Why National University of Singapore’s Overseas Colleges (NOC) Is The Ticket For An Under-performer To Stop Sucking
#NOCStories

Let’s be real, I have never been the best in my academics, even though I try f-ing hard.

With these kinds of results, I naturally wasn’t going to make it for National University of Singapore’s Business School. That was a school for people who got straight As in 4 Level H2s subjects. I thought to myself, “but! that’s the only thing I’m interested in studying because it made the most logical, practical sense. FML.”

Miraculously, I got admitted through the discretionary admissions that have been reserved for 5–10% of each cohort. I made it to one of Asia’s top business schools with less than stellar results through a case interview.

The first semester of school at NUS started. It was a breeze. I was wondering to myself half the time if the school content was hella easy, why did they make it so hard for students to get in? So I decided to load up my plate with once-a-week work at an office job in addition to 4-days-a-week school.

And then, results for the first semester came out. I got my answer why only top students were admitted. Sure, the content is hella easy but my results were hella sucky because there was this thing called a bell curve. I should have known who my competition was. My peers were top kicks from top Junior Colleges, like Hwa Chong, Raffles, National, and here I was, a bugger from Temasek JC (not that it’s not good, but it’s not the best), and my results hardly made it for the Business School. If I got a 8.5/10 for my test, heck it sounds good, but 99% of my peers got a 9.5/10, I naturally will get a C or D. That’s basically what happened. A Cumulative Average Point of 2.60 / 5.00 is f-ing dismal.

From then, every single semester was a battle hard fought to get full marks for everything. I knew nothing less would matter in this vicious competitive bell curve.

I took a leave of absence in my second year of college, essentially the 4th semester of school to recalibrate my life and stop chasing the grades. I wasn’t in a hurry to rush through school to graduate, so a leave of absence had minimal consequences.

This could be the best decision I made in my college life.

Refer to this post on how I got to Silicon Valley to know why it was the best decision.

In essence, when I started deviating from school, I had doors open for me one after another. I have been lucky. I always count my blessings. On hindsight, I didn’t know it would work out this way, and I didn’t know how far I could go with my not-very-impressive grades. But I went anyway.

I applied for NUS’s Overseas Colleges without much considerations and doubts about myself. It was like queueing up for a really good food stall, without knowing if and when it was your turn, the food would have sold out, but I queued anyway. If it was my turn, and there was still food, sure, I’ll take it! With that mentality, I applied.

Of course, I had to arm myself with the best weapons I could gather. Every battle is not fought blindly. I went around asking seniors who had an idea what NOC is, and even better, who are NOC alumni, how best I could position myself to get in, advice on my resume etc, and even personal recommendations.

NOC is the only thing in NUS that is not grades-oriented. Even your cool, fun exchange programmes are grades-oriented. I was never going to any place cool and fun through exchange. I knew for sure. I thought I could stand a better chance with NOC, after how I managed to ‘build’ a database on Filemaker. Ha. Ha.

There are so many colleges to choose from in NOC. There’s Silicon Valley, New York (when I applied, this was the pioneer batch), Shanghai, Beijing, Israel, Stockholm, and iLead (Singapore). My first choice was New York, followed by Silicon Valley. It’s always fun to go to a brand new thing right? Plus New York was about media and advertising right? At least more applicable in my background in Business / Marketing. And then I got allocated Silicon Valley instead.

Who was I complaining? Silicon Valley College has on its track record, featured the most number of outstanding alumni who came out to start their own successful startups. Of course, back then, I didn’t know. Too ignorant to care anyway. I knew Silicon Valley was super out of my league since I’m not a programmer. But I went anyway.

After having been grilled by staff and alumni from NOC in 3 rounds of interviews, I came to realise that they only accepted 200 out of 800–1000 applicants. I had a success rate of 20–25%. What more, this was just the beginning of interviews. Once you are provisionally accepted into NOC, you have not made it yet. There’s still the next web of interviews with the US startups that you are getting placed with for a year of internship. They aren’t the easiest things, but I had a lot of fun speaking with my interviewers. I was shortlisted by 4 startups to interview with. In the end, one of them settled for me. Yes, they settled for me. They told me that they knew the best have already been taken. But they gave me a chance anyway. I was lucky again.

After all has been said and done, I finally had my air tickets to San Francisco International Airport bought. I am finally going to the USA, for the first time, in my life. I have been wanting to go to the West since forever, and here I was, about to spend one year of my life there.

Coming back to Singapore after a year spent in Silicon Valley, my life as an under-performer in NUS Business School, has drastically changed. I have the best folks in NUS asking me for advice on how to get into NOC, people whom are far better qualified than I am, but asking me how to get in, I was like what? These are scholars, CAP 4.9, dean’s listers, on-track-to-be-Valedictorians folks asking me for my advice. People who hang on to every word I had to say. Who was I to dispense my advice? I felt undeserving, but nonetheless, I knew I was already on the other side of the fence. My opinions mattered. My voice was heard. And I was and still am an under-performer, with less-than-stellar results in Business School. It mattered none at all. I finally stopped sucking in this vicious competitive bell curve.

And then, I got offered a full-time job upon my return to Singapore, even before I started my final semester in Business School. The interview I had was with a US-based advertising tech company, started in Boston, and opened global offices, with one in Singapore managing the Asia-Pacific region. My grades weren’t questioned, my degree wasn’t even mentioned, neither did my past experiences in other jobs. None of that mattered. I had experience working in Silicon Valley. I had been at the forefront of digital advertising. I had experience in using their platform. And I was hired because of that.

This is why NUS Overseas College is the ticket for under-performers to stop sucking. I stopped sucking, I think. I am propped up by the NOC network of alumni who have been successful. I am surrounded by the smartest, most driven people in Singapore who wants to change the world. And somehow, I become associated with being good in what I do. I deserve far less credit, but I’m lumped with the NOC Alumni, I’ve been a part of the Silicon Valley batch 25. Am I still an under-performer? Maybe less of one, thanks to NUS Overseas Colleges.

Disclaimer: NOC is not for people who think they suck but don’t try hard and just want to find an easy way out. I try f-ing hard in what I do. Magic doesn’t happen overnight, hard work makes magic happen.
I was given the chance, and I make sure I don’t disappoint people. I grab hold of every opportunity given, and am always appreciative of giants whom allowed me to stand on their shoulders. I was merely put in a fish tank by NUS when I’m a monkey; I was judged by how fast I can swim when my aptitude lies in climbing. NOC gave me a jungle, and I thrived.

Still interested? Find out more and apply here: http://www.overseas.nus.edu.sg/