Scholarship Season 2007 @ SG

Purchase today’s ST and you’ll get the first part of a section that put people’s best photos and a load of BS about how great indentured servitude is. Nevertheless, it’s still a career path and you should pay attention to it. There’s a nice table on page 14 to help you “compare” scholarships. I’m re-summarizing this based on how “Singaporeanized” you are or want to be.

Disclaimer: All sources of the information comes from ST (so please don’t come after me asking whether it’s accurate – if you want to get a scholarship you probably should start speaking up and test your skills to find the right people to talk to) Medicine is “med” and Dentistry is “den”, ditto for all the short forms. “law no bar” means those pursuing law will not be called to the Bar when serving bond. I’m skipping a lot of details (e.g. Those related to SAF or SPF make sure you shine during OCS la etc.)to provide a clean comparison from my view:

You will end up a Singaporean

Singaporean Citizenship Required

• Bond 6 Years
• PSA – All except med(den,pharma), biomed, biotech, archi and estate. Overseas.
• Bond 4 Years
• PSA – All except med(den,pharma), biomed, biotech, archi and estate. Local.
• Bond 2 Years
• A*Star – International Fellowship for Medical Doctors – biomed. Overseas. Only for good doctors.

Singaporean Citizenship or Permanent Resident Required + expected to take up Singapore Citizenship

• Bond 6 Years
• MOE – Education Merit Scholarship (EMS) – lang, humans, science, math, music and psyc. Overseas (english country).
• MOE – Teaching Scholarship – as EMS plus fine arts, french, german and jap. Overseas (english country).
• MFA – All (law no bar). Overseas (english country).
• MOH – anything health science. Overseas.
• PSC – President’s Scholarship, SAFOS, SPFOS, OMS – All (law no bar). Overseas (english country).
• PSC – L-OMS – All (law no bar). Local with masters.
• PSC – LMS – Medicine. Local (NUS).
• SPF – All except med(den) and archi (law no bar). Overseas (english country)
• MHA – HUS – All except med(den) and archi (law no bar). Overseas (english country).
• Bond 5 Years
• MOE – Education Merit Scholarship (EMS) – lang, humans, science, math, music and psyc. Overseas (non-engilsh country).
• MOE – Teaching Scholarship – as EMS plus fine arts, french, german and jap. Overseas (non-english country).
• MFA – All (law no bar). Overseas (non-english country).
• PSC – President’s Scholarship, SAFOS, SPFOS, OMS – All (law no bar). Overseas (non-english country).
• SPF – All except med(den) and archi (law no bar). Overseas (non-english country)
• MHA – HUS – All except med(den) and archi (law no bar). Overseas (non-english country).
• Bond 4 Years
• MOE – Teaching Scholarship – as EMS plus fine arts, french, german and jap. Local.
• MOH – anything health science. Local.
• PSC – L-OMS – All (law no bar). Local no masters.
• MHA – HUS – All except med(den) and archi (law no bar). Local.

Singaporean Citizenship, Permanent Resident or ASEAN National Required + expected to take up Singapore Citizenship

• Bond 6 Years
• A*Star – National Science Scholarship (BS) – biomed, science or engineering. Overseas.
• A*Star – National Science Scholarship (MBBS-PhD) – med. UK.
• Bond 4 Years
• A*Star – National Science Scholarship (PhD) – biomed, science or engineering. Overseas.
• Bond 3 Years
• A*Star – Graduate Scholarship – biomed, science or engineering. Local + Overseas.

You will end up a Permanent Resident (or Citizen)

Singaporean Citizenship or Permanent Resident Required

• Bond 6 Years
• PUB – Business, science and engineering. Overseas.
• Bond 4 Years
• PUB – Business, science and engineering. Local.

Any Citizenship buy expected to take up Singapore Permanent Residenship

• Bond 5 Years
• IDA – National Infocomm Scholarship – infocomm disciplines. Overseas.
• Bond 4 Years
• IDA – National Infocomm Scholarship – infocomm disciplines. Twinning (Flagship Masters).
• Bond 3 Years
• IDA – National Infocomm Scholarship – infocomm disciplines. Local.

You stay who you are

Any Citizenship (warning – you can be tricked – must enquire)

• Bond 6 Years
• CAAS – All except med(den), archi and law. Overseas.
• GIC – All except med(den) and archi. Overseas.
• MAS – All except med(den) and archi. Overseas.
• SPH – All except med(den/pharma) and archi.Overseas.
• Bond 4 Years
• CAAS – All except med(den), archi and law. Local.
• Keppel – Business, language, engineering. Local.
• MOE – Teaching Award – as EMS. Local.
• MAS – All except med(den) and archi. Local.
• SPH – All except med(den/pharma) and archi. Local.

No Strings Attached!

• NTU – Nanyang Scholarship – anything NTU offers. Local (in NTU).

For the trained eye, you’ll notice loads of missing agencies, but I guess this list by ST is a good enough start. There’s a point to be made here – I think it helps when you think backwards as well, something I didn’t do very well when I had to go through my own trauma 7 years ago. When you think backwards, you’ll start thinking of the year 2015 or something, when you’re done with your bond. Given all the anecdotal evidence of your scholar career path, will you end up where you want to be? Will you end up the person you want to be? Will you end up with the person you want to be with?

With this introduction in mind, you can now proceed to apply: www.scholarschoice.com.sg.