Steroetypes vs. Realistics

It's that time of the year again where students who have just completed their SPM examinations and Pre-University courses are looking for the next step. And of course the ever so common question in this time of the day is:

"Eh bro which college/university are you going and what are you gonna do?"

Especially on Facebook, many of them has already started posting up "Sunway or Taylors?" "A-Levels or SAM?" or some even go to the extent of "Pilot or Doctors?". I find all these rather amusing and a little comforting as I too was once in that situation if not still am. The questions that were all over my head early January this year at The Star Education Fair was shit KDU, Limkokwing or Taylors? I was so confused that I even told my dad to flip a coin to see which college faith wanted me to be at.

Anyway to begin with I thought I leave some words of wisdom for those thinking of pursuing their education at Taylor's University College. First and foremost please do not be fooled by such propaganda that wow! Taylor's has an awesome campus, we should so go there! Wrong, cause for this moment of time, The new Taylor's Lakeside campus is only for certain courses ( Hospitality in particular) and in my personal opinion is at least a year away from total completion.

Taylor's has definitely been branded by many as the "Second Seafield" due to the popularity of it amongst Seafieldians and well Subang students in general. Some might say that why do you want to go to a college and see the same friends all over again?we should expand our network! I myself used to think that but somehow throughout this one whole year I still found myself in SS15, with a couple of accidents I might add but still there. You'll soon realise that your high school friends are people you are most comfortable with. And even if you do go there, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to mix around with your old mates, you as a student should take the initiative to "mingle" (quoted by Melvin several times this week) around.

At Taylor's you will get a variety of programme choices such as:

1. South Australian Matriculation (SAM) which is a 50% assignment 50% examination based 9 month course. It is recognised all over Australia, Malaysia and it most UK universities. Nevertheless, do not underestimate the workload you will be getting as you will soon discover dividing your time between assignments and studying is no simple matter and for some odd reason, the requirements for SAM to enter universities seems to be extremely high and unfair. For example: To do Engineering at Monash Malaysia, the minimum requirement is at a Tertiary Enterance Rank (TER) 86%. Unlike college, 5 credits in SPM is satisfactory.
2. Cambridge A-Levels is a 14-18 month programme that is solely based on examinations although there will be the occasional assignments. Now this course is normally undertaken by students who wish to be a doctor, engineer or lawyer and also for those wishing to pursue their degree at the UK as this is probably the most recognised pre-university course there is.
3. International Canadian Pre University (ICPU) is a pre-university based on Canadian style of teaching. It will be delivered by many Canadian lecturers (apparently 80% of the lecturers are Canadian) which is rather good as you will be getting it first hand unlike some other programmes which are awarding foreign certificates but being delivered by local lecturers. In addition to that, you will also have a lot of activities like dress up week and of course, a graduation! This is something the rest of the pre-university courses do not have=)

Of course there are more choices of courses available but if I were to talk about it, then I will never stop, so I shall just leave Taylor's at there.

Moving on to Sunway University College which is a local private university college located just behind our very own Sunway Pyramid. The location of this institution is what makes it so attractive, it is just few minutes away from Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Driving Range, Extreme Park, Summit and housing areas.

Some of the rather famous courses Sunway is known for offering are:

1. Monash University Foundation Year (MUFY) is a direct entry programme to Monash University and also to other top universities in Australia, the entire Group Eight in fact. MUFY is a 9 month course that consist of both art and science stream. Students looking into this programme should have a rough idea on what they would like to do before choosing their stream.
2. Cambridge A-Levels which is the exact replica of what is being offered in Taylor's, I would say the only difference in the two would be campus environment, lecturers, price as well as subjects offered. Unless you aim to apply for Universities like Cambridge and Oxford which requires you to be very particular about subject choices and so on, it doesn't really makes much of a difference
3. Australian Matriculation (AUSMAT) is very similar to the South Australian Matriculation however the only significant difference is that it is offered and marked by the Western Australian board of education. Besides that, students are also allowed mix and match their subjects unlike SAM which is offered in a package. Example: A student would be able to undertake economics and biology together in spite of both being totally different subjects.

Anyway if you think choosing a college and a pre-university course is difficult, think again! The challenge is actually choosing the correct university as lets face it, your employer will not look at what you got for A-Levels am I right?

Now most of us will probably be thinking of what university we should enter half way through our pre-university and in most cases, that is around July- September. Some of the factors we should consider would be:

• The course that we would like to take
• The recognition of the university
• Cost of the course
• Length of the course

Instead most of us nowadays are thinking of:

• The world ranking of the university
• The architecture of the campus
• People's perception when we mention the university's name
• How fast can I get my degree

Sometimes we students tend to forget why we're studying, the purpose of going to schools/colleges/universities is to gain knowledge and as we go up a step, we want to learn a more specific skill or knowledge which is where our degree comes in. However, in today's generation, students automatically want to become the next Bill Gates.

People forget it took Bill Gates quite sometime before he made his first million and he dropped out from the best school in the world, Harvard. His decision to drop out was at that time irrational but it worked out for the better but sometimes I wonder if his success has gotten into other people's head. Students nowadays think oh, if he can do it why can't I?Instead of dropping out, their all looking for the fast track to success, the 2 year degree courses or maybe even 1. If anything, I believe Bill Gates took the harder way out and if you asked him would he advise anybody to the same and drop out of school, I truly believe he say no.

To be frank, what in the world can you learn in such a short period of time?2 years? It is ridiculous, what is the difference if we graduate a couple years later?A degree from 4-5 years I think is simply sufficient and is able to teach us more than enough skills in whatever field we choose to pursue.

The only positive side I can see in graduating early is that you save cost on study materials and cost fees but is that worth giving up knowledge? What is a few thousands now to a few million you can make with the knowledge gained?

I've never really considered myself as an academically bright student but is proud to know some of the smartest people in his generation. Some of his friends are either in or aiming to be in some of the most world reputable universities. I shall not name names as it would be embarrassing and inappropriate but here are some of the universities:

As for me, I'm proud to announce the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technoloy (RMIT) University has offered me a full offer to pursue their Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication) degree at their city campus.

RMIT was one of the main reasons why this year I decided to ditch my family and join my friends at Melbourne instead. I been considering applying for a while now but due to my fickle mind and dad's fickle mind, it took me awhile before I finally came to a decision and when I did, I was more than pleased to find out that I was accepted. RMIT might not have the fantastic architecture like the University of Melbourne or some of the universities above but it certainly meets my academic criteria which is the most important thing. Besides that, it is in the middle of Melbourne city?What more could I want?The city is my campus:)

(The Living Legend apologises and will continue his holiday post at Australia soon enough)