July 16, 04:04 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 When 23-year-old Shinna Lim stepped into Singapore Management University's Business school for the first time five years ago, she thought she had everything figured out.
After all, according to her, her personality fit that of the average business student — she was outgoing, confident and a "people person".
"I never second guessed it, and my parents were also very supportive because they heard stories about how much money business students can potentially earn in the banks and finance," she admitted, in a candid interview with Mothership.sg, while adding that her two best friends were enrolling there with her. "It seemed like a safe and right choice for me (at the time), but I never really dug deep into what I wanted out of my university education."
Shinna Lim with friends at SMU. (Photo courtesy of Shinna Lim)
And she felt fine throughout her first semester, breezing through presentations and between 20 and 40 per cent class participation tutorials, but a conversation with a friend she had struck, and then haunted her.
"I wasn't passionate about what I was studying, nor was I particularly excited about my potential future in banking and finance," she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post that garnered more than 1,300 likes and close to 300 shares.
Read her full sharing here:
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Posted by Shinna Lim on Wednesday, 8 July 2015
So, we don't know about you, but we had two huge questions on our minds when we read her sharing.
1. Why, of all things in the world to study, Engineering?!
2. Just how did she do what looks to most of the rest of us to be impossible??
To question one, Lim said Engineering is "revolutionary".
"Engineering has and continues to change the world. The intricacies that go into making an aircraft engine for example, blows my mind," she said.
Yes, as one would expect when it comes to girls going into engineering, Lim got more than her fair share of "It's a very tough course, are you sure?" and "You're a girl, you won't be as competent as the guys", but on the encouragement of her brother, forged ahead unfazed.
Certainly also, her father was not altogether pleased about her grand plan to switch universities.
"He felt that I wasted a semester's worth of school fees, but my mother reassured me that we cannot put a price on education," she said. "But they trusted me in what I was doing. I think my dad sees it now."
Shinna Lim with groupmates in a Year 3 project. (Photo courtesy of Shinna Lim)
The answer to number two is no secret, really, and what you'd grudgingly expect: sheer hard work.
"I didn't know anyone who did worse than me. I was at rock bottom," said Lim, who said she experienced major culture shock when she first started classes at NUS's Mechanical Engineering course. "In lectures, only the professor would be talking and no one asked questions."
As everyone else had already formed their study groups by the time she arrived in second semester, Lim said she took the initiative to make friends, making it a daily routine to pluck up the courage and approach a stranger in class.
"In engineering school, people were mostly introverted and no one would speak to me for no reason. I really had to have a very thick skin."
And thick her skin had to be, indeed — catching up for her was also about trying to be noticed and remembered by lecturers and tutors, so they would know her weaknesses and advise her on areas she needed to focus on.
Thankfully, she said, people eventually opened up to her and even became very helpful through her time there.
Just how hard did she have to work?
Lim would find out the hard way, taking the last-minute-cram approach to her first semester examinations — she ended up failing two modules and barely scraping a pass in two others.
With her 0.63 grade point average, NUS put her on probation for the next two semesters, urging her to see an academic mentor. This drove her to what she describes as a 180-degree switch in her attitude and approach to studying — asking lots of questions in class and going to her professors for consultation.
"I think consulting professors helped me the most because it gives you a peep into their brains and sometimes a rough idea of what was going to come out for exams," she said. "Having a study group is also important because we can learn from each other’s questions and we absorb concepts much more effectively."
Shinna Lim as a repair development engineer during her internship at GE Aviation. (Photo courtesy of Shinna Lim)
If you didn't have the time to read her entire post, Lim is now happily graduated and set to pursue double Masters degrees in Mechatronics and Technology Management (yup, we of course know what both those things are) at the Technical University of Hamburg in Germany.
Her advice to folks contemplating taking the plunge to switch university courses halfway:
1. Be mentally prepared for the tough road ahead.
2. Don't be afraid to ask questions or embarrassing yourself in class, because no one's going to remember what you said an hour later.
3. Put yourself out there and make friends. Dare to be vulnerable.
4. Have conviction and do your best; it'll be worth it in the end.
Top photo courtesy of Shinna Lim.
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