There are already very comprehensive guides out there covering all the details about NTU halls (see Useful Links at the end). You can also find all the essential information on the NTU website anyway.
This article does not seek to duplicate what’s existing, but instead offers a student’s perspective on hall life and what the actual experience is like.
There’s also a bonus section dedicated to medical students (attending NTU LKCMedicine).
P.S. The tone might be more personal as I’m sharing my own experience. FYI: I’m a med student and I stayed in Pioneer Hall. (Note: Crescent Hall is Pioneer’s “twin”, so everything will be more or less similar.)
Hall Room and Accommodation
Types of rooms offered:
- Single / Double
- Aircon / Non-aircon
- Attached Bathroom / Common Bathroom
I think my hall didn’t have the attached bathroom option, but anyway, I chose Double Non-aircon room with a random roommate. (You can also specify your roommate when applying, if you have someone in mind!)
The room is spacious with a bed, wardrobe, shelves, and desk. At least for me, there were more shelves and drawers than I’d ever need to put my stuff. It looks super nice and not dingy at all (Crescent and Pioneer Halls are among the newer halls—I can’t speak for every hall).
Hall and Campus Facilities
Facilities Within Your Block
Water coolers: There’s both hot and cold water on every level, near the common bathrooms. (Super good I like that they have hot water! You don’t have to bring your own kettle.)
Pantry: Each block has a pantry (mine had on two levels I think?). It’s very