Just Asking: Part 5
Becoming Singapore-bound (Studying Abroad)
In the summer of 2016, my family went to India for the first time since we’d moved to the US. This was a trip all of us were looking forward to. On the way there, we had a 12am-6am layover in Singapore’s Changi Airport. I loved the airport, and we spoke about how good it was weeks after the trip.
Fast forward to Spring 2024. I’m a sophomore at UNC at this point, and wanted to study abroad at some point in my college years, and decided junior year first semester would be the best time to do it. Intending to fill some Computer Science and Math major required courses while abroad, I check the pre-approved schools that could transfer credit. The schools that could transfer for Computer Science were the most restrictive: at the time I applied, UNC accepted credit from only 5 universities, four of which were in Europe. The non-European one caught my attention: National University of Singapore (NUS). I had never been east of India (airports don’t count), and wanted to go back to my favorite airport. If the airport was so good, what would lay beyond it? And it was also #2 University in Asia and #5 in the world for Computer Science. In my mind, the decision was made. I would apply to NUS.
I spoke to the study abroad advisor for Asia (they were divided up by continent), and he told me I could apply for a track to study abroad in NUS (computer science, humanities, science, or business), and that the computer science track was the hardest track for the most competitive Asia study abroad UNC offered.
So I applied to the computer science track. I was in an “NUS or bust” mindset, as none of the others appealed to me. I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. I spent quite some time crafting my essays, and crossed my fingers upon submission.
When the results finally came in, I was disappointed to be rejected. I couldn’t see myself going abroad to another place than Singapore. Low-spirited, I added classes to my schedule for the following semester at my university. I was pretty dejected, but made an effort to ask the advisor if there was any other option for me to go to NUS.
He initially said no, but told me that he could check with their program coordinator to see if they had extra spaces for students. We had a long conversation about how host universities (NUS) divide up spots to guest universities (like UNC) to send students over. This learning would only matter to me if I got to go, as I genuinely would not have studied abroad if I couldn’t do so during my junior year fall semester.
There came a point when he began recommending backup universities for me to attend in our meetings and emails, like Mahidol University in Thailand and CUHK in Hong Kong. In every email he sent me about these options, I kept inquiring about NUS. I’m sure he could tell I wanted it badly.
On April 1 (ironic) I got an email from him telling me I’d been accepted to NUS under the science track! Upon my request to my advisor, he’d reached out to NUS’s study abroad office, and they had granted 2 spots in the science track to UNC.
So I was off to Singapore to create an unforgettable experience doing both the “Study” and “Abroad” parts of the Study Abroad program.
Coda
I ended up making a friend from Hong Kong (HKUST, not CUHK) while abroad. He spoke highly of his home university, which led me to assume that CUHK would have been great as well.
On the way to Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport, my Grab cab passed by Mahidol University. Completely not expecting it, I kept looking at it out the window until it was out of sight.
In these moments, I was reminded of potential futures that didn’t come to be. Extremely thankful for the future that became the present.