At NUS, Double Degree Programmes (DDPs) allow students to graduate with two different degrees in two disciplines. The programme enable students to develop deep expertise in more than one core discipline, addressing the trend of students gaining knowledge in multiple fields beyond their domain expertise.
Recent BBA graduate Eugenia Lee looks back on her time in NUS Business School and shares her experiences in the DDP – Marketing and Communications and New Media (CNM).
double degree would give me both the breadth and depth to explore my options, simply because of the number of modules I would have to take for each degree.
Taking up a DDP allowed me to pursue something I was interested in (CNM), while being “practical” (Business). I was an Arts student in JC and always had an inclination towards creative work. CNM would be a good platform to develop skills in the fields of public relations and editorial.
I wanted my University experience to be one where I’d learn things that I’d never encountered before – NUS Business definitely exposed me to a lot of this.
I ended up specialising in Marketing which, in my opinion, aligns best with CNM. If you look at it from a career perspective, Marketing and CNM both prepare you for jobs in a similar industry. For instance, it is not uncommon for a Marketing person to end up in a PR agency, or a CNM person in a FMCG company.
There are definitely a lot of overlaps but because the two schools are separate, I was given the opportunity to see things from different perspectives (e.g. same case study but from a CNM point of view and a Marketing point of view.)
One thing I never thought I would do at NUS Business School was to represent the school in cast competitions overseas.
Back when my sister was in NUS, I used to think that she was so cool, going on overseas competitions and representing the school. But there was a sheer amount of effort she had to put in. I knew that if I were in NUS Business School, I’d want to challenge myself to have a similar experience.
The initial stages of training for case competitions took a lot of getting used to. I had to learn how to juggle my schoolwork, take criticism for things that I thought I was already decent at, and to mentally prep myself to be more flexible.
Case competitions have definitely helped me grow as a person and having forged many new friendships. All these made the experience special and meaningful.
What are my future plans? One of the things close to my heart is pastry and baking. I’ve been pursuing this dream one step at a time, and even enrolling in pastry school. I’ll likely work for a while and see how things go from there. The really long-term plan is to eventually go into a business venture that’s pastry related. I haven’t quite thought of how it’ll pan out, but hopefully I’ll act on it 10-20 years down the road.
