Hey,
I'm a current applicant for the 2013 intake. I've done a lot of research into this Duke-NUS program, life in Singapore, and residency/matching afterwards. But of course there are still plenty of things I'm ignorant of.
Personally, the biggest deciding factors were location and family. My family is in Asia, and as a US citizen who is used to the American education system, Duke-NUS provides a distinct geographical advantage. In my honest opinion, if my family were in the US, I would probably never have considered Duke-NUS, not to take anything away from its prestige or credentials as a top school (even though it's only been a few years and they don't really have statistics to back up the name just yet). That said, I am applying to Duke-NUS and I believe the school has plenty of potential and I am willing to make my life in Singapore. It's a really nice place.
Choosing Duke-NUS is a major life decision. One will spend 4 years in MD program, 7 in MD/PhD, and be in Singapore for a 4-5 year bond commitment. And, residency will likely be in Singapore - I believe only 1 person so far has gone to US for residency. In addition, I believe I read somewhere (granted i don't know how valid this is) that you should pick your medical school with the consideration of where you would want to go for residency. The matching system isn't perfect, and there may be under-the-table deals between med students at a particular school with their affiliated hospitals (sounds like conspiracy theory lol, but I'm sure it happens to some degree). Even with a perfect matching system, you may need top stats and awesome references. One would think it's easier to get more influential reference letters from people who are in the hospital of your favored residency program, which would be possible if you had spent time at the affiliated hospital during med school years. That said, if you were to do residency in Singapore and the time for specialist training to be about 5-10+ years, depending what you want to do. Picking Duke-NUS = next 10 or 20 plus years in Singapore. I'm sure there are exceptions though.
Some pros of Duke-NUS that comes into mind is its TeamLEAD teaching style. Having experienced it in their applicant day, I can say that I really enjoyed it. Go read up on their website if you don't know what that is. All I can say is that if you are able to be on good terms with your team and make friends with them during the school year, it'll just be like hanging out with your friends at school discussing your favorite subject in the world - medicine 🙂
Their curriculum is great for people who want to pursue not only practice in medicine but also research. They cover basic/clinical science in the first year, rotations in the second year, research in the third year, and finishing off with more rotations and clinical experience in the fourth year. Their aim is to produce clinician-scientist, and I think they've made that pretty clear - through their curriculum and by emphasizing it more than a billion times in their website, mission statement, and in interviews.
The school seems to be very devoted in expanding its research, and is working with local hospitals, clinics, research centers, and the Singapore government. I don't know if all medical schools are so active in expanding their research. They also have the one of the top research med schools in US - Duke Uni - to help guide things, so I guess that's a plus.
The biggest con is probably the bond commitment. However, I believe it's a rather fair policy. Singapore is trying to tie down some doctors to relieve some of the pressure on the local healthcare manpower, and so it's not hard to imagine they would put this 5 year bond commitment. In addition, they are subsidizing the cost of education at Duke-NUS so it's only fair students repay them in some way. I believe the full costs are somewhere from $50,000-75,000USD, which is reduced to ~$35,000USD/year. The bond period pay is about $35,000USD/year, which increases throughout the 5 year bond period. So, in the end the costs may or may not be cheaper, but at least you won't be in debt and charged with interest. I estimated the calculations rather quickly so don't take it with a grain of salt.
Other than the bond commitment, if you want to do residency in the US, that'll be a problem. They tell you in the interview that they're not looking for people who want to end up doing residency in the US, as they are looking for people who want to stay in Singapore (in my opinion).
Housing in Singapore is ridiculously expensive - it's advertised everywhere on the internet and by Duke-NUS students. There is no dorm for international students at Duke-NUS. On the other hand, food costs are a bit lower than the states and transportation seems to be rather convenient. Singapore is clean, its citizens obey the law, education system (primary/secondary) is ranked quite well if you are thinking about putting your children there. It certainly seems like a nice place to stay for the long-term, although I haven't been in Singapore for more than a week.
