Boarding is during year 5, which is also the year that you have to complete an advanced research project. This made travelling to the labs easier since they (A* STAR/NUS) are located close to school and you have more time to complete it. My time during hostel was also really fulfilling since I had more time with friends, able to go sleep in the middle of school timetable, wake up 15 mins before school start etc. There was also hostel bonding events with people from your cluster and overall, it was really fun. The only hard rule was a curfew of 9pm iirc which was enforced by fingerprint sensor. The area is also really safe with all gates verified through fingerprint and a overall in charge, usually a teacher or PhD student, for each cluster. Food is ehh so don’t expect much. Definitely an experience I would recommend as you get to have many unique moments with friends and learn to be independent, outside of your home environment.

enivi\" post_id=\"2109046\" time=\"1684572330\" user_id=\"40961:

Hi Questions for Students of NUSH or any parent with kids in NUSH..

Do you find it stressful to study in NUSH? My boy has never received Masterclass training or any external enrichment class. In his current pri school, he has performed consistently well, Maths and Sci above 90 all the time and managed to be the Top in Science for his Level.

I am worried that he will not be able to cope in NUSH given that many of his peers probably has some form of training advantage already.

Is it possible to be retained if he cannot pass the year tests/exam? Or how hard is it to do well? Does nush students go tuition or would whatever that is taught in school suffice for the kid to get above average GPA?

Not to mention that we stay in Sengkang, can't imagine the daily journey to & fro nush. Anyone stay in the NE, and how's did your child manage with the long hours, coping w school hw/projects/cca + the longer traveling hours?

Any school bus to NUSH in the morning? How much will it be?

Sorry for the many questions, hope some one can help? 🙏

Student from NUSH class of 2020 here. Just some background about myself, I live around the Woodlands area, took Chemistry + Physics + Honors in Mathematics for my subject combination, and scored below average (more than 50% of the school gets high distinction). I will try my best to give an unbiased view of my experience at NUSH as an average student.

Pros:
1. Plenty of opportunities.
As there is a super small cohort size (around 170), there will be plenty of opportunities available. Every student is almost guaranteed a chance to go for student exchange program. If you excel in a particular subject, you will be offered olympaid training regardless of your other subject grades. Even though my grades were not stellar, I was offered to do an SMU CS course in year 6 even with no CS background as an opportunity for students to experience the university lifestyle.

2. Non-competitive CCAs.
As NUSH does not have sports DSA intake, our CCAs do not focus on competitions and are largely recreational. Students are not forced to go into uniform groups when they do not have any sports/club aptitude. There will be plenty of students first-timing in different CCAs and you are guaranteed your first 3 choices. Students can even change CCAs if they want to try another CCA or take 2 CCAs if they have an interest to do so. I know of a student who was the table tennis champion for primary school, who will participate and train during the table tennis competition period but joins the football CCA during other times. If there is a sufficiently large group of students who are interested in something, they can even propose to start their own CCA.

3. No bell curve
Having no bell curve does not just mean it is easier to score. It also reduces competition between students and encourages students to work together. In other schools, there may be a culture of students selling their notes or refusing to help others in their work. For NUSH, the culture is the complete opposite. During exam periods, there will be groups of students staying in class/school to study. Students will share their notes willingly and teach others if they require help. The top students in olympiads are also approachable and are our consultants if we need help with graded assignments haha. Some students even hold their own informal consultations for friends to ask questions and study together.

4. Easier to build a portfolio
As mentioned previously, a smaller cohort size ensures more opportunities for you. With a compulsory research project in year 5, students are forced to step out of their comfort zone and interact with other professionals in different industries. I had the opportunity to work with a professor at A* STAR and learned more about the research profession. More importantly, I met many like-minded students there, all of them from different schools doing research projects there either for interest or their own portfolio. There are also plenty of student-initiated VIA activities that you can participate in or hold leadership positions if you are interested. I participated in Project Sugar, weekly tutoring at a primary school, and a reading club at a committee center.

5. High-achievers
If you are a high-achiever in this school, there is no limit to where your potential can develop. For olympiad training, they are mainly conducted by alumni award winners. Having this culture where you train your juniors after you have won an award ensures a reliable trainer every year. There are no limits to the number of olympaids you can take so it is only limited by your capability. Just a note, these training may be after school hours so you may need to stay back till 6/7 pm for it. The school participates in many different competitions, not just national/international olympaids, so there are plenty of opportunities for you to excel and accumulate medals for your portfolio. If you do well in subject honors, NUS will also offer you university modules that you can attend and be exempted from when you enter university.

6. Easy to enter a local university
This is more of an opinion than a statement of fact. There are plenty of students from every school entering law/med/cs etc. However, the bar for NUSH students seems really low. There are students from my year entering NUS CS with around 3.5 CAP which is around 65% with 0 CS background or portfolio.

7. Compulsory 1-year hostel stay in year 5.
Honestly, the best year I ever had. I saved 2 hours of traveling time every day and spend way more time with friends. Going out to eat dinner, eating a friend's overcooked rice, watching shows together, playing sports after school hours, investigating who stole from the refrigerator, doing last-minute project work in someone's room, etc. It was definitely the best experience I had at NUSH and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there.

8. Good teachers
From my experience, the teachers at NUSH are excellent. I have never been rejected for asking for a consultation before. Some teachers will also force you to go for remedial lessons if they feel that you need them. I even had a Math teacher who gave us daily practice through google forms, 5 questions (his own questions) a day for every weekday for the whole year which he would go through during class.

