* First & foremost, i would like to dedicate this blog to the newcomers of UMP. Below is my own experience of studying in UMP for these 3 years. May the infos here somehow helpful in giving you some ideas of what University's life is all about :)
You have finished your Pre-U study, and now you enrol into a degree/diploma program offered by UMP. You may anxious about what you have to do next. For some, this is the first experience of leaving your parents behind to further your study (unless if your family lived somewhere nearby the University itself). Below is my written experience about my experience of studying in UMP for this 3 years, in my own view as an undergraduate student. Hopefully the infos below somehow gonna benefits you.
---> The 1st Year in UMP (Freshman's year, 2009-2010)
i was surprised upon knowing that i was chosen to enrol into a University which is located so close to my hometown. i was having a mixed feelings upon getting the news. Some of my friends get to study into the course they'd wanted for so long;but not in their chosen University, some of them get to study in their chosen University; but not into the course that they'd really wanted. And there were also some of my friends who gave up to study in local U, and chosen to study in Private U instead. There were also my friends that don't get any offer from local Universities at all. To think of it, i was blessed to get a chance to further my study after all. For me, i was the student with the first case.
me & my buddies during our last few days of form 6 in SABS.
i was a person with lots of negative thoughts. i dislike of the opportunity to study in UMP, as the U was just established a few years back, so i thought that the foundation & academic achievements of the university wasn't on par with other older established Universities in Malaysia. i took the chances of studying in UMP merely for granted. i wasn't really feeling grateful for studying here. But as the time passed, i learnt that there is always a good side of everything, as long as we are dare enough to look the matter at a different perspective. It is all about the capability of adapting to a new environment.
My first year of studying in UMP was full of surprise. i get to know some of my new friends. UMP is not really big, so we get to know each other much better. There's no need of cars or motorcycles to move around, a tiny bicycle should do the work. There's always an advantage of studying in a University that is not so huge. You don't have to wait for the bus just to get a transport to your hostel literally. You can get back to your room any time you'd wanted. And of course nothing is perfect. The main thing that i often complaint about this place is the environment itself. i do hope they could plant more trees as to make the place more shady in the future.
The first picture of studying in classroom.
Being a Kuantan citizen, i was often asked by my friends of the places nearby, whether it is the famous local cuisines or interesting places. *you may check my "Welcome to Kuantan" blog page to know more about interesting places in Kuantan* I am no expert in cuisine but you could try up the Hoi Yin Restaurant's curry mee (halal) at Teluk Chempedak, or drop a visit at Terminal Satay Zul located along Jalan Telok Sisek (the road to Teluk Chempedak).
Being an undergraduate student, i have heard how the people around me are looking at the University's life. Some may want to study as diligently as possible, and graduate with First Class Honour or equivalent. This is important for PTPTN's holders especially, as the loan will be switched into a full scholarship. One of my lecturer also told us during my first semester here that "whatever the things we are doing here, will determine our future." He was actually asking us to do our best academically.
Well, what they said were true, but certainly you can't miss something there. Apart from focusing in your study, you should pick up some outside experience as well. The "outside experience" here is referring to the out-of-class's activities. You should try to join up some of the events which are organized by the University such as "Pesta Tanglung", "CNY celebration", "Expoconvo" and many more. Just give it a try. I heard how students that participated in those events claimed how hard it was, the suffering that they had to endure throughout the program and the time they had lost for doing such activities. Yes it may a bit difficult for you at first, but the rewards are worth it. You will learn how to communicate with the people around you effectively, which is the basic that you will need in your working life soon. A good relationship that you have with the people around you will be part of your happiness. You will learn to manage the activities around you, which is also useful for you in your future. And of course, it brings no harm to get a bunch of new friends:) You will have a better social life and social skills, which you could never learn from a text book. Most importantly, balance your social life with your study as well. You don't want to be a First Class Grader who is leading a stressful life spending your time all day long in your room, nor become a social lite who failed in planning your time in your study.
Sweet 21! I was with my buddies for Pesta Tanglung 2009 event. Me & my friends were in charged of Caligraphy competition back then.
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As the committee member of CNY dinner program in Mexica Garden Restaurant, in March 2010.
