Getting into Medical School in Singapore

Excerpt from http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/04/09/angry-man-sells-house-to-finance-daughters-medical-studies-overseas/

to_be_honest: April 9, 2013 at 10:21 pm (Quote)

Dear Angry Father, I am not sure if you will read this and if you do, I hope this will help your younger son.

I applaud your courage and love as a father to make such great sacrifices to send your daughter abroad. It is great to hear that your daughter is really passionate about medicine and I hope we have more doctors like her in Singapore.

My advise for your younger son, I am not sure how old he is. The entry for medicine is the hardest in SG and it has been this way even before the FT came. I have 2 classmates in NUS medicine and several others who were not able to get in, studying at UK and Aussie now. This is from what I know and do verify with others. This is the pre-requisite for NUS medicine:

A level grades: 3A and 1 B will not cut it, not sure what is her UAS. It can barely get you into NTU NBS, definitely not Law, Medicine or Aerospace Engine as the COP are usually 4A. I am not sure what is your daughter’s GP and other subjects e.g. higher chinese, PW. The A for chemistry or biology could be H3 also, which is not counted for university at all, read up UAS computation (http://www.nus.edu.sg/oam/apply/local/alevel1/BYA-alevel1.html) Also there are the H1 papers. What your younger son needs is 4 straight As, GP A with 2 H1 merits, minimum. These will grant you the interview.

At the interview, there are 2 ‘requirements’, and i put the ” ” because it’s really.. based on hearsay.

Rafflesian. The interview panel comprises mostly, if not all Raffles graduates. The medical faculty is half filled with Raffles family.

Attachment, did she do any during her JC days? Most, if not all, have done attachment in hospitals and gotten recommendation from doctors before the interview. The attachment is crucial for interview. Again, in RJ, students would have started doing it in their JC days and they get ‘priority’ in Raffles hospital.


 * I’m not rafflesian, this info from my RJ friends.

Besides all these, please read up Brightsparks, it has 300 pages on getting into NUS Med fac and your daughter’s disappointment is (sorry I have to be honest), not as huge as those with 4A 2H1 and still failed, as seen in Brightsparks. Read here: http://forum.brightsparks.com.sg/showthread.php?p=26237

I hope your daughter will be able to do attachment in Australia because Aussie has accepted too many med students and the hospitals do not have enough spaces for students to do attachment. The SG medical students had a protest, not sure if your daughter was involved: Read: http://the****singapore.com/content/spore-medical-students-protesting-sydney


 * even if govt [sic] grant another 500 spaces for Singaporeans, 3A 1B is too far behind in the waiting list.

So now to help your younger son, please prepare him and read up Brightsparks and get him to do attachments, CCAs on top of getting 4A and H1 papers. If all else fails, maybe he can try the EIS scheme. Good luck.