A recent Saturday Straits Times article reported that students now needs more than just grades so as to secure a place in a local university such as National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU). Several reasons for the fight for a place in the local university are, more A-level students as well as polytechnic students are gunning for a degree these days and due to the number of babies born in the year of the Dragon, thus the number of applicants are extremely more during last year as well as this year which was anticipated by some.
Therefore, despite having straight As for their A-level, junior college (JC) students attempting to get into a specialized field such as the medical field are increasing their CVs with volunteer work, competitive sports and co-curricular achievements (CCA).
A student who scored seven As, reported that this was just only the bare minimum must-have for her to enter the medicine course. In addition, the admission people would also looked out for extra abilities a student have. While the 18-year-old student, Susan, increased her chance for a place in the local university by volunteering to helped out in community service expedition to build a library for an orphanage in Laos and working in a free clinic in Singapore, others increased their chances by striving their way up in their ECA, such as being the captain of the club, as well as taking part in international competition and being in the school team. Susan added that, she is not the only one making extra effort to secure a place, everyone in her class are doing the same.
From this newspaper article, conformity can be seen. Conformity is defined as any change in behavior caused by another person or group; the individual acted in some way because of influence from others. As what Susan mentioned, their fellow school mates were also doing voluteering work without having to be requested by organizations. Thus, students are influenced to do volunteering work by other fellow students around them in order to gain reward, which in this case is a better resume and higher chance to enter into the course desired. In social psychology, this is known as normative influence which is defined as the influence from other people that is motivated by a desire to gain rewards or avoid punishment.
On the other hand, other students might conform because of informational influence. Information influence is defined as the influence from other people that is motivated by a desire to be correct and to obtain accurate information. For example, after finishing their A-level, some students might not be sure how to go about increasing their chances to enter the desired course. Therefore, they rely on other student's source of information of doing more volunteering work so as to build up a good resume and impression for the admission people.
Therefore, in conclusion, students conform either because of normative influence or informational influence or both types of influences so as to get the end result of a better resume and a higher chance in attaining a place in their desired course.
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2 comments:
good point. it appears that the real driving force behind increased competition is this: we're simply driving each other on.
am a little concerned though, is volunteer work now a means or an ends?
it's sad that we have to resort to such means to build up our resume, get into a good uni etc. the world is getting too materialistic. sometimes you wonder if people really enjoy what they are going after?
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