Hi guys, I just finish my national service and I did managed to get a slot in NUS as a full time student with my school of choice. However, I am contemplating between working or studying first.

Study Part-Time while working full time is best

Why not do both at the same time?

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It is not uncommon for me to hear my friends (in NUS) working part-time on the weekends and even weekdays.

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In terms of workload, most of the cirriculums in NUS (even in medicine!) do afford for sufficient time to yourself which you are free to allocate to whatever you want, but of course you would probably need to plan/be able to manage your time well to make full use of this 'free time' and complete your assignments.

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Considering your post, I presume you have yet to start your course and will be entering this coming AY. If that's the case I think that it's a pretty good time for you to be abit more bold in your choice here as you do have the liberty of exercising the S/U option on many of your modules in Y1. Maybe try it out and adapt as the year progeresses. Besides, you could always change your decision in future if you feel that if the workload is too much for you to bear.

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Not too certain from your post what your actual concern here is, but perhaps a common one many of my peers face is that of passion. Since you mentioned that you managed to get into your 'school of choice', I'd think that you are pretty pleased and certain about your degree choice here. Thus, I'd infer that mayber perhaps the concern is along the lines of whether studying or working will be the most purposeful/efficient use of your time. And with respect to that, I'd still stand by my above suggestion and advise you to really test out your options to the fullest before fully commiting to what you want, especially if we're considering the ultimatum you've presented in your post. Be really certain with your answer to the question - 'Why do I want to x?' - and make sure that's its an answer that only you can come up with.

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If you're worried about financials, NUS has very robust and supportive financial aid scheme(s) that you could apply for.

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All the best.

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P.S. I'm a y4 NUS student so I hope that lends some credibility and context to my post.

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One way to look at it is to decide if you already know what you want to do in future. I suppose the course that you managed to get into is what you wish to pursue as a career. If so, you can consider to study first.

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Another way is to work first and explore different career paths because some times the one that we wanted initially may not be the one that we end up doing in the end. You may also decide to change your course of study to your new found interest.

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However, you should sit down and see if you can picture yourself pursuing either path for the next 10-20 years.

If you wanna be a gym trainer in the long term u should upskill to beat the competition out there. This is a very low barrier-of- entry job. You have to differentiate yourself. Get educated or develop a niche. Specalise in training for specific sports, disabilities, rehabilitation etc. Or focus on high-value clients, publicity etc. The end-game for most trainers it to own your gym or a chain of gyms. Is that your goal?

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If you don't foresee yourself as a gym trainer in the long run, then why consider work first? I'd only work first if I'm acquiring some skill through an apprenticeship. Like if a master sushi chef, cheese maker, carpenter, metalsmith offered me a job.

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I'm assuming here that you don't need the money urgently.