So after a hectic day of church, lunch, shopping, new house stuff, mother's day!!!, etc etc, I started thinking about the Dean's List. It's something that I forgot I told myself at the beginning of freshman year to work towards to. Evidently I did not because along the way I was convinced I did not need these grades, I did not need to do well. That was my first mistake. NUS students, remember this: your first semester CAP is the most important thing. Mess it up and you'll spend the next 2-3 years trying to pull it up. So I went to look again at what makes a student eligible to be mentioned on the prestigious Dean's List and it was this:

Dean's List

The Dean's List is an award given to the top 5% of each cohort, with meritorious academic achievement, at the end of each semester (excluding the special term).

There is therefore no specific cut-off as only the top 5%, of eligible students, will be selected based on the Semester Average Point (SAP).  Students must have a CAP that is above the current pass with merit cut-off.  Those in their fourth year of study must have a CAP of at least 4.00.

The current Dean's List had about 277 students on it across all cohorts, which means FASS holds about 5000+ students (thanks Bert for the calculations haha). Which is fcking a lot. And to be the top 277 students... well that, to me, seems quite impossible. And yet I feel like I really want to attain this, really want to have something to emerge from uni and be proud of, something more than your average university student life. Is it very Singaporean of me? Craving after these academic achievements, seeking fulfillment in them. Perhaps. But it is very appealing! & I know that even if I don't end up on the Dean's List in any of my semesters after 4 years of study, in aspiring to be on it I will probably pull my grades up by quite a bit. And so that is my new aspiration for next semester. To get onto the Dean's List.