiary institutes comes as no surprise to me. Local-born Singaporeans are being discriminated at every level from students, to postdoctoral researchers and even to the teaching staff and faculty. Let me add on to this repertoire of reports and include my own personal experience of how a top local talent was denied scholarship and who was replaced with second-rate foreign students.
Claiming oneself to be a Top Local Talent may be come across as more than arrogant, but I define myself as such in lieu of the sliding standards of the “foreign talent” students in the recent decade. In the 1990s when I was growing up, the foreign students who competed with local Singaporeans deserved the term “foreign talent”. They provided a good challenge to keep us on our toes, and their numbers were limited so that only the good ones made it to Singapore. The same cannot be said for the situation today, in the post-2000s era, where a large proportion of foreign students imported into NUS and NTU are sub-standard and mediocre. It is bad enough that our local universities are being flooded with these sub-standard applicants, but to add salt to the wound, our local universities are complicit in promoting the PAP’s agenda of foreigners first and giving out free scholarships like toilet paper. I am a victim of this scheme.
As a self-proclaimed local talent, I graduated from one of the upper-tier Junior Colleges (but nevertheless a non-elite institution) in Singapore, was valedictorian for my cohort, and scored 7 distinctions in the A-levels if memory serves correctly. My portfolio was competitive enough that I was offered a Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship that only a handful (like a dozen) is offered every year. However, after much contemplation I rejected their offer because my conscience and moral standards would not allow me to serve the PAP government. Instead, I decided to apply for the bond-free NUS scholarship. It should have been non-issue. Despite my impressive portfolio, I was not even offered the “lowest tier” NUS scholarship, which is curious because friends who were just 2 years more senior than me easily got offers despite having a less competitive portfolio. Interestingly, the year when I was admitted to NUS was also around the period when the PAP launched their S-Pass system, opening the gate for entry-level skilled foreign workers into the country, thus competing away entry level jobs from Singaporeans and depressing wages, which is the situation we have today. The timing of this “joint operation” to screw local-born Singaporeans could not have been more coordinated. Midway through my undergraduate studies, I learnt that NUS expanded their scholarship system and now offers 5 scholarships of varying monetary value (as opposed to 2 when I first applied), undoubtedly throwing more free money to more second-rate foreign students.
Thanks for the foreigners-first policy of the FAP (oops I mean PAP), and their collaborators in our tertiary institutions like NUS, which despite all their claims as a private institution are still under the influence from MOE, local talents like myself are being marginalized in lieu of second-rate foreign students. As a marginalized local talent I went on with my education and self-funded using my parent’s CPF loan. Am I just a sore loser complaining? I will list out some of my achievements and let them speak for themselves.
- Graduated with First-Class Honors (CAP 4.8 / 5.0), note that only CAP 4.5 is required to first-class honors classification
- Consecutive Dean’s List placement for every eligible semester
- Completed University Scholars Program (USP) and received all eligible awards inclusive of – USP Honors Roll, USP Senior Honors Roll and President’s Honour Roll (previously Vice-Chancellor’s List)
- NUS Student Achievement Award for Community Service
- Book Prize for Being Top Student in the Department (for Year 2)
What did I get for all this accomplishment? About $25,000 worth of student loans to repay and $25,000 of living expenses spent over the 4 years of my undergraduate studies. Meanwhile, underachieving and second-rate foreign students are having a “free pass” in NUS. Perhaps NUS should come clean and clarify as to the percentage of their foreign students on scholarship who can even match the achievements of non-scholarship Singapore-born students like myself.
As a marginalized local talent, I am so disgusted with NUS that I did not even bother to attend Commencement, as means of personal protest against the institution. If I had any regrets in life, deciding to study at NUS is probably on the top of that list. To all young promising Singaporeans out there, I would cross out our local universities if I were you.
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Top Local Talent
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It is obvious that the writer was a victim of a very vindictive government. He was probably headhunted and given the PSC scholarship based on his excellent academic results. His rejection of the scholarship was considered a snub by the authorities. He was punished when his application for bond-free NUS scholarship was rejected. In short, he was fixed.
PS: There are probably more horror stories of such victimization. It remains only to be revealed.
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we are probably the only country in the world where locals are marginalised
hahaha
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it is possible tt nus denied him the scholar ship cause he rejected the psc one
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this part:
" As a self-proclaimed local talent, I graduated from one of the upper-tier Junior Colleges (but nevertheless a non-elite institution) in Singapore, was valedictorian for my cohort, and scored 7 distinctions in the A-levels if memory serves correctly."
sounds fishy
if he is such a talent, he can't even bloody remember one of the most important results of his academic career??
maybe that's why they didn't want him?
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Originally posted by motoway:
it is possible tt nus denied him the scholar ship cause he rejected the psc one
This is a scary conclusion isn't it?
Merely rejecting a scholarship will also incur the wrath of our 'omnipotent' government? I thought only bond-breakers are blacklisted?
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Originally posted by the Bear:
this part:
" As a self-proclaimed local talent, I graduated from one of the upper-tier Junior Colleges (but nevertheless a non-elite institution) in Singapore, was valedictorian for my cohort, and scored 7 distinctions in the A-levels if memory serves correctly."
sounds fishy
if he is such a talent, he can't even bloody remember one of the most important results of his academic career??
maybe that's why they didn't want him?
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Originally posted by PhdGuy:
I chanced upon this article on TR Emeriteus.
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However, after much contemplation I rejected their offer because my conscience and moral standards would not allow me to serve the PAP government. Instead, I decided to apply for the bond-free NUS scholarship.
Explains everything. And who in Sg do you think gives a fcuk for others? Every one is too selfish in their stuff. -
Times are bad.
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Originally posted by PhdGuy:
This is a scary conclusion isn't it?
Merely rejecting a scholarship will also incur the wrath of our 'omnipotent' government? I thought only bond-breakers are blacklisted?
scary? indeed, to think that we have such arrogant idiot, self proclaiming "top talent" among Singaporean.
Scholarships are offered by government, commerical organizations and academic institutions such as NUS. Few people want the PSC scholarships if you don't want to be a civil servant, (this is not about serving the PAP), most top scorers won't even apply for it. That is probably why he was offered. Those who don't want to join the industries won't apply for the scholarships offered by commerical and industrial organizations Many would apply for the NUS scholarship which is bond free!!! so the competition is very very keen there. Who says since he is given the PSC scholarship, he would automatically qualified for the NUS scholarship. the competitions are different!!!
they are many local talents there who are waiting for financial support to complete their university education, why should we let the few arrogant idiots to pick and choose while others are deprived of such opportunities?
Blame anybody he wants, he would be in for more trouble for he still doesn't know what hits him.
Lets hope that he wait up someday realizing that if he were "top" then there is no "bottom".
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ehh...? so now can self proclaim top talent le ah???
lai lai, SGF here alot of Top Local Talents also lehx
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what you expect when S'pore run by Lee Kill You...........he's a Hakka........
Hakka is like Jew............they're loyal to no country and no one............
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However, after much contemplation I rejected their offer because my conscience and moral standards would not allow me to serve the PAP government. Instead, I decided to apply for the bond-free NUS scholarship.
This completely explains everything.
what you expect when S'pore run by Lee Kill You...........he's a Hakka........
Harry Lee Kuan Yew is not a hakka.
Harry Lee Kuan Yew is a hakka peranakan baba. If you just say that harry Lee Kuan Yew is a hakka, people will be confused and think that Lee Kuan Yew is a "hakka chinese". This is completely wrong and must be rejected.
Harry Lee Kuan Yew is hakka peranakan baba.
The babas, on the other hand, also known as Straits Chinese, were Chinese more in name than practice.
They were the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants (Hokkiens from the Fujian province) to the straits settlements of Malaya (Penang, Singapore and Malacca).
They assimilated with both the local Malays and the colonising British, whom they especially admired. The babas developed their own culture, cuisine and language - Malay liberally sprinkled with Hokkien.
The sinkeh were the traders, the coolies and the shophouse owners. The babas became the lawyers, the civil servants and the politicians; they attended the local English-language schools run in the tradition of the UK's public schools, and Oxford and Cambridge.
If the sinkeh received an overseas education at all, it was in Nanking or another university in China.
Although the sinkeh dominated Singapore's population, it was the babas who dominated public decision-making.
In effect, a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than China.
It was the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and institutions. Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had baba backgrounds. Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example.
He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents. "Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
For Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political necessity.
He was not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba who looked to England. He followed the conventional career path of a baba and went to London to study law.
And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
His father had given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese, names.
Did Lee run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways?
No. He ran it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have aspired.
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/648273/
If you understand the fact that Harry Lee Kuan Yew is not a chinese but an anglophile hakka peranakan baba, you will have a richer and clearer understanding of Singapore politics, development and history.
Singapore history and politics cannot be properly understood without knowing the fact that Harry Lee Kuan Yew is hakka peranakan baba. I think that is completely true.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 1941:
This completely explains everything.
explain what?
when you apply for PSC scholarship, you should know you would be serving as a civil servant when you graduate, if you graduate. you never read the conditions huhhh??? why apply in the first place??
If you become a civil servant, will you serve the people under the WP constituencies?? or you think you would be serving only the PAP?
From what was disclosed, this guy got no conscience and extremely low moral standard, that is when he needs to call himself "top talent" and put himself on moral high ground.
People who want to demonstrate their superiority are usually feel they are interior.
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As I was speaking to my mom just moments ago over breakfast, as I take a break from all my work, many of these people who complain are nothing more than whiners.
Firstly, they lost out deservedly. For those who claim these foreigners as second-rate, its because the person is 2nd-rate also! Birds of the same flock bunch together. Having been in discussions with the "true talents" at the moment, I found myself benefiting tremendously. Of course I'm no talent myself, but that's not gonna stop me from competing with people who invariably get twice the score I get at every test. I dont mind funding these people's education if I get to learn from them. Period.
