Review: My first 7 weeks in NTU

Time flies when you are not paying particular attention to it. In a blink of an eye, It has been already 7 weeks since I enrolled into Nanyang Technological University. Although it has been only a short period of time, my time at NTU has been very enriching and an eye-opening experience.

 First off, there was the orientation week. Orientation week is the first week of the first semester. There are no lessons, only orientation programs planned to help the incoming freshmen familiarize themselves with the environment at NTU. I still remember how apprehensive I was on the morning of orientation. My past orientation experience hasn't particularly been the best being a more introverted person in nature but I decided to just go for it mainly because it will be good to meet more people from the same course so we can help each other out in the days to come (Little did I know how true this will be!). In addition, I thought of how much effort the seniors have put in to organize such an activity. It won't be very nice to plan a certain activity only to have very few people show up. So I just went for it :-).


Before I came to NTU, I have always heard rumors about how ulu the place was. It was infamously nicknamed 'Pulau NTU' by many seniors.

I finally got to experience how true it was on my first day school after taking a gruelling 2 hour MRT ride from the east to the west and then having take a bus into campus. The first day of orientation was quite a pleasant one. We got to meet our friendly SPMS buddies which were seniors studying courses from the same faculty as us. We were given a tour of NTU, the venues for our tutorial rooms and the various lecture theatres. NTU is huge and without guidance on the first few days in campus, it is very easy to lose your way.  Fortunately, because I study Mathematics and Economics, it isn't very difficult to travel in between tutorials as HSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences) and SPMS (School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences) are in very close proximity to each other.

Besides the tour around NTU, we were also introduced to STARS planner by our OGLs. In the past, people used to nickname the system 'STARS WARS' for its infamous way of allocating electives based on first come first serve basis. Fortunately, they changed the system to make it a balloting system so students who are unable to select electives early will still get a chance to take up that elective.

Other than the tour and trying out the STARS planner, we also had orientation games which I wasn't a big fan of. It was still quite fun though with laughters all around. I could tell the GLs weren't particularly liking the games as well but they just tried to be more enthusiastic so we can have fun which I am so grateful for :-). Seriously, without the guidance from my OGLs, I would have been so lost for the first few days and I am really thankful for there is the SPMS Buddies scheme which has made my first few days so much easier.

Overall, I was glad I attended O week as I not only familiarized myself with campus, I also made some close friends which I currently hang out with everyday.(Just awesome:p).

Well, after orientation, we had the freshman welcome ceremony where we took an oath in robes which was pretty cool :p. There were selfies all around and excitement in the air. With that, began a new chapter in our lives.

After matriculation, thing started to really pick up. Lectures started...then tutorials...then work started piling up...
 

















And now, here I am in a flash.  So that's all about my first few weeks in NTU and I will be posting more update hopefully in the days to come.