I was surfing around when I stumbled upon the following.

http://info.channelnewsasia.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=32558&start=0

http://info.channelnewsasia.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=36371&start=0

(sorry ah i lazy to set up the link. But its just drag, Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Enter.)

Its very lengthy; merely reading a few pages is enough to make me giddy, so I havent read everything yet. Because this forum is unmoderated, seemingly harmless questions have erupted into fierce arguments over whether NUS is a prestigious university or a third-rate one.

I do not have an answer to that, but I find it very amusing to read comments like "In fact in top 5 JCs, the mentality is such that we should go abroad and go to NUS only if there is really no other choice."

I'm not sure about the other "top" jcs, but from my own experiences my friends and I definitely do not see NUS as a "refuge" or "dumping ground" for Ivy-League and Oxbridge rejects. For me, no doubt an education in an overseas university sounds attractive, but that is only because studying overseas comes with the additional benefit of expanding my view of the world (till this day the only foreign country I have ever went to is Malaysia *sob*), and not because I think NUS is third-rate.

Not sure how those xJC (where x=R) and yCI (where y=H) people think though.

One point that I do take note of is the fact that NUS has not produced any Nobel Prize winners up till today, despite having a high rank amongst the world's best universities, and having state-of-the-art equipment and top professors. While I do know that I should not use this point to argue that NUS is a third-rate university, I do have to question if there is any problem with NUS' method of teaching. I have not been there yet, I cannot say anything.

But one thing for sure I do not want to go to a place where its all exams and tests and books and notes again.

Just a little opinion.