Secondly, chances are, if you really have such good results as claimed, and yet you are denied scholarships, I have reasons to believe that the govt has decided that this guy is just a prick. True. There are scholars who are like that, both foreign AND local. But it means that this guy can't even present himself properly at interviews. I know of many people who benefited from scholarship programmes, and also of people who tried to apply to MOE (dumping ground) with a CAP of 4.7 to be a teacher...and were rejected repeatedly. The said people have got character issues.
In short, a post that reeks of a loser.
Anyway what is wrong with working with the government? If I can get myself to MAS, EDB, MOF, GIC, MTI, I would be mighty chuffed.
Oh wait, he can't. That's why. Heck, he can't even remember his A level score.
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TRE seriously needs to do some quality control on their articles
seems like whatever article or anything which bashes the MIW is immediately put up without checking on truth or accuracy, then bandied around as the gospel truth...
this is counter-productive to a vibrant and healthy atmosphere of debate
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I guess that he goes to interview and person asks him....I see that you have straight As for A level.
He goes: Ohhhh...is it??? Ahhhh....but that was too easy.
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Lemme guess what happened....
Scholarship committee member: So.... how would you describe your experience in JC?
Candidate: If memory serves..... I was valedictorian for my cohort, and got 7 A Level distinctions.
Scholarship committee member: 'If memory serves'? So you can't remember your own A Level results? You're not sure whether you topped your cohort? You need to see your own transcript just to recall all that?
Candidate: ........
If I were on that scholarship committee.... I'd show him the door at that point.
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maybe he is under the delusion that he's Chairman Kaga of Iron Chef
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Originally posted by sgdiehard:
scary? indeed, to think that we have such arrogant idiot, self proclaiming "top talent" among Singaporean.
Scholarships are offered by government, commerical organizations and academic institutions such as NUS. Few people want the PSC scholarships if you don't want to be a civil servant, (this is not about serving the PAP), most top scorers won't even apply for it. That is probably why he was offered. Those who don't want to join the industries won't apply for the scholarships offered by commerical and industrial organizations Many would apply for the NUS scholarship which is bond free!!! so the competition is very very keen there. Who says since he is given the PSC scholarship, he would automatically qualified for the NUS scholarship. the competitions are different!!!
they are many local talents there who are waiting for financial support to complete their university education, why should we let the few arrogant idiots to pick and choose while others are deprived of such opportunities?
Blame anybody he wants, he would be in for more trouble for he still doesn't know what hits him.
Lets hope that he wait up someday realizing that if he were "top" then there is no "bottom".
they are many local talents there who are waiting for financial support to complete their university education, why should we let the few arrogant idiots to pick and choose while others are deprived of such opportunities?
you are really sgdiehard!! LOL!! so instead of letting local arrogant idiots pick and choose, we let foreigners come in and pick and choose + get things free... end result is that arrogant or not, singaporeans still lost the chance. I think thats his gist of the article. A comparison b/w locals and foreigners. Not local and local.
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Originally posted by [imdestinyz]:
they are many local talents there who are waiting for financial support to complete their university education, why should we let the few arrogant idiots to pick and choose while others are deprived of such opportunities?
you are really sgdiehard!! LOL!! so instead of letting local arrogant idiots pick and choose, we let foreigners come in and pick and choose + get things free... end result is that arrogant or not, singaporeans still lost the chance. I think thats his gist of the article. A comparison b/w locals and foreigners. Not local and local.
so you want a local shithead in there.. as opposed to a foreigner shithead in there....
good logic...
i'd rather they not put any shitheads in there
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from what i understand and some of the interactions with the high flyers that i've met(probably not as high as some of the ppl you guys have met) things like A level are just small things to them. Its is not that they cant remember but probably too "insignificant" to rmb. It his story is true, not many ppl could really have understand how he felt.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
so you want a local shithead in there.. as opposed to a foreigner shithead in there....
good logic...
i'd rather they not put any shitheads in there
but what is happening is that we are getting foreign shitheads there right? You would rather they not put shitheads in... but the fact is that they are already putting in there. If choosing b/w foreign and local, i wld rather get local shitheads that foreign shitheads and freeloaders.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
so you want a local shithead in there.. as opposed to a foreigner shithead in there....
good logic...
i'd rather they not put any shitheads in there
oh and where did i say i wanted a local shithead in there? -
Originally posted by [imdestinyz]:
but what is happening is that we are getting foreign shitheads there right? You would rather they not put shitheads in... but the fact is that they are already putting in there. If choosing b/w foreign and local, i wld rather get local shitheads that foreign shitheads and freeloaders.
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You just said it.
Anyhow, I enjoy interactions with the smart PRCs and Indians.
So do the smart Singkies.
You learn so much from interacting with global talents and being inward-looking gets you no where.
My point is that, if you can't show that you can match these people, getting a CAP 4.8 makes you an underachiever then.
If he is a consecutive dean-lister (ok, that's good), why is he comparing himself to "foreign 2nd-rate talents"?