Kirsten's Blog: UNIVERSITY

Hii everyone!

So it's the end of Week 9, and I'm just writing because next week's Learning Journey week for all of us and we don't have to turn in any homework so yay, I can post here :D :D Yeah, the homework load's been crazy lately :( But that was one of the things that I prepared myself for before I stepped into RGS, so I'm fine with it. :)

So... Just to update you on what's happened so far, everything's been going great - I've made a lot of really, really nice friends, and while bouts of insecurity do still come about now and then, I feel like RGS has made me a lot more confident about myself - and yes, I've discovered that it's surprisingly easy to survive in a Girls' School. I used to think that I'd only be able to do well in a co-ed school because, you know, I've been more comfortable with boys than girls for my whole life because I grew up with my two brothers, but I've found it really liberating to be in a Girls' School, because there, you can act however you want and be as "uncool" and "nerdy" as you want to be, because there aren't any boys there for you to impress - and you can experiment with anything and everything, like for example a new hairstyle that could end up making you look terrible, because again, no one's going to judge you. It's just this really nice sense of freedom that I never knew existed in a Girls' School. :)

So now I'm going to move on to the main topic of this post. :D I know, I know - University's really far away. I'm only in my first year of Secondary School, and I still need to get through JC - and who knows, I might even not do well enough to continue on to a University, so who am I to think so far into the future? The thing is that... Well, the sparking of my interest in a University came really randomly. I was, as usual, being very kiasu about everything Rafflesian, and so I searched up the Rafflesian Press - and there, I found this article about Rafflesians who had chosen to go overseas for their University studies. That piqued my interest, because many of the Rafflesians on that list had cited that they had gone to a foreign, non-English-speaking country to further their studies, and I started to think about my French - was it a possibility that I could go to a French-speaking country to further my studies too? After all, most of the Rafflesians cited had said that the environment was a lot less stressful in those other countries, and the reason why this was possible was because the people in those countries learnt how to manage their time really well. For example, during working hours, they did nothing but work, very seldomly being distracted by personal things, and that was why they could complete everything on time before going home and having fun.

And I thought that it'd be really interesting to experience that for myself. So I went online and looked at the list of the top Universities in the world, listed by "QS TopUniversities", and scrolled downwards from there. The top 15 spots or so were dominated by schools in the United Kingdoms or the United States - which I skipped because I wanted to look for non-English-speaking options elsewhere - and two Universities stood out - the ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

I looked at the first one - the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - and it seemed really, really interesting - but one of the major setbacks was that it was in Zürich, a part of Switzerland that spoke mainly German. :( I didn't know how to speak German and knowing the language was part of the admissions criteria - and so I had to give the promising Institution a pass.

Then I went on to EPFL, and I realised - it was perfect. It was located in Lausanne, a French-speaking part of Switzerland, and that was one of the huge bonuses for me, because well - I'm going to take French as my 2nd Language for six years, and this will be a perfect opportunity to continue speaking French and nurture my skills as a French speaker. Also, I've always wanted to go to Switzerland, and the Life Sciences and Technology programme at EPFL were AMAZING. I just knew that I wanted to go there - and now it's on my bookmark list. :D

Another really good thing is that the fees there are really cheap - 633 Swiss francs a month, or 844SGD, which is way, way lower than the fee in NUS. My only concern now is the cost of living in Switzerland, but I haven't even researched on that yet, so I don't know if it's expensive or not - let's just hope it's the latter!

So yupp, that sums up why I really want to go to École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. It's my long-term goal now, and I'm more driven to do well than ever - so I'll continue to study hard (and hopefully not get distracted as easily haha) - wish me luck, because --

C'est mon rêve. <3

Yours sincerely,
Kirsten :D