Cons:
1. Lesser alumni
Since NUSH has a shorter history and smaller cohort size compared to the likes of RI/HCI, we have a smaller base of alumni to connect with. This may affect the number of internship/job opportunities or even the number of friends in university.

2. Less known in public
When introducing yourself to friends/coursemates/bosses, some of them have never heard of NUSH before. Some may treat the NUSH diploma as a Polytechnique diploma and you may need to explain that the school program is similar to IP/A levels etc. However, for those that know of NUSH, we generally have a good reputation.

3.Non-competitve CCA
Well, there is a con to this too. If you are planning to excel in a team sport, it is unlikely you will achieve any significant result in NUSH. FYI, we lost to Singapore Sports School in football with a scoreline of 29-0. However, we are competitive in the different clubs (robotics & chess, etc).

4. Hard to relate to peers
As most students are either from Polytechnique or took the A levels or IB program, we have our own unique program which is vastly different from the rest of them. Moreover, we cannot reference past year A level/IB scores to gauge our chances into different universities as they are different. From my experience, scholarships are also competing with other NUSH peers which makes competition difficult too.

5. Hard to get tuition
As our syllabus is unique, there will likely be no tuition option available outside unless it is 1-to-1 where you can specify topics. However, from my experience, school materials are more than sufficient and the teachers are always approachable if you need help.

As for transport, there was the school bus option offered but I prefer to travel on my own due to flexibility. During the 1 hour trip between home and school, I will mostly catch up on sleep or talk to friends. I try my best to finish my work in school before I head home since the bed is too much of a temptation at home. Do feel free to let me know if there are any questions.

As a alumni, I would say you are able to get into most courses in NUS with the exception of medicine/dentistry/law with a low cap of 4.0 (more than 50% of the cohort will be above 4.5). This applies to cs too, which is highly competitive. As mentioned above, we do have the advantage of using most of their facilities and completing some university modules if you are selected. University application results are released the same time as A levels so I dont think there is a separate selection, just the option to apply earlier.

Wifi is provided for students. Personally, I feel you do not need a very good laptop for school unless you are in computing then thats another thing.

Those that are invited already probably also have other offers from other schools so it is not confirmed yet.


NUSH provides a somewhat fair starting point for everyone through a written test. Those that do well will then be tested for aptitude through a camp and an interview if necessary.

Even if you are accepted into the waiting list, the probability of you getting in is very high since most people with CO have offers from other schools too.

However, it is true there are many applicants thus success rate is low. Do note that NUSH syllabus is different so it will be hard if you "mug" for this test and do not keep up the hard work in the future. All the best.

singchin\" post_id=\"2065600\" time=\"1651114264\" user_id=\"74444:

Anyone staying in Sembawang, how does your kid travel to NUSH?
My child keen on NUSH but we have great concern on the long travelling distance.

Hi, it will take around 60mins to travel. I live in woodlands and just take mrt to clementi through jurong east and then bus 189. Can use time on train to chit chat with friends or just catch up on sleep.

Usually the side gate will be open in the morning by the security guard so there is no need to have a student card. In the event that the security guard did not open the gate or they are required to report to front gate for the first day of school, then the long walk may be necessary.

Go get the a levels revision books but do them by topics. You can ask the teachers for extra practice if you really need them.

1. Special programmes teaches you more knowledge that may be out of curriculum. Personally, I have only heard of Einstein program (talented primary school children) and Da Vin Ci program (design, engineering and research, for all students). Socrates program may be added after my batch so I am not sure about that one. Subject interest groups usually plan school programmes such as food science for primary school children, open house and weekly activities in school. I am not sure what special programmes there are in primary school so I cannot compare.

2. Both of them are not counted as enrichment module. Da Vin Ci program(SP) is a core module while SIGs are not graded/taught.
3. The only special program I know so far is Da Vin Ci program (2-3 hours/week) and as I mentioned earlier it is compulsory for all students. SIGs are on a sign-up basis and the amount of time you spend is dependent on which SIG and how committed are you. You can just attend general meetings (once per 1-2 month) and decide not to plan for any activities.
4. I have never taken ‘A’ levels so it will be better to ask someone else.
5. We do not have very excellent sports cca, maybe with the exception of track, and as such you are likely to enter the cca of your choice. If representing school for competitions, most of the time each CCA will barely meet the minimum number of people to participate so everyone will get their chance. CCA are 2-4 hours a week.
6. Current year 6s (me) have access to a list of 2019 graduates university and scholarship applications (which our seniors compiled so it does not include results for the whole cohort). The list also contains some data which may not be updated for overseas university (accepted/rejected) so it mainly shows the number of applicants. If you have specific universities that you want to know more about, you can ask later. Will not be sharing the list since it contains personal informations.
7.
2 apply Amherst college
1 apply Brown University
1 apply California Institute of Technology
1 apply Carnegie Mellon University
3 apply Columbia University
1 apply Dartmouth college
2 apply Duke university
2 apply Emory University
2 apply Grinnell college
4 apply Havard University
5 apply MIT
2 apply Pomona College
5 apply Princeton University
7 apply Stanford University
1 apply Swarthmore College
1 confirmed University of Notre Dame
1 apply Williams College
3 apply Yale University
Some people apply but never update to confirm/rejected

French and japanese $100/month. Chinese and malay free. Any languages in MOELC also free. These were for my batch of 2020.