a few people have been asking me: wad's the extra perks of being in usp? and frankly, it's difficult to explain, esp when most pple think tt a scholar is defined as a scholarship holder. it ain't a scholarship so u still pay every single cent of ur sch fees; it's a direct honours prog yet one still has to maintain his/her CAP score to remain in the usp; there r opportunities tt r exclusive to usp students only but tt may not seem like a big deal, not when non-usp students dunno wad they're missing out on.

a non-usp student also has a "wide range of extracurricular and overseas opportunities," and may think tt his education is "interdisciplinary" too if he takes modules outside his major. but with all due respect to non-usp students in nus + no elitism / ill intentions, there is so much more. having jus 12 pple in a 2h-class tt's held twice a wk is very diff frm having over 20 pple in a 1h-class held wkly or a 2h-class held fortnightly. having tt community of pple who r jus as motivated yet w/ diff edu backgrounds makes a diff. to quote from a USP publication titled folio:

"Its unique curriculum and learning environment stretch students' intellectual, leadership and personal capacieties, and foster a vibrant community of scholars that strives to break new ground in interdisciplinary insights and global perspectives.

USP aims to produce graduates who ... distinguish themselves by their rigorous intellectual foundation, spirit of initiative, resourcefulness and innovation, and commitment to make important contributions to society."

four wks on, i wld at least agree w/ the part about stretching students' intellectual capacities. i have lessons twice a wk such tt i think abt my module 'Power, Space and Pleasure' on tue-thu to prep for friday's lesson + fri-mon to prep for tuesday's lesson, so it really stretches ur brain cells w/o killing them, thankfully. i rcvd my 1st draft of my 1st paper written in uni life a few days ago. it was an essay meant to offer us practice in close-reading, so we cld only use evidence frm a passage we identified in a text, which forces u to really read tt passage inside out + outside in + wherever between. jus check out the comic strip n u'd know my rxns to the assignment. =)

i didn't like having to burn midnite oil in writing the essay, i really enjoyed it - i really loved tt challenge of critically thinking abt wad i read + writing a motive tt wld persuade pple [other than my prof] 2 read it + writing the rest of the essay.

i know of scholarship holders who get themselves bonded but end up not enjoying wad they got themselves into, so i jus wanna thank God for enjoyin wad i gt myself into + for how the usp has met my expectations of it + for the grace of God in giving me this opportunity in the 1st place.