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Woohooo!!!! You’re headed to Philadelphia or London (or what have you) for what could be the greatest one or two years of your life! Yes, we know: The few months before your MBA adventure begins are filled with hope and possibilities. While it’s true that opportunities and success fall into some lucky individuals’ laps, the majority of good things result from proper planning.

The freshman 10, freshman 15, or in my friend’s case, freshman 40. Those extra pounds are the bane of new university students’ existence. Why, oh why is it that by the end of their first year in university, students have typically expanded a few dress sizes? Actually, the answer’s pretty obvious.

So you’ve got the brains and drive to study abroad, but you can’t leave Singapore. Perhaps you have a career here that you can’t abandon. Maybe your family needs you. Or, perhaps getting up and moving to the USA or UK would simply be too costly.

Consequently, you’re considering shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to enroll in an online course. However, will you get your money’s worth? What is the value of an online degree?

Flip on the television and images of violence in America abound. From news clips on the most recent hunt for a new serial murderer to television series such as CSI: Miami, it sometimes seems that crime is woven into the very fabric of life in the US. From Singapore, where a single rape is headline-worthy news, US crime rates seem big, scary and ugly.