Im hoping to go to NUS next year and trying to decide on my major. I'm stuck between CS and computer engineering. My interests lie ai/ml, robotics/electronics, and quant finance.
My main goal is probs quant but I want to choose the majors that will allow me to do all of those. Also would there be better major options for me.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Hi there, im trying to decide between these double majors. I really love maths (olympaid style) so I'll be doing a math major no matter what. However im struggling between CS or EE. I think CS would be the more standard pathway however I also have this growing interest in robotics so I feel like EE would allow me to pivot to that (correct me if im wrong).
I will me aiming for quant trader positions as apposed to dev roles which is why I don't think a double major with CS is as crucial especially considering I already have years of competitive programming experience but idk rlly.
Just trying to choose the combination which suits quant but allows me to pivot if my goals/interests change.
I want to do the TMUA on the 12th of october which is the first day of the 4 day window, but I am worried if that will disadvatnage me. As the questions on the following days are very similar, and people will tend to find out the kinds of questions.
I am wondering if your TMUA grade is calculated with respect to the other students on that single day you sat, or is it also affected by the other days.
I am an international student and I want to apply for NUS maths or cs.
I study CIE exam board and was reading the page about CIE on NUS website and I just learnt that my subjects had to be within a 12 month period FOR 2 EXAM SESSIONS.
My situation is that in 2025 oct/nov I did A2 physics, AS maths, AS chem, AS english lit. So in this session I already have one final achieved grade for physics. In 2026 may/june session I finished A2 math. In the upcoming oct/nov session I am doing the full further math, full computer science, and finishing A2 chem. So my exams are across 3 exam sessions within 12 months which exceed the 2 states on the website.
So I rlly dont know what to do. I was thinking that I just apply with 2026 may/june and 2026 oct/nov results to satisfy the 2 exam session thing, meaning I only apply with grades in maths, further maths, chem, computer science. This means I have to sacrifice and leave out physics (I feel like this is the best combo of 2 exam sessions). So my question is physics required for maths or cs or engineering at NUS and how disadvantaged I am.
If you can, please give me some advice and suggestions pls
Hey there,
So I am in my last year of highschool. I am on track for 4A* (basically near perfect gpa) so I do have the option to apply for many majors.
Mainly limited my options down to one of or a combo (if avaliable) of maths, cs, acturial science, electrical engineering, commerce, finance, data science.
I'm not certain what kind of career I want to pursue but I am interested in a couple of areas. One is the more technical field including quant finance, analysts, equity research and the other demands more soft skills like investment banking and private equity.
To describe my self a little bit, I am somewhat decent at most things. I am quite academic and have top grades, I have experience in math olympaids and just interested in maths. At the same time I do have decent people skills where I am the co-president of one of my school clubs. I also am a competitive golfer (1.2 handicap) and I feel like that could potentially help in a career like ib and private equity but probs not quant.
I also want to choose a career that is relatively future proof in the sense of not easily automated and growing demand (or just not decreasing demand)
Essentially I want to choose a major/carreer that isn't going to be so automated in the future, I also want to choose something that fits to my strengths (math and golf).
Any advice and suggestions would be much appreciated!.
Hey so basically I am an international student studying CIE international A levels and my case is a bit unique I guess.
My grade profile when I am applying will be achieved A* in maths and achieved A in physics, also predicted A*'s in further maths, chemistry, computer science. The caveat is that I had to resit maths to achieve the A* because my first sitting was 1 mark off A* (I went through the remark process but didn't go up). I was able to do this because I sat maths and physics a year early in year 12, and then I resat the maths in the may/june session of year 13 where I got the A*.
I want to know how disadvantaged am I because I am not the typical gap year resit student. I resat in year 13 and also my first sitting was really close to A* so yeah. I just want some honest feedback on how disadvantaged I am for my case specifically.
Also I am planning to apply for Cambridge and Imperial for maths so idk at this point
Hey everyone,
I am a year 13 international student my situation is pretty weird. So at my school the accelerated students in year 11 get to do 2 A level subjects early and then their remaining subjects following the normal year 11 cirriculum at my school.
So in year 11, I did AS maths and AS physics where I got A,A respectively and then in my remaining subjects I did chem, english, bio where I got B+,A+,B respectively. The grading system is kinda weird but yeah my guess is that would translate to a 7,9,6?
Also I see online that in the UK for GCSE's u guys seem to take like a hell of a lot of subjects where at my school the maximum was 5 and in my case I only did 3 year 11 subjects because I did 2 a level subjects early.
So because of my weird year 11 grades I am wondering if either Cambridge or Oxford is more leniant with these. I heard that Cambirdge seems to care less about GCSE's than oxford but not sure.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Hey there,
I am in my last year of highschool and I am really thinking deeply about carreeer pathways etc. I would deifnetly say I am a well above average student (for reference and for those familiar with A levels I achieve 4A*). I have also been involved in math olympaids. I'm not at the level of going to the IMO but I have done pretty well at the national level (top 30 for reference). So that brings me onto to my question, how significant is the element of being "naturally gifted" in the quant space, and I am more so talking about the quant researcher/trader side (less of the developer side).
Hypothetically speaking if I was born like 5-10 years earlier, based on the current significance of AI, I believe I would be a competitive candidate (ofc with a lot of hardwork etc). I am just worried that in the future with all this AI development, the already very compeitive roles for quant researcher/traders will become much more difficult to obtain, so hence my question of being "gifted" as a necessity or not.
Even without all this AI threat, how realistic is it to even become a quant given they havent shown any natural ability.
I am aware that I may be completely wrong as I am only in highschool about to start college. I would appreciate any brutal honesty and just straight up facts for my concern.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to ask about something thats bothering me. Basically I am going to apply for top schools like Cambridge and Imperial and I am an international student so I do the CIE exam board. From what I have seen, it looks like the A levels in the UK are done in one sitting in year 13. However for CIE it is split in AS and A2 with AS in year 12 and A2 in year 13.
My case is a bit different because my school offered this accelerated A level thing so I did AS maths and physics in year 11. Then I did A2 maths, A2 physics and also AS chem in year 12. This year I am year 13 and I am doing AS+A2 further maths, AS+A2 computer science, and A2 chem. This means it took me 3 years to do my a levels.
My question is whether there is some kind of rule or requirement of the timeframe I should be doing my a levels because in the UK it seems that its usually done in one sitting.
If anyone could provide me with some insight or advice that would be much appreciated!
Hey there,
I had to resit my math because I was 1 mark off an A*. I know that Oxford and Cambridge negatively view on resits quite a bit (im not sure how much, can someone tell me how disadvantaged I would be). I would like to know if either is slightly more leniant/forgiving with resits.
Any info and suggestions would be much appreciated.
Hey everyone, I want to know how badly my resits will affect my application. I am a international student taking CIE a levels. My first combined grade (AS and A2) was 89 PUM being one mark short off an A*. But I decided to resit and I managed to get a high A* (97 PUM). I have seen on Chinese social media that if you resit after finishing A2 then universities like imperial and Oxbridge will reject you and won't accept. I wan't to know how much the resits disadvantage me especially for someone like me who resat after A2, not just AS.
I also am planning to apply for something like computer science
Can anyone tell me how I am suppose to write the exam. Is it true that you can only do your working downwards and like if you get down to the bottom of the page, you cant do your working next to what you just did. I remember being told that from somewhere but i cant rememeber. I swear we always just use like half the page, so can we use the other half