::welcome to slow rock::

Thursday, March 19, 2015

This is another long post in a long while. I've not had much time to pen down my thoughts (and I must admit I didn't have much motivation to do so as well) but I thought I should at this moment in time. My mind needs to relieve itself of some baggage.

It's time to decide if I should leave for Masters overseas or stay in the UK. For the record, I've yet to receive any offers but say that I do, will I really want to take that gamble and "downgrade" to a BEng, hoping that I'll get my first class honours which will qualify me for masters sponsorship? I'm not sure. There's just too much hassle with that option, and the risks are big. Fall short of first and I'm due to return for studies one year earlier.

So hassle #1, where do I put my stuff over summer?! I can bring some back home to Singapore and leave the rest in London, then collect them when I'm back here travelling with my family (say I'm going for an overseas masters). But say I don't get to qualify for overseas masters sponsorship, I need to get someone to ship my stuff back to Singapore. Arrrgh..

Hassle #2 - family trip to UK. Alright, the tentative plan is for my whole family to come to UK before my sis begins her exchange. Well, tentative. And nothing is really concrete at this moment. An ideal time will be mid-Sept, but if i'm in Columbia for Masters, school would have started. And if I'm in Tel Aviv, school wouldn't be starting till October and I got to apply for no-pay-leave to be here for 2 weeks, plus pay for my air tickets, and we wont have any place to stay in while we're in London!

Hassle #3 - graduation. It's really for my parents. Not for myself. I don't think I've got much to be proud of about my 2.5-coming-3 years in UCL. I cherish the friendships, experiences made in London, but there's nothing much about the school experience that has left me saying good things about it. Well, I shan't turn this into a ranting session about the inadequacies of the uni, it's teaching resources and facilities, but let's just say it's barely acceptable. Lol. Anyway, graduation could be in August, and if that's so, it will be too early for any of us to make it cos' the plan is to travel when my sis arrives in UK. But well, she could come a few weeks earlier. Guess she would be happy to.

Guess these are the 3 main ones. There are others such as visa application + programme fee downpayment which most probably need to come out of my own pocket first while I the outcome of my masters sponsorship. Fail to qualify and I'll need for forfeit the sum. More $$$.

So much to think about, all for a masters course which I think is "more interesting"? I can't really be too sure. Maybe it really isn't worth all the hassle. Someone should have warned me against it last summer. I wouldnt have needed to spend so much time writing up those naggy personal statements , contemplating my course options, studying for GREs, and paying so much in application fees!

Entered by platinum at 6:03 PM