Overseas college advice

[malcontent]

Many expats and locals often consider or even plan for their kids to attend college outside of Singapore. Having just gone through the whole process myself with my two kids, I feel like there are a lot of lessons learned… so many that I don’t even know where to begin.

Let me start with Singapore A-levels. These are not as well regarded as everyone thinks. Yes, UK universities do give you an A+ if you get an A in Singapore, but don’t assume that your B will be seen as equivalent to their A (even though it might very well be, in reality). Outside of the UK, it’s worse. Most schools do not (I repeat, do not) read your Singapore results more favorably because of the greater difficulty here. Your hard won A here will be worth no more than the easy A earned elsewhere. Also, despite spending two years in JC, you will be lucky to get 1 year of college credit for your efforts. My daughter got exactly 1 year. Being in the Joint Integrated Programme (JIP) has no international recognition, and at best will be just another generic academic award on your application.

One thing I wish I’d known is that IP students do indeed get a secondary graduation cert after completing secondary 4. With that, my daughter could have gone straight to college in the U.S. and earned easy As with 2 years of credit instead of suffering through JC and only getting 1 year of credit. She would have ended up in the same place, but 1.5 years ahead of where she is today. I have a nephew who completed secondary 4 last December and is now on this path.

I’ll just kick off the thread with this and see if it generates any interest. I also have experience with my son who attended International School in Singapore and another nephew who went the IB path — both are now in or accepted at overseas universities — so I’ve seen a lot of different variations and how it plays out. There are also a few interesting tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way. Feel free to respond if anyone is in the same boat and has questions.

[NYY1]

Another option (from the Singapore system) is to go to a boarding school (Year 11-12) before finishing IP4. You'll be able to enroll in a university on the Western calendar a year earlier.

Timelines aside, it partly depends on what type of environment you want the child to be in at age 16-18. There's a lot more to the teenage years, learning, and life than just accumulating credits in different places to get to the same end point (not saying that doing so is wrong). On the other hand, by the time you are 25-30, it probably doesn't matter much either way.

In general, people have mistaken what the pre-university education is (the absolute level, how it will be valued, and what credit it will earn) in relation to what others elsewhere do that is roughly equivalent. If you look at the most selective universities, the credentials of most of those coming in are more or less the same (some US kids may have even more credits, although not all universities will accept all of them).

Anyways, I'd strongly suggest doing some research about what's going on when the child is in Year/Grade 7-8. While it can still work out, the days of just applying with results at the end of Year 12 are long gone. For some, doing all of this will just create more stress on the kid (admission outcome being weighted/valued above everything else). At the other end of the spectrum, many find themselves in a bind at the end and only so much can be done at that point.

If you look at a wide range of admission outcomes, there will be people that put a ton into it and still don't get what they aspired for. At the same time, there will be others that didn't do as much (planning, prep, etc) and still got what was targeted. How much to focus, fight, etc will depend on each child and family - unlikely there is a universal playbook to follow here.

[malcontent]

It is very true that what’s right for one kid may not be right for another.

While JC was a waste of time for my daughter from a university application standpoint, she benefited in terms of maturity and discipline. The only downside is her language continued to suffer by prolonging her stay in the local system, and she continues to suffer for it now to varying degrees.

In contrast, my son has skipped the last two years of high school and gone straight to community college at age 16. After he transfers, he will be on track to graduate at age 19. This seems to be working well for him, but may not have worked as well for my daughter. And don’t get me wrong, we are in no hurry, everything just sort of worked out this way.

[Wd40]

Thanks for sharing, Mal! I guessed as much. Hence when my daughter was denied admission to P1 in phase 3 as a foreigner, we didn't bother to go through the AEIS exam and the strenuous SG education system.