---> 2nd Year in UMP (Sophomore's year,2010-2011)
University's life isn't all about studying all days long. There are also some time for you to have some fun, and semester break is one of the best time for a student to chill. Before stepping into UMP, i had only dreamt of travelling to oversea. The farthest place in Malaysia that i had travelled with my family was Penang. That was about 11 years ago. However with some luck, i found myself joining up a program that was organized by UMP to Japan! And we had been staying in Tokyo and Narita City for 2 weeks. What i am trying to tell you here is that it is possible to travel to overseas by joining the programs that were being carried out in UMP. The number of the students here are comparatively lower than other older established universities, so i hope you get what it means :)
The view of Tokyo City at night, December 2010.
me and my friends at the entrance of Tokyo Disneyland :)
Only a crazy guy would ride bicycle during winter time in Japan, trust me.
Say this, you are very interested to travel around the world, but you run out of luck in participating in some of the related programs in UMP. Never mind though, you can plan up you very own trip with your classmates/ friends in your university. It may sound a bit scary especially if you have never travelled to overseas before, as you need to plan for your own trip, the accommodation you will be staying and the expenses you gonna be spending there. But it gonna be fun, a lots of fun. Don't be taken aback by the risk, because the rewards is much better than the risk that you might have been thinking of. One week of travelling to overseas could cost around RM1000. Money is usually the main problem for travelling, so during the semester break last year (June 2011) i was working part time in university, and made my own trip with 1 of my buddy to Thailand for one week with the money that we earn from the part time job :)
me & my buddy in front of the entrance to the Grand Palace, in the old capital of Bangkok.
At Pattaya Beach, 2 hour journeys of taking bus from Bangkok. You may have heard about "Nasi Pattaya" before, but i am not sure whether the famous dish came from this place. It is surprisingly a very unique beach-front city.
This Thailand's company train that we took from Butterworth was 1 of the most memorizing thing about our journey to Thailand. I broke my record by taking a 21 hours train ride, one-way.
Singapore's trip with buddies when i was into my "junior" year, 2010 :)
The captivating view of Singapore's skyline from Singapore Flyer.
---> 3rd Year in UMP (Senior's Year, 2011-2012)
There are plenty of things to do here in UMP other than just studying. If you are interested in some sports, badminton such an example, you can join up the sport tournament events such as Sukan Fakulti or Piala NC that are held annually/every semester in our U. If you are a former athlete from your previous school/state and you woud like to polish your skills, you may as well represent our University in MASUM (Majlis Sukan Universiti Malaysia) event that is carried out in different places in Malaysia yearly. MASUM is a sport tournament between all of the best players/athletes in every local universities, so you may expect the involvement of the national players as well (especially from UPM) . If you are lucky enough, you maybe chosen to represent Malaysia in the youth sport tournaments that are held in overseas. Usually there is a selection of players through numerous sport tournaments that are held in UMP as to choose the athletes for MASUM event. I would strongly recommend everyone to give it a try if you are interested on certain sport.
During the Kejohanan Ten Pin Boling Terbuka IPT at MIBC (Melaka International Bowling Centre), on November 2011. Bowling rocks!
During the Kejohanan Ten Pin Boling MASUM at UPM, on June 2011.
Money is always one of the problem for student these days. People often complaint that PTPTN is barely enough for survival in UMP. Well, there are some choices of working part time here. The common one is called as Skim Pelajar Bekerja (SPB) where you will be helping the staff to do some office work. The pay is vary, it depends on your working hour (RM3.50 per hour, you could make around RM 600 per month). If you are into your senior year (year2 and so on) you might be helping the researcher to do some research work (as a research assistant), and the pay could reach to about RM1000 (depends on your lecturer). If you are doing well in your academics, you might be offered to work as a tutor for the first year students in your own faculty too. During the last semester break (June 2011), i worked as a tutor for American students from Northern Illinois University (NIU) for 6 weeks. The pay is not bad though. I used the money to support my 1-week backpack travelling trip in Thailand :).
During our discussion with Prof. James T. Collin from NIU.
Taking the students to visit one of the Indian temple in Kuantan; It was part of the class's activities.
During the lesson session in class.
Besides that, I had also worked as the part time tutor for NIU in UMP during this year's semester break (Mei 2012-July 2012).
With Derek, a charismatic student from NIU (July 2012)
With Matt, he was indeed a very fast learner :)
With my boss, Prof James.T. Collin, a.k.a the advisor of the program.
Well, that're all the stuff that i would to share with you with my experience of studying for 3 years in UMP. I still have another year to go before i graduated from UMP. Hopefully you can get a rough ideas of what it feels like studying in University. You could either be a student that truly dedicated his life in studying, getting a good result & graduated from the U, or be a student that balance his study with his extra-co-curricular activities, by studying & having some fun at the same time. No matter what your choices are, i wish all the best to you in your university life ahead :)
* do drop me an email (laiyewchong89@live.com.my) or contact me via FB if you have any questions, till then :D
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