U have obviously never been to a uni before. Every university in the world has some relaxation of their admission standards for students of exceptional skills or background. Yes, even NUS. If you look at the Stanford University american football team, u will see about 35 players who are blacks. If you telling me they can get into Stanford solely based on their top 1% of all students academic background and not on their ability to pass, run or catch the football, than u are dummer than I thought u are. However, u should know that PSC scholars fall into 2 categories. category A is the elite category, where u are connected or fastracked and the govt. will make sure the elite uni that u want to go to take u. People that fall into this category are Gay LOong, Hongyi, various assorted SAF Generals. Than there is cat B, which are the run of the mill heartlanders who want to go overseas to study. They usually have to qualify for a university themsleves.
But we are talking about CAt A SAF generals who have been admitted to elite universities. If they were not sponsored by the singapore govt., there is no way they could have got in. U don't believe, u just look at Li Hongyi. This kid is a spoilt unmotivated disaster. His academics are nothing to brag about, and in fact, his chinese is so bad even his grandfather Lee Kuan Yew commented on it. Not to mention the shit he pulled during his NS, and in OCS. U telling me this clown, on his own, could have entered MIT for engineering if his father was not the PM? Any other cadet would have gotten courtmartialled, and goodbye to a uni education. And yet, he miraculously got a PSC scholarship, somehow found time during his busy OCS schedule to study for the SAT, and than got such a high score, and pass his MIT interview by impressing everyone on the panel, and did all this to qualify for MIT? I don't think so.
Also, u should know u do not have to secure a place in university before the scholarship interview. My friend was a PSC scholar. He never did that.
