My NTU Saga

My entry into NTU is really divinely engineered. Why?

My arduous journey can be broken down into the 6 steps below. Each and every step was waxed and covered with much prayer from my family and from the horse's mouth. Haha.

1) They rejected me - my GPA of 3.38 too lousy.
2) I appealed.
3) They accepted my appeal!
4) Disrupt NS
5) Last minute matriculation
6) NTU boy

Let me elaborate:

1) My lousy CGPA of 3.38 was rejected by NTU TWICE. I applied the first time 1 year back and this year, same answer. This time...we were more persistent.

2) I actually had given up hope on trying for full time because I already have a part-time place in NUS. However, my mum kept telling me to appeal. So I finally listened to her advice and did it prayerfully.

3) My appeal was accepted! One of the professors called me up to do a phone interview with me! You can get the details from my other blog post - http://historymakers-jonavanlee.blogspot.com/2011/07/ntu-cs-tp.html

4) Now, this is the hardest part. All appeals for disruption of NS is to be submitted 3 months before the commencement of your course.

Mine was only 1 month away. I submitted, asking them to expedite. But, to no avail.

I called my unit's manpower GA IC several times and on each occasion she told me she had submitted my request already...she was just awating HRSC's approval.

I then called HRSC several times too, 3 times to be exact and on each occasion, she told me to check back with my unit's manpower GA IC as she was too busy.

Having went through the proper chain of command, I drafted an email for my mum to sign and send in to MINDEF Feedback Unit.

My mum sent the email to COMD 3Div, BG Perry Lim. Within 2 hours, his colleague, some Colonel called my mum up and called me to clarify details.

Next thing I knew, within the next 2 hours, my unit's manpower branch called me and told me to come down to settle everything as they had everything ready.

All it took was one email and within 4 hours, everything was settled. Talk about organizational excellence...Haha. Oh well, it's hard to infuse that blood into all your staff when you have about a 100,000 of them.

Yup, ORD lo! Temporarily...haha.

5) By the time all these was settled. I had 1 week left before my classes start. That was all the time I had to matriculate into NTU.

Well, that wasn't much of a problem. That's because I already did the medical test thanks to my mum who went to source out the medical forms and brought me to the clinics...Haha.

The rest was just payments and signatures and whoa-la...I got my timetable and am geared up to go! :)

6) I am now a NTU student...collecting my matriculation card on Monday :) And gonna collect my hall 6 keys :D

Yup, all these may sound like nothing, but I was simply fighting against systems, datelines and people holding office appointments.

I have my God and my parents to thank. I was merely the co-ordinator of all their efforts and resources. Haha. Love you Jesus, daddy & mummy! :)