http://www.llm-guide.com/board/4593 en Re: NUS Contradictions - LLM GUIDE Discussion Board Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:19:00 +0200 http://www.llm-guide.com/board/4593/last#4593 Hey all, I would advise you to direct questions such as "can i switch to another LLM later" and other such technical ones to the NUS law fac admin instead since these are beyond my knowledge and questions which the admin can better handle. I can say that there are many LLM students from all over the world, France, Germany, Philippines, M'sia, PRC, Indonesia, M'sia, US, Peru, Chile, etc etc and I suppose the reason why they choose to do the LLM here at NUS is firstly the cost savings compared to US/UK unis and secondly the fact that S'pore is sort of the financial centre of South East Asia. As for the quality of the non-Chinese Law LLM I cannot safely say because I am only a LLB student. However, having taken some of the corporate law modules, I can tell you in a nutshell what to expect. Firstly, if you like a teaching environment where students take part in discussions actively, you won't find it here. Singaporean students, myself included tend to clamp up in class, even if we know the answers. I suspect this is due to our cultural habit of not wanting to "lose face" or "show off". So, some of the lessons tend to be about the professor simply talking the whole time and ppl simply copying down notes. Secondly, I have the impression that the university is in a major state of flux as we have taken in foreign students on such a large scale only in the past 2 years or so. There isn't very much interaction between the local students and the foreign ones. That being said, foreign students tend to have a lot of fun here among themselves and go clubbing pretty often. I apologise if what I have painted of NUS so far is pretty negative but hey, at least its from someone on the inside, however biased I am. Having said all these, the plus side is we now have many rather celebrated visiting professors from overseas unis, such as Dworkin, Adrian Briggs and Rob Merkin etc. Also, most of the Chinese LLM courses are taught by visiting Chinese Profs but like i said before, nobody knows how good they are. As for living in singapore itself, its safe and clean like everyone knows. There's lotsa nightspots and late night supper joints too. However, in terms of aesthetics its not the prettiest cities around and theres very little flora and fauna to be enjoyed, save for some parks here and there. And the people are as you would find in most big cities, generally unfriendly but fine if you actually go approach them yourself. There are tons of Indian and Chinese students so those who are from these countries should not find it hard to locate those who are studying here or are have studied here. I don't quite know what more there is to share with you people. Ok, as for how much law firms here pay, we LLBs get between 3 - 4.5K/mth starting pay but for foreign students who aren't qualified to practise here, I have no idea. Honestly, I still don't really understand why anybody would want to come and practise law here, instead of say HK, US, UK. Local students like me can't wait to get out due to the lousy pay, terrible working hours and little opportunity to do international work. Again, I have to state that I am a disgruntled local student so take my opinions with a huge dollop of salt please.