NUS S3 Asia MBA Double Degree System

For the S3 Asia MBA students get two degrees.
One from the parent university - NUS/Fudan/KUBS (from where you got selected initially)
For the other degree students need to choose one college -
NUS Students - Can choose from Fudan or KUBS

• Fudan - Need to write thesis in 4th semester. There is no additional fee and you don't have to attend the classes but student need to select the guide and come for defending the thesis around April I think.
• KUBS - No additional requirement

Most NUS students choose KUBS for the obvious reason but there are certain people who chose Fudan as well. Probable reasons being - they wanted to work in China

Fudan Students - Can choose from KUBS or NUS

• NUS - Need to give GMAT and get a score above 600
• KUBS - No additional requirement

KUBS Students - Can choose from Fudan or NUS

• NUS - Need to give GMAT and get a score above 600
• Fudan - Write thesis in 4th semester. No additional fee but have to come to defend thesis

For more details refer to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Asia_MBA

Preparing for GMAT - Basic steps

The best source to practice for GMAT is Official Guide. I am from Engg background and was working as business analyst so I didn't have to work at all for Quantitative section but my English was terrible. Hence, spent most of the time on that. 

Here is what I would recommend for people who are thinking about preparing for GMAT: 

1. Take the practice test 1 that you receive from GMAC after registering online. Actually giving the practice test without any practice gives you the confidence that Oh! I could have got this much without any practice whatsoever. 

2. Pick up official guide and start solving questions for each topic very sincerely. 

3. More important than solving questions is reading the solutions. Even if you get an answer correct, read the solution with same diligence.

4. Follow the online forums for GMAT preparation like gmatclub.com, beatthegmat.com. pagalguy.com ... and many others. I personally was a big fan of beatthegmat.com and I tried to solve questions from every topic on this site (atleast for 2 hours everyday during 15 days that I prepared for GMAT in total)

5. You can subscribe to test series like Manhanttan or Kaplan during this time and keep giving tests every week or so ( I gave tests every 2nd day since I had only 15 days to prepare for)

5. Last step and most important - Give your GMAT prep tests 2 one day before you final test date. Generally the score that you get in this test is exactly the same score you get in your GMAT. (I got exactly the same)

Final advice - don't waste your money on unnecessary resource because Official guide is the best.

NUS S3 Asia MBA - Basic info

This program is very unique and offers specialization in East Asian economies. For this program students spend one semester each in different countries. Starting from first semester in Shanghai, China to next semester in Seoul, South Korea and the final semester in Singapore.

There are many advantages of this course that come along with some of the difficulties that a student faces because of constant moving from one place to the other.
Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Asia_MBA
http://mba.nus.edu/double-degree-programs/131-s3-asia-mba
http://www.s3-asiamba.com/main.do

Fees - Total fees is SGD 60,000. Although you study in different college for each semester, the fees goes to NUS each semester (for NUS students)
College in China - Fudan University
College in Korea - Korea University

Average Living expenses -

• Starting from Shanghai, which is the cheapest of the three cities (but obviously more expensive than India) - INR 3,00,000 (including hostel fee)
• Seoul - More expensive than Shanghai (especially the food is almost 5 times more expensive) - INR 4,00,000 (including hostel fee)
• Singapore - most expensive of all - INR 5,00,000 (including hostel fee)

Visa process - Visa process for all these countries is not at all difficult

• China - Since this is the first country that you go to so you can easily apply for visa from India. Visa fee is around INR 3000-4000 and you easily get visa within a week after submitting the application. Also, you need to do some medical tests for the visa application
• South korea - Visa process is even more simple than China. Just go to embassy in Delhi or Kolkata and fill up the form (don't need medical tests for this). You get visa within 4 days. The only complication here is you can apply for visa only from home country so you have to come back to India during break (which normally varies from 4-5 weeks). Cost around INR 3000-4000. 
• Singapore - The college will apply for visa on your behalf so no need to worry. 

Placement Scenario - 

• Advantage - NUS has a placement website that all the NUS students have access to. SO technically you have almost the same options available as the regular NUS students. Plus you can also access the Fudan and Korea University placement websites. So if you are keen on working in these countries you have exposure to lot of opportunities
• Disadvantage - If you don't know Mandarin or Korean, Fudan and Korea University website are not much of the help because 80% of the cases they don't prefer to hire foreigners who don't knwo the language. But still there is no harm in trying. One more disadvantage is that - S3 Asia semester has slightly different timings for summer vacation that regular NUS students so sometimes we face difficulty in placement. Most of the companies that post vacancy on NUS job portal want to hire for that particular interval of time so it becomes difficult to shift that window for few students. However, there are many students who manage to do that and land up with very good jobs. 

Basic Information about NUS MBA

Tution Fee and living expenses - http://mba.nus.edu/admissions-fees/121-programme-fees

Scholarship - very few people get it. May be only 1 in 10

NUS specialty - Finance. They claim to haev best placements in finance.

Education loans - There are many companies in India like Credila that provide education loan to cover the full tution fee and living expenses. The interest rate may be little higher than the government banks because normally govt banks do not give you loans of such high amounts.

Reasons for choosing NUS - Lot of Indian students go to NUS mainly because of the following reasons: 

• Its one of the well known colleges in Asia
• Gives you international exposure and opens the gate to get settled in Singapore
• Cheaper than US colleges (less than half of what US colleges normally cost)
• Near to home and flights are sometimes cheaper than the domestic travel

Job market in Singapore - Job market in Singapore is very different from most of the otehr Asian countries since they give a lot of emphasis on specialization. They prefer to give higher weightage to person who is experienced rather than a person who has MBA. So its not a very good place to change your field of work. 

Consulting companies like McKinsey/Bain/BCG in NUS - Not sure but I think most of these companies come to NUS but higher at max 1 person every year. These companies higher lot of people from Insead so NUS is like theie 2nd option. 

Varieties of MBA offered by NUS - http://bschool.nus.edu/AcademicProgrammes/tabid/738/default.aspx