Day In The Life Of A Chemical Engineering Student

Wonder what is life of a Chemical Engineer? Hear from your seniors now! Today, we have Gabriel sharing with us on his experiences in Chemical Engineering!

Konnichiwassup! I’m Gabriel from Chemical Engineering!

One merit of being in this course allows you to be a much more flexible thinker. For the final year design project, my team and I were given a task and the since there were almost no restrictions, it enabled us to experiment with different ideas. As such, once you graduate from Chemical Engineering, you would be able to work in a myriad of industries. On the flip side, this course is EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE and DIFFICULT. If you ask any Chemical Engineering student, I’m sure they would express the same sentiments. I was used to being near the top in JC and secondary school for examinations, but my bubble got burst once I matriculated. You could score a 27/30 for a quiz here and still at the 25 percentile :’) Also, Some professors are inept at teaching, and you would be better off learning from YouTube.

A day in my life would be to wake up just before the dining hall closes (I was from RVRC) to get breakfast, then checking if the next lecture would be a webcast (90% of modules are) HAHA. If so, I would head back to my room to complete assignments and study for upcoming tests. Once the webcast is uploaded, I would watch it at 2x speed to get it over and done with :D Then, I would grab dinner with friends before heading off for night classes (I took Japanese) or Wind Symphony practices. After which, I would gather with friends again for LAN parties or just to study in the lounge.

If you have the financial means to afford them, I highly recommend joining camps and halls/RCs!! Although camps may be seen in a negative light (that was years back though), it was only a small fraction of participants that had disregarded the rules and regulations and proceeded with forfeits that were out of the comfort zones of participants.

You are not required to join either, but I joined both camps and an RC during my early years and loved the opportunity to meet a variety of individuals I would not have met otherwise. Camps allow you to meet individuals particularly from your course, faculty, or NUS in general, whereas RCs allows you to meet people from all years. Camps assist you in meeting new people (and finding lecture seat buddies), while RCs provides you with the opportunity to engage and form friendships with individuals who live directly next door (and find friends for dining hall mealtimes) :D

Also, since work might get taxing or stressful, do consider joining CCAs to relax and unwind! Every year, keep an eye out for the Student Life Fair (SLF), where every CCA will open a booth for you to ask questions and browse around for something that interests you. Or simply go there to collect freebies (NUS Freshmen shirt!!) like a kiasu Singaporean.

Anyway, freshmen do get 32 MCs of S/Us to use in the first year (though you can bring forward 12MCs to use for level 2000 and above non-core modules), so use make the best out of them! Consider using them to try out a minor/major, or simply to learn a new language! The Centre for Language Studies (CLS) teaches 13 languages, and no background knowledge is required. I personally only found out about this in Year 3, so I regretted not enrolling earlier D:

If you read this far, thanks and good job \(^o^)/ I hope you enjoy your university life since it will probably be the best days of your life!

Written By: Gabriel Low

Edited By: Alexis Lee