SUTD Acceptance Tea

9:30 AM to 1 PM

I am going on a tour of the campus led by an enthusiastic student, so in order, we visit the following places:

1. The Library
2. Cohort Classroom
3. Fab Lab
4. Dorms
5. Multi-purpose room (for the Tea)

Did you know their Library doesn’t have books? They have 330,000 books and articles online. – convenient huh. – the library does have material samples so students can see the different stuff they can create things with for their projects, they also have a multitude of spaces for collaboration: whiteboard tables, enclosed group cubicles, open spaces ~

The Library is directly connected to the Classrooms.

There were lockers near the classroom area though I heard they are generally not in use.

So the classroom setting generally merges 2 long tables together, the classroom has whiteboards in all directions along with many projectors and there is even a smart board. It’s air-conditioned, quite large and very clean.

I later learnt from an alumni that only fresh mores have their own classroom, but we can usually leave our things there quite safely as the classroom is by card access – though the safety of your stuff is still your own responsibility, of course.

Next, on to the Fab labs. Here there is a room full of 3D printers of various kinds on the right and a work space with all sorts of machinery on the left. Students have access to the lab regardless of the pillar they choose (Awesome!) as long as they take a half-day course which they can sign up for easily at the start of term.

On to the dorms, the lighting for the corridor is off during the day to save electricity. There are meeting rooms interspersed throughout the dorms apparently. They have bicycle locking areas on the first floor.

The rooms are doubles for all fresh-mores, the have a single bed – the mattress is quite hard, so I’m going to buy something soft to cushion it – a desk, closets and laundry closet. There is kinda a line between the room so it is definitely possible to divide the room exactly into 2 if needed.

Didn’t see the showers but they are cleaned by the school.

I asked an alumni later, he told me that you can bring your own fridge as long as it holds a maximum off 50 litres. Though there isn’t really much space to place it. My robot vacuum is fine. There’s not really any rules which is awesome- no curfew, no dress coffee unless you are in the fab lab and you can go home whenever you want.

Finally the tea.

It was rather informative, the employment rate is rather low compared to other unis but the starting pay is higher by a significant amount.

Students gave their professors an unprecedented rating of 100%.

The student culture seems to be of the – Can Do! And innovate! Type which is great – I got this from how each batch of students bring a new set of clubs and the easy access to the fab lab – students actually have a sheet online the they actively contribute to in search of the cheapest source of materials – a student actually made his own electric hoverboard and uploaded the data online for other students to do so (they did) which is really impressive really.

Exchange programs seem rather competitive but that’s fine with me. They have some programs with Stanford and Berkeley but generally, exchange with MIT and Zhejiang

There is also an Olympic size pool on campus along with a rather decent gym, loads of dance studios – apparently they have an active dance scene – a running track and 2 sports halls.

I saw quite a few cafes and the cafeteria but apparently the food on campus is… Not so good. I could cook my own, bring some from home or buy from the surrounding area so it’ll be okay for me.

EDIT:

I have been studying in SUTD for almost a year now.

(planning to write an overview of my experience soon, will include pictures.)

Comment below if you have any specific questions you want me to answer.