The Truth about SIM UOW Computer Science

Before sharing my experience, I want to make it clear that this post will not only involve the perspective of a student in said course (me), but also the mindset and thinking process readers should have if they are thinking of admitting to SIM UOW.

Some background about me : I am currently a penultimate student in SIM UOW CS , my weighted average mark is 80 , I do have a passion for the subject and I got an internship at a MNC in a role related to my major. I will be breaking down the following post into 3 main points: Curriculum, Students' mindset and Connections. You will see why I chose these 3 points to cover and how everything links together at the end.

Let us have 2 score counters (down, up) where we add a point to either down or up whenever we are at a disadvantage or an advantage in comparison to peers in local U.

Curriculum: Operates on term basis. Each term is 3 months long (effectively only 2 months to study as the last month will be 1 week exam and 2-3 weeks holiday), 4 terms a year. 2 modules per term.
This has a few implications. Firstly, you won't be able to do internships during your holidays like your peers in local U as their semester breaks are much longer. There is a news article released recently headlined, "Internships are the new GPA" and this is very true in a field where technical skills and experience really matters. In this aspect, we are at a disadvantage so let us +1 to 'down' counter.
Secondly, even though there are only 2 mods in a term, you need to pick things up relatively quickly given the short time period (there are terms where I have graded deliverables every week in the term). Can you absorb most of the content in the term if you are disciplined? Probably. Do you have enough wiggle time to explore more technologies and implement them? Probably not. Guess what? Peers in local U have 6 months in a semester to explore - compared to your 2 effective months. In this aspect, we are at a disadvantage so let us +1 to 'down' counter.

Students' mindset: The students here at SIM UOW are what you would expect - more chill and less competitive in general. Students here are also typically less hard working and less disciplined than our peers in local universities. However, this pattern only describes the student population in GENERAL.
Just like how there are unmotivated students in local universities, there are hard working students in private education. Let me give an example to illustrate: there is a year 3 module called CSIT314 Software Development Methodologies and we are required to built a working CRUD system for a specific business domain + other user stories etc. There are unmotivated groups who developed the CRUD system entirely on pure JAVA (with JAVA GUI as a 'frontend') and a database. However, there are also groups who developed it using stacks like MERN, groups who went to self learn spring boot framework/ DJANGO etc. Why is there such a huge difference in attitude and aptitude? Is it a school problem? All groups are SIM UOW, so it can't be a school problem. The only explanation is the individual's attitude and mindset. Just like how there are students in local U who cannot even get their IDE started, there are students in SIM UOW who go above and beyond to learn relevant technologies.
Is it harder to find such people in SIM UOW than local U? Probably. Are they hard to find? No. (source: trust me bro, I'm a student here)
In addition, I've also seen multiple students juggling internships in their final year along with school modules while other students having to re-mod. Why is there such a huge difference in attitude and aptitude? Is it a school problem?

Connections: Compared to NUS, NTU etc, the employer connections to big firms in SIM are obviously limited. In this aspect, we are at a disadvantage so let us +1 to 'down' counter. Connections and career fairs are paramount to landing your 1st internship in this competitive landscape.
When I was applying for my internship, I sent out ~40 applications, got about 5-6 interviews and 1 offer. My friends in SIM UOW would always comment on how fortunate I am. This 'fortune' didn't come by chance.
I studied very consistently to achieve my desired grades, watch ma boi Abdul Bari on YouTube to get through my Algorithms module, implemented technologies that the school project didn't ask for and taught coding on the sidelines. I worked for my fortune.
When I was interviewing, what impressed my interviewers the most was what I did extra in my projects, in my extra time when I'm not required to do so.

Reddit is filled with questions like "will private uni be a disadvantage" etc , of course it would be!
Take a look at the down counter, we are already down 3-0 (with 'up' still 0).

The correct question you should ask is : "Am I willing to be disciplined, learn as much as I can and make the most out of it despite being in a private university?"

Truth is, all of us considering SIM UOW CS probably didn't have stellar grades in JC/Poly/ITE. As you have read, we are at a disadvantage.
The only points where we can increase the 'up' counter is to be more disciplined and get those grades up, going for internships even though it's not a graduation requirement and learning technologies to put in your resume despite the module not requiring you to do so.

I met good friends here in SIM UOW who are willing to do more with me.
So before you apply to SIM UOW, think about your own mindset and goals again.
Are you prepared to pay the price and go above and beyond to learn such that you can make up for the disadvantage?

Thank you for reading.