Story | Toh Hong Jin (he/him), Guest Reporter
Photo | Darren Ang (he/him)
A virtual town hall for Yale-NUS College deferred matriculants was convened on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 4, to provide them with more information about the New College and how the recent “merger” between Yale-NUS and the University Scholars Programme (USP) affects them.
With Yale-NUS and USP no longer admitting new students in preparation for the “merger” of both colleges, Yale-NUS deferred matriculants were previously offered automatic admission into the New College and a single-degree program of their choice under the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS).
The town hall was hosted by Joanne Roberts, Yale-NUS Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Laura Severin, Yale-NUS Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Kang Hway Chuan, Director of the University Scholars Programme, and Goh Say Song, Dean of Admissions at NUS.
The panel clarified that on top of automatic admission into the New College, deferred matriculants may now choose single-degree programs from all NUS faculties except Medicine, Dentistry, Law, and Music. A few programs, namely Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design, and Nursing, will require a further test or interview for entry.
Deferred matriculants who had been accepted for the Double Degree Programme (DDP) in Law and Liberal Arts were offered three additional options for consideration: admission into the NUS Law single-degree program, admission into other existing NUS DDPs with Law such as Business Administration and Law, or the deferred matriculant can propose other combinations of DDP with Law (subject to feasibility), which is usually not allowed for NUS students.
The options received mixed responses from deferred matriculants. A deferred matriculant who preferred to be identified as Shawn said: “My preference was to take Urban Studies as my major, and I was quite set on taking it and throughout my NS I researched more about it. But with this offer, there is no more of this. There isn’t Urban Studies available anymore.”
During the town hall’s Q&A, participants questioned whether interdisciplinary majors from Yale-NUS like Urban Studies could still be pursued in NUS. Shawn elaborated, “The NUS administrator that answered, I think he has good intentions at heart. But it felt like they didn’t spare any concern for the loss of these specific majors in YNC when they transferred us immediately, as they suggested Real Estate as an alternative to Urban Studies even though they’re very different subjects.”
Meanwhile, JW, a deferred matriculant who had wished to major in History at Yale-NUS, remarked: “NUS History is quite strong. And I can say this because I know many of my teachers were from there, so I’m not that worried about the academic rigor.”
In terms of residential life, the panel revealed that deferred matriculants will be granted a full four-year residency at the New College, an exception from the limited two-year residency guaranteed for other future students.
Arthur, a deferred matriculant originally due to matriculate in 2022, felt that the town hall did address some of the concerns about whether deferred matriculants could attain an experience close to that of Yale-NUS, which was what they had all signed up for. “But I think some of us hope that they could go a bit further, for example in allowing us to stay at one of Yale-NUS’s residential colleges of our choosing, because this was what we were envisioning,” he said.
Tuition fees will be charged according to the deferred matriculants’ degree program of choice. Meanwhile, fees for room and board at the New College have not been determined, though they are projected to be somewhere between $7,000 and $9,050, the amounts currently charged by USP and Yale-NUS respectively.
Deferred matriculants who had previously been assessed for financial aid by the Yale-NUS Admissions and Financial Aid Team will have to reapply for financial aid from NUS. The Team will follow up with separate, more individualized consultation sessions for these deferred matriculants on financial aid matters. They may also apply for NUS scholarships from February 2022.
The above arrangements were made by the Yale-NUS administration to honor their promises to the Yale-NUS deferred matriculants. Should they accept the offer, deferred matriculants will graduate with an NUS degree from their respective faculties and a certificate from the New College.
The Admissions and Financial Aid Team will be sharing more information with deferred matriculants in the coming weeks.