One of the big differences between NUS and NTU lies in that the main campus of NUS is in a semi-central location of Singapore. NTU, on the other hand, is located on the western end of the island. To get into NTU, one had to take a train all the way to the furthest-most station in the MRT line, then switch to feeder buses for another 10-15 minute ride into the campus itself.
It’s not all bad of course. NTU has a bigger campus (2 square kilometres compared to NUS’s 1.5), and it’s nicely tucked in a lot of greenery whoops SAF training jungles. It’s not unusual to be on campus and be hearing loud ‘whoooomps’ occasionally: tank live-firing somewhere LOL.
Now, the semi-remote accessibility of the university also meant that a lot of students wanted accommodation on campus. Unfortunately, in the 90s, hostel accommodation was hugely competitive. To qualify for a room, under-grads had to accrue enough ‘points’, and these points came by way of the activities you were participating in. The levels of activities, appointment bearers, types of events organized and ran… all of these were credited with different points using a system that few back then could make head or tail of.
Still, we took it all on good faith, and at the end of every academic year, hostelites would be sweating over whether they accrued enough points to qualify for a room, what type of room, and which hostel too.
Now, at this point I was staying at my family home in Lentor. Commuting to to NTU was a 1.5 hour journey, and with classes starting at 8 am every day, the thought of having to get up at 6 am just wasn’t appealing then. So, from the get go, I applied for hostel accommodation, and like every other hostelite, was for the next few years caught up in the ‘Point system’.
The photo here was taken in 1993 for our yearbook; that’s the entire floor of male residents in my hostel. Easy to spot me – I’m the bloke wearing an ACS polo LOL.
Continued in the next post.:)
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