Contents:

1. Introduction 
2. Knowing Your Career Options 
3. Understanding Quality of Education 
4. Benefits of The Non-Academic Experience 

Quality of Education 

The quality of education here can be said to be comparable to top-notch universities abroad. The National University of Singapore (NUS) was consistently ranked 30^th by the Times Higher Education-QS World University rankings for 2008 and 2009. Singapore’s economic competitiveness also moved up 2 places to be ranked 3rd, with one of the reasons being the improvement in the quality of university education.  

Furthermore, with the many tie-ins of prestigious universities with Singapore, there are now opportunities to pursue overseas degrees locally. For example, the Duke-NUS graduate medical school, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Also, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SU) is scheduled to open in 2011, with Professor Thomas Magnanti, Institute Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – an Ivy League institution - serving as president. These partnerships with renowned universities and professors have definitely allowed Singapore to be poised for an accelerated improvement in university education in the future. 

Many are also lulled into thinking that Nobel-prizes and similar accolades directly translate to high-quality teaching and excellent lecturers. In reality, there are different considerations. A good researcher may not be a good lecturer, and there are a variety of qualities of lecturers both locally and abroad. 

A major difference between studying overseas and locally would be the flexibility and variety of options. While you would not find a course in nutrition available in local universities, the US has a whole range of universities offering the degree. Also, while NUS, NTU and SMU rarely allow students to change their courses, universities in the US are known to allow such changes even into the junior (third) year.  US universities also emphasize a broad-based curricula through systems offering personalized Double Degrees, Double Majors, and Accelerations. However, the overseas curricula lacks the rigor of the local syllabi, and may be a point of consideration. 

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