Six students from Yale-NUS College’s Class of 2022 to pursue Liberal Arts and Medicine Pathway

250 students will form the sixth class at Asia’s leading liberal arts college

Six new Yale-NUS College students have been selected to embark on the Yale-NUS and Duke-NUS Liberal Arts and Medicine Pathway, which will see them pursuing the Doctor of Medicine (MD) graduate programme at Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) after completing their broad-based liberal arts education at the College. All six students have received a conditional offer of admission to the medical school. The pathway, launched in January 2018, aims to groom future clinicians who are strong communicators and able to build connections across multiple disciplines. This broad-based mind and skillset will enable them to develop new solutions for healthcare in an increasingly complex world. In total, 250 students will form Yale-NUS College’s Class of 2022.

The College’s sixth intake is made up of a diverse group of students with outstanding extracurricular interests and accomplishments. In total, 8550 prospective students from 127 schools around the world applied to the College this year. 45 nationalities are represented in the new class, with students from seven countries represented for the first time. These include Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Finland, Ireland, Romania, and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Singaporeans continue to make up the largest pool of students in this year’s intake. 28 schools in Singapore are represented and 11 students are from the local polytechnics. The largest international cohorts come from United States, China and India.

Yale-NUS continues to expand the diverse and global nature of its student body, and moves closer to reaching its full capacity of 1000 students with this intake. Over 900 students from more than 60 countries are now residing on campus. The College evaluates its applicant pool holistically, assessing both academic and extracurricular achievements, as well as a fit for the unique curriculum and residential college experience at Yale-NUS.

The Yale-NUS experience is set to be a transformative one for these new students. Yale-NUS Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid, Ms Laura Severin, said, “We are confident that the Class of 2022 will grow in their time at Yale-NUS, and develop skills that will enable them to tackle the ever-changing challenges of the future. These students are filled with a zest for learning, and we are looking forward to seeing them contribute to Yale-NUS College’s community of learning in unique and meaningful ways.”

Many from the Class of 2022 are deeply involved in their community, and seek an education that will equip them with the skills and critical thinking that will prepare them to become the next generation of leaders, change-makers and professionals impacting society. One such student is Chua Yun Da, who embarked on a student-initiated project with the Children’s Cancer Foundation called Camp CauseWeCan, aimed at helping children in cancer remission transition back to school smoothly. Yun Da is participating in the Yale-NUS and Duke-NUS Liberal Arts and Medicine Pathway and he hopes that the programme will enable him to amass a diverse spectrum of knowledge so that he can better deal with factors beyond the immediate field of medicine.

“I think the role of a doctor, especially that of a general practitioner, is rapidly changing due to the advances in technology. For example, advances in mobile wearable devices have enhanced the monitoring of chronic diseases. The creation of centralised health databases and artificial intelligence software has also increased the reliability and speed of diagnosis, offering better treatment options for patients. However, the implementation of such technologies will not go well without the understanding of the art of policy-making, and the ability to adapt them to cultural nuances. Some of these factors are out of the immediate scope of a doctor, but instrumental in determining the efficacy of his work,” shared Yun Da.

The pathway will allow students like Yun Da to have access to resources and experiences, both academic and extracurricular, which will prepare them for a medical education and career while pursuing their liberal arts degree. At the end of their third year of studies at Yale-NUS, they will submit a formal application to Duke-NUS for the MD graduate programme to secure their final admission.

Students from the new class are also keen to contribute to the residential living community at Yale-NUS. Dragan Kantar, who is the College’s first student from Bosnia and Herzegovina, brings along his experience from United World College Changshu, China, where he spent a year as a residential intern.

He shared, “During my gap year as residential intern, I learned how to deal with many different situations that may occur in the residential aspect of education. I hope to be able to provide support for my peers at Yale-NUS College, having been exposed to issues regarding residential life at school from the perspective of both a student and a staff. I believe what I learned can help me play my part in creating a healthy campus community.”

Yale-NUS offers a distinctive curriculum and residential programme that encourages active learning, adaptability and critical thought. As a fully residential campus, Yale-NUS provides an immersive environment where living and learning are intertwined. Students are exposed to an interdisciplinary inquiry-based curriculum which enables them to master a broad body of knowledge and techniques, taught by a globally diverse faculty of leading educators and researchers who are passionate in mentoring and teaching.

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Yale-NUS College Class of 2022 at a glance:

Yale-NUS College at a glance:

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