phooey

stupid newspaper

Friday, June 22, 2007

/edited/
i'm so peeved off by the article on the front page of the newspaper abt poly students entering med sch. i'm NOT annoyed that these pple are given a second chance but i'm annoyed because the bloody newspaper has to bring it up TIME and again (2nd time in less than 5 days!!) I dont see why so much coverage has to be given to this, esp if the chances of this happening is like practically one in a million. What's the point in creating this sense of false hope when they will get disappointed in the end?

i'd appreciate if the bloody newspaper could spare a thought for the 700++ applicants (out of 900+ who managed to get to the interview/essay stage...which reiterates my point abt false hope), who wrecked their brains, slogged their guts thorugh jc life, trying to juggle studies with a whole string of co-curricular activities just to enter the one and only med sch in singapore..which i might add is evidently biased towards a certain junior college. i'm not saying that poly students dont work as hard as jc students. i'm very sure they do. it's just the way the article was written that drives me crazy.

i quote,
"Discretionary admission at the universities was granted with the aim of increasing the diversity of students seeking entry to encourage them to pursue their passions... ...The N U S decided to offer places to students whose results alone would not have gained them a place, but who had remarkable accomplishments in other fields... ...some of these students who might have missed out on the opportunity of a university education if assessed on academic performance alone."

good. very good. but how abt those who have got consistent results, those who have equally outstanding accomplishments (which by the way is rather subjective...and the mentioned poly students werent even national sportsmen or wadever).
ok granted that since they have been entered under the discretionary admission scheme, and only very few can enter in this manner, is there a need to publicise this so much? i'd say this is like donating a few meagre bucks to someone needy and then shouting and proclaiming to the whole world that you are an understanding, versatile, forward looking and an all- encompassing individual.

i think tt the s t r a i t s times could do with little more consideration. esp after there has been so much hype (negative) abt univeristy application (into med sch, in particular) on the forum pages.

there are soo many pple i know who have had their dreams dashed abt becoming a doctor. all the aspirations...just gone like that. and for those who 'can afford it' are practically squeezing every single ounce of wad they have out. who knows what the future holds tmr? this sum of money could ironically have been used elsewhere..like to pay for the medical bills of somebody sick in the family, for example. studying medicine/being a doctor is supposed to help u save lives and not the opposite- 'kill', both literally and figuratively with the exorbitant tuition fees and living expenses as an international student.

i've just been through my version of 'hell' (ok. i'm sure the real hell is much worse that wad i went through) trying to settle uni application overseas. my dad rushed off before his lunch hour just to send me to idp. the deadline for my u n s w offer was today. and up till that point in the time, i thought i wouldnt accept it (though my parents, dad in particularly was esp interested bcos of its proximity to sg) because it was firstly a 6 yr programme and secondly, cos it costs abt S$700,000++..or so i thought..untill my dad alerted me that i had used the wrong conversion rate. it was simply madness, i tell you. this was discovered at abt 11am (after many days of calculations and thought) and i was told i had to rush down to idp to settle the deposit of nearly S$8000 by 1pm. (which is rather weird..cos i thought i could settle it online)
mind you, my dad only had abt 2 hrs of sleep before rushing to work this morning. i feel so terrible and lousy and i know it's my old bloody fault for making such a stupid error. i've caused so much unrest and turmoil...it's not just the $ but the thought abt me being away from home for so long in a strange, foreign country (the worry works both ways-for both me and my parents). AHHS. and when i get home, after my dad made 2 u-turns cos i really couldnt decide whether to take up the offer or not (the issue's not so simple, really. but i shant elaborate), i come across the stupid article on the front page.. gahs. i so feel like swearing. but i shant. argh

webo @ 1:43 PM