A Scholar's Rant

This post is basically the sequel to the previous post, “Nailing That Dream Scholarship”. What do you do when you receive a phone call congratulating you for being one of the 40 scholars who have edged out the other few thousand applicants whose hopes were dashed in obtaining a sponsor? Pretty easy. Here’s how the script goes. You leap for joy, hug your parents, tell your close friends, attend the award ceremony, get your pictures taken by photographers and sign the contract. At the end of the day, you can feel the sense of accomplishment in you. That finally, all those times of traveling to and fro K.L. was worth every litre of fuel and every second of your time. Yes. That was how I felt until I saw the dreaded scholarship contract.


I never liked contracts, be it marriage contracts, scholarship contracts, Contract Law subject or even our social contract. As a matter of fact, I’m blogging right after I saw the marks for my second semester Contract Law exam. *disappointing* Personally, there are the pros and cons of being sponsored by a conglomerate as it is not necessary that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. For instance, one of the main advantages of being sponsored is that you’ll never have to worry about being unemployed. In my case, I have a bond of two years (which to my surprise, is relatively shorter compared to other scholars from other institutions) with Sime Darby upon my graduation from law school. Considering that they are a global player and Malaysia’s leading conglomerate with investments in property development, palm oil industry, motor vehicles and what not, this would probably sit in quite well for me right? Err, maybe not.

Secondly, you’ll have the ability to be independent as you won’t have to rely on your parents’ monthly allowance. Sime Darby scholars will be given an ‘attractive’ remuneration package which includes RM3000 upfront for laptop expenses, annual book allowance of RM600, payment of course and tuition fees and also monthly allowance of RM700 per month. Thirdly, there will be a ‘compulsory’ annual leadership camp for all the scholars including those who are in overseas. I initially thought that it would be held in some posh hotel or convention centers in the major cities of Malaysia, if not, Singapore or Thailand. It was held in a rural area of Merlimau of all places! So for those who are in need of some character building, morale boosting camp, I’m pretty sure this will come good for you. Sadly, not for me. I have egos and confidence as big as my head.

Now let’s go to the other side of the argument. *spicy* One of the main negatives of being a scholar would be to achieve the academic target set by them. For Sime Darby, every scholar has to achieve a minimum CGPA of 3.5 for every semester and if you don’t achieve it, you’ll be given counseling for the first two failures and if you fail for the third time, in Donald Trump’s words “You’re fired”. This is not even close to the 3.7 criteria set by Khazanah Nasional’s scholarship! Heck, I would have to be a Dean’s Lister every semester just to perform the contract.

It doesn’t take you to be genius to understand why such condition is inserted in the contract. Yet, as a scholar and a law student, I find it tough to reconcile with such condition. Firstly, law is never as easy as engineering where you put the figures into the formula and tada, you have the answer. Secondly, ‘counseling’ me for my failure to obtain 3.5 just doesn’t sound right. It’s not that we slack in our performance compared to what we are doing in SPM or STPM and go to the malls or play computer games all day, everyday. Most of us try our best and burn the midnight oil just to maintain that result. Law student, especially, can be seen looking like pandas due to the lack of sleep and can be compared to parrots who memorized hundreds of cases throughout three excruciating weeks of torture. Indeed, I was the one who signed the scholarship contract and also decided to undertake law as my subject of study but to counsel me for not trying hard enough to achieve 3.5 is a grave misconception. I have long decided to just forget about the target and just push as hard as I could and enjoy law school and uni life just the way it is. Besides, law firms do not usually recruit graduates who are 3.7-ers but would prefer to hire a more complete graduate equipped with leadership and interpersonal skills. So s***w the scholarship!

Aside from that, there is also a condition that a scholar’s academic result would affect his salary in future. This clause could either benefit me or work the other way round. I’ll put up a scenario and let you be the judge. Scholar A is from Harvard Law School who scored 3.5 whereas scholar B, a UM graduate, scored 3.8. Don’t you think that such clause is unfair to scholar A although I might be the one getting a higher pay? It is just unimaginable to compare the standards in UM as to those in Harvard. In addition, how could you judge a scholar just by looking at his/her CGPA? I might not be a Dean’s List but I’ve participated in more activities and functions just for one year in law school than in my entire primary and secondary education. This is the epitome of the educational system in our Bolehland country. Exam oriented! Our sponsors are like parents to us. We as their children would love to be their filial sons and daughters and please them as much as we could. However, one has to ask themselves this question. Would parents rather have a brilliantly smart child who is not independent, unable to express his thoughts and ideas due to lack of confidence or a moderately intelligent one who possesses leadership capabilities, vocal, bold and participates actively in extra-curricular activities? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

To encapsulate the points which I’ve highlighted today, I would like to stress that having a scholarship doesn’t mean that your journey would be a bed of roses, one which is free from financial constraints or any worries. For those who are not sponsored, don’t take it as a stumbling block in your life. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Do enjoy your life which is free from any CGPA targets or leadership camps in the middle of your semester breaks ‘cause university is the best place to have fun. Meanwhile, for those scholarship recipients who share my sentiments, I would just like to share a quote from the movie Spiderman, “with great powers, comes great responsibility”. Thus, with loads of money, come loads of headaches. Lastly, to the thousands out there hoping to land a scholarship, don’t be put off by my remarks. This is purely my personal view. People have told me that going for STPM is a waste of time and is very difficult but thankfully it turned out to be alright for me. Just believe in yourself and follow your INTUITION. Anyways, the quote below expresses the feeling of being sponsored at the moment.


"Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains,”
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

French political philosopher