FAQs
Here are some quick answers to questions about NUS College. You can also search the FAQ document using Ctrl+F. If you have any other queries not addressed in the FAQs, you can reach out to us at nuscollege@nus.edu.sg or nusc.admissions@nus.edu.sg (admissions-related matters).
NUS College is the honours college of NUS. NUS College’s broad-based interdisciplinary curriculum, residential life programme, and flagship impact experience and global pathways programme complement a student’s major studies. Although NUS College students will belong to a home college, faculty or school in NUS, they will take part of their common curriculum and elective requirements at NUS College (see Academics page), and live in the NUS College residential wings. This gives NUS College students the opportunity to form a close-knit community with peers from more than 60 majors across NUS, working closely with and alongside NUS College faculty members.
Not at all, students at NUS who are not in the NUS College programme are also able to obtain honours degrees in their majors, given that they meet the specific requirements of the Honours track in their course. NUS College is referred to as an “honours college” (a concept borrowed from US universities) as it is committed to small seminar-style classes, close student-professor relations and more opportunities for interdisciplinary academic rigour.
Yes. There are plenty of scholarship and financial aid options available. More information can be found here.
There are two fee components for NUS College students:
Tuition Fee – As NUS College students will pursue a major in a home college, faculty or school, tuition fees will be pegged to the student’s home college, faculty or school at NUS. For more information on tuition fees, click here. Do take note that no additional tuition fees will be charged for NUS College courses.
Residential College Fee – NUS College students are required to live on campus, in one of the NUS College residential wings, for a minimum of two years to benefit from the NUS College residential experience. Students will pay the prevailing rate for the room and meal plan applicable. More information can be found here.
Yes, all NUS College students will have access to the financial aid options available for NUS students. Please click here to find out more.
In addition to the qualifying for financial aid packages offered by NUS, these NUS College students may also be eligible for the Tan Chew Char Grant and Student Assistance Fund. No separate application will be required.
NUSC is an honours college for students who wish to enhance their degree. We expect NUSC students to (subjectively) feel challenged in our classes for various reasons, including the larger extent of interaction with instructors; but as a matter of what the (objective) data tells us, NUSC students do very well in NUSC courses, including grades wise. Our students are engaged and seek help when needed, from the instructors and from peers. NUSC regards the out-of-classroom discussions between students from different faculties as integral to the student learning experience.
NUSC courses do not implement the NUS grades distribution, and this is according to NUS policy, since the enrolment in each class is small. Grading is according to academic standards.
You may apply for admissions to NUS College through the NUS Office of Admissions (OAM) online applications portal together with your general application to NUS undergraduate courses. Please click here for the application details.
Indicate your interest in NUS College by checking the box “I wish to be considered for NUS College”, which will be found within the application portal. You will then be directed to submit additional application materials to NUS OAM.
You will need to submit the following when applying to NUS College:
- Academic results from recent years of study (e.g. JC preliminary ) and final official results (if any)
- A record of co-curricular activities or personal pursuits
- Certificates of achievement
- Writing responses to two short-answer questions
More details are available within the application portal.
Opening and closing dates for the various application qualifications are in line with NUS Office of Admissions. Please click here for more detailed information.
Yes. NUS College aims to enrol a diverse community of students from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. We welcome international applicants. Applicants presenting international qualifications may be required to submit their SAT/ACT/AP scores. For more information, click here.
Yes, you may still indicate interest to apply for NUS College, if you have also indicated a course that is compatible with NUS College among your eight choices. To illustrate, suppose an applicant applies to NUS College with the following course choices, and is found suitable by NUS College. The table below provides the possible outcomes.
| Rank | Course | Compatible with NUS College | Outcome 1 | Outcome 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medicine | NO | Offered (without NUS College)* | Not offered |
| 2 | Psychology | YES | Not offered | Offered (with NUS College) |
| 3 | Social Sciences | YES | Not offered | Not offered |
You should apply for admission to Yong Siew Toh Conservatory as per their requirements. During your admissions interview with the Conservatory, you should mention that you are interested in applying for NUS College. The admissions team will make their recommendations of shortlisted candidates for the Conservatory with NUS College and relay their list to us. We will contact the shortlisted candidates to take a written assessment and admission interview with us. Information on how to apply to the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory can be found here.
Yes. Applicants who are entering National Service may apply. If accepted, they will enrol when they have completed National Service (i.e. deferring their matriculation). Their fees will be pegged to the year they accept the admissions offer to NUS and are admitted to NUS College.
For those who have already been offered and accepted into a course at NUS, the procedure is to put in a new application if you are interested in NUS College. If you wish to keep the major that you had accepted, it is important that you specify the same major in your new application, and, please do not enter any other choices for your major. Alternatively, if you wish to change your major, you may also apply with new choices.
It is important to note that you will not lose your place in the course you have already accepted if you did not receive an offer for your new application. However, if you are given an offer with your new application, the new offer will supercede your previous acceptance. In order to secure your place in NUS, you will need to accept the new offer.
NUS College evaluates all our applicants in a thorough, holistic process. We ask each applicant to submit academic results from recent years of study, a record of past co-curricular involvements and personal pursuits, and to complete some writing sections (short questions and one essay).
Shortlisted students will be invited to an interview so that the Admissions Committee can learn more about their interests and potential fit for NUS College.
Details on the NUS College curriculum and how it interacts with your degree can be found below.
To receive an NUS College graduation certificate, you will need to:
- Complete the NUS College courses required for pairing with your major,
- Fulfil the compulsory Global Pathways requirement,
- Complete your degree programme with at least Honours (Merit), and
- Fulfil the compulsory two-year residential requirement at NUS College.
Yes, NUSC accepts transfer students from NUS as well as other institutions, and does so only for the Semester 1 intake. However, the candidates must first be accepted by their respective degree-bearing faculty in NUS and be assessed through the NUSC admissions exercise.
Do note that all NUSC students must start as Year 1, Semester 1 students and fulfil the NUSC graduation requirements, which includes obtaining an honours degree from their degree-bearing faculty. If you are an existing NUS student and wish to transfer into NUSC, you may only do so if you are changing your degree programme. In that case, all the credits that you have previously obtained within NUS will no longer count toward your GPA and there may be implications on fee subsidies during the candidature of your programme.
For more information, please see the transfer requirements, and note the corresponding application period (under ’Important Dates’).
Yes. NUS College has a number of scholarships that we award to each cohort. We offer a limited number of these in advance and the remaining in the year of matriculation. RNS who have accepted a place in NUS College but have not been successful in your scholarship application may reapply for scholarships, and it is recommended that this be done in the year of matriculation. The degree-bearing faculties may interview you for the scholarship application. NUS College will review your file from the year of your application, and make a decision based on our holistic criteria.
Congratulations and welcome to the NUS College community! We have a number of exciting activities lined up for you. However, the most important thing you need to do is to register for housing in the NUSC residences, and accept the housing offer, following the timelines provided to you over email. NUSC is a faculty with a residential component and all Year 1s must stay on campus as part of the NUSC graduation requirement. If you do not register for housing by the deadline, you will not be able to secure housing in NUSC, which means you will not be able to fulfil the NUSC graduation requirement and cannot enrol as an NUSC student.
The NUS College curriculum and experience can be paired with over 60 majors offered by colleges, faculties and schools across NUS. The exceptions are Dentistry, Medicine, Music, Nursing, and Pharmacy. You may find out more here.
The NUS College curriculum is meant to enhance the basic NUS degree and is designed to interface well with other programmes and course requirements at NUS. Like other NUS students, you will fulfil a portion of your courses at your home faculty, primarily courses that fulfil your major requirements. However, students will be able to complete all NUS General Education (GE) requirements in NUS College, as well as most faculty-specific common curriculum courses.*
*NUS College students will be able to complete all elements of the common curriculum for the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) and most for the College of Design and Engineering (CDE).
The NUS College curriculum consists of specially curated foundational and common courses, interdisciplinary electives and a flagship team-based project. A key difference between courses in NUS College compared to the common curriculum courses in NUS is the small class size. This allows for intimate seminar-style learning where students get to interact more meaningfully with their professors. Furthermore, unlike common curriculum classes in your home faculty, your peers will be from different majors and faculties, facilitating the exchange of diverse perspectives and ideas in the classroom.
Students will fulfil 14 courses (56 units) as part of the NUS College curriculum, comprising 7 common foundational courses, 6 interdisciplinary electives and finally, students will consolidate their learning through the capstone Impact Experience Project (IEx).
Not at all! The NUS College curriculum allows students to complete all NUS General Education (GE) requirements in NUS College, as well as all elements of the common curriculum for the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS) and most for the College of Design and Engineering (CDE). As for students from other faculties, NUS College courses will substitute a portion of their unrestricted electives.
Yes, there are a variety of pre-packaged multidisciplinary programmes (MDPs) within NUS that are available to NUS College applicants. You may find out more about the MDPs here. Do take note that these have an additional selection for admission. Additionally, any NUS student (including NUS College students) may also construct/propose their own MDP by combining courses at NUS, though not all of them will be feasible and overloading may be necessary to complete the graduation requirements.
We are also pleased to partner with Sciences Po and Waseda University for the NUS-Sciences Po Double Degree Programme and Waseda-NUS Double Degree Programme. For these DDPs, you will obtain a degree from NUS and a degree from our partner university.
Students pursuing specific degree programmes in NUS—for instance, Law, Engineering, Accountancy, PPE, the Double Degree programmes, to name a few examples—are waived from some of the curriculum requirements in NUS College. This is so that students pursuing these degrees will be able to integrate their curriculum with the requirements in NUS College. In general, students pursuing single degrees will not need to overload in order to complete both their degree requirements and NUS College requirements.
As these courses have more specialised courses and fixed curriculum, it is difficult for students to complete both their major’s courses as well as courses from NUS College’s common curriculum without extending their period of study.
At the point of application, you must indicate an intended major/choice of course at NUS College, which you will read at your respective home faculty or school (the exception being CHS students who have the flexibility of having an undeclared major for the first two years of studies). Subsequently, all students of NUS College will enjoy the flexibility to apply to transfer to another major compatible with the NUS College curriculum during their first four semesters of study, within the transfer windows stipulated by the NUS Office of Admissions.
All incoming freshmen will be assigned a peer mentor – a senior taking the same course as them (or as similar as possible since there are different multidisciplinary programmes). These mentors will guide you beginning from the very first course registration exercise and help you map out your study plan for your entire university journey. There are also multiple academic-related chat groups set up to allow students to seek more specific advice regarding certain courses or academic programmes. If you require more help, the NUS College faculty advisors are always there to advise you as well.
If you would like to request to switch majors before the admission application closing date relevant to you leading to your course start year, you will need to submit a fresh application to NUS for your desired new major(s). You may indicate your new choice(s) in your new application. If you have already accepted an offer for NUS College, you do not need to complete the application form for NUS College in your re-application.
If you are successful in your new application, the NUS Office of Admissions will offer the new major to you together with NUS College, unless the new major is not compatible with NUS College. If you are not successful, the offer that you have already accepted will remain.
If you have missed the relevant admissions application closing date relevant to you leading up to your course start year, and you would like to request to switch majors, you will need to submit an appeal to the NUS Office of Admissions for consideration. You may do so during the NUS Office of Admissions appeal window by logging into the NUS Applicants Portal and submitting an appeal.
If you would like to request to switch majors before the start of Sem 1, you will need to submit an appeal to the NUS Office of Admissions for consideration. You may do so during the NUS Office of Admissions appeal window by logging into the NUS Applicants Portal and submitting an appeal.
If you have missed the admissions appeal window, you may contact the NUS Office of Admissions to request for an appeal to switch majors.
You will need to submit an application to the NUS College Academic Team during the usual transfer windows (October and February). Do note that you will only be allowed to change your major within your first four semesters. The NUS College Academic Team will provide advice to you pertaining to your request.
Global Pathways at NUS College aims to crystalise the foundational learning of global perspectives and world issues by immersing students in international programmes located around the world. There are five main pathways that students can choose to fulfil the NUS College global experience requirement – the Global Experience Course (GEx), the NUS Overseas College (NOC), Student Exchange Programmes (SEP), Double Degree Programmes (NUS-Sciences Po and Waseda-NUS), and Regional Impact Experience projects (IEx). NUS College students will have green lane access to the NOC.
GEx is a specially curated course involving seminars with guest professors, workshops with practitioners, masterclasses with experts, fireside chats with important personalities, and field visits to pertinent sites such as start-ups, research centres, government offices, cultural and community institutions.
GEx will take place for four weeks during the vacation period, with preparatory seminars in the semester before and assignments due in the semester after.
Courses and regions change yearly. In 2025, GEx will travel to Bali/Lombok, Bangkok-KL, Beijing, Chiang Mai, Chicago, Manila-Tacloban, Mekong Delta, Nagoya-Tokyo, New York, Paris, Sulawesi, Toronto, Yogyakarta.
Yes. Financial aid is available to successful applicants, depending on their financial status and enrolled GEx course.
All NOC programmes are open to NUS students, including NUS College students. Visit the NUS Overseas Colleges website for more information. NUS College students will get green lane access to NOC programmes.
Applications for Global Pathways take place only after matriculation except the NUS-Sciences Po Double Degree Programme (DDP). The NUS-Sciences Po DDP application should be submitted concurrently with your NUS College application.
See this page for more information.
The ‘Impact Experience Project’ (IEx) is the other flagship programme in NUS College. Students will work in teams to design, plan, and execute an impact-oriented project through Research, Innovation, Service, and creative Expression (RISE). Each team will be supervised by a faculty member and provided with financial resources, connections, and mentorship to undertake their project locally or internationally. See this page to understand better.
Yes, IEx is compulsory for all NUS College students. The course incorporates a strong component of reflection and is meant for students to consolidate their learning across the whole NUS College experience.
Students will spread out the 160 hours of courses’ workload over two years, starting from the second year of their study.
First-year NUS College students will stay at Cinnamon College within Cinnamon Wing. In subsequent years, NUS College students will have the option to stay at Cinnamon Wing or West Wing.
All NUSC students will be required to spend at least two years in residence. Due to limited campus housing, while we are unable to guarantee accommodation for all four years, international students with no alternative Singapore residency options will be given priority in our planning and support.
Yes. NUS College is first and foremost a faculty; an honours college with a four-year broad-based interdisciplinary common curriculum. It also has an integrated residential component (under which students are required to spend at least 2 years in one of its residential wings).
Please click here for estimated costs for housing. NUS College is committed to providing opportunities for all deserving students. Students are strongly encouraged to apply to the NUS Office of Financial Aid if affordability is a concern.
Yes, meal plans are compulsory for all NUS College residents staying on campus. The meal plan includes breakfast and dinner six times a week (excluding Saturday dinners and Sunday breakfasts).