TaniaLoG

(For non-NUS peeps’ information, SEP stands for Student Exchange Programme.)

I was called by a staff of SoC’s Undergrad Office 2 days ago. She informed me that I’m selected for SEP to Georgia Institute of Technology (Gatech - ranked #8 in Engineering & Technology according to THES-QS; NUS is #11). It wasn’t my first choice though - it was CMU which topped my (and a bunch of other fellow SoCians) list of choices. In fact I didn’t consider applying for Gatech until Ms Toh (the person who interviewed me for this programme) sort of encouraged me to apply for it. She said that though overall the university is not really highly ranked, the Computing College there is very strong, which, after my little research, I found to be true. After taking several days to think over it (esp. whether it’s worthy spending SGD11000+ for), I finally decided to apply. Luckily, yay, I got it!

The official offer (including the offer letter from Gatech + the amount of [financial] award I get, if any) isn’t out yet, though. Hmmm. Hope I’ll get at least some award. SGD11000 (the expected living expenses for 1 semester there) is really quite a big amount of money la (can’t help not to use ‘la’ here..). But I’m rather optimistic about these financial matters nowadays. I feel that those problems will be resolved in time somehow.

Once I get the offer letter, there are still mountains of administrative stuffs I have to go through… seeking permission from MFA (but according to the info I got from a senior, they’re quite likely to give the permission), really planning for my modules, applying for visa (not anytime soon though), and probably taking TOEFL test (again -.-) since Gatech seem to have this rule that all non-natively-English-speaking exchange students should get a minimum TOEFL score of 600. Sadly my TOEFL score is about to expire already since it’s only valid for 2 years. So I probably will have to retake and throw away US$140 to the air.

Another thing is.. oh gosh, my English really sucks now. I mean the accent. Now I have this weird sometimes-Indonesian-sometimes-Singaporean-sometimes-probably-Malaysian-too accent (well you get the idea), which makes me feel like I’m from another planet when speaking to an American/Canadian (and people from other countries too, but since I’m going to US for exchange, I’m mentioning them in greater emphasis). I should work on reducing the alien-like accent before going there.

But but.. aside from these worries, I’m excited too! I’m sure there are lots of new things to see and discover there. Hmm I didn’t realize that I’ve actually been yearning to go to new places this much (after being stuck in the tiny red dot for 1.5 years, and, back in BSD, I can’t really go anywhere when dad’s not around too).

Okay… time to go back to my books now. 明天我有中文二(LAC2201 / Chinese 2)考试! Wish me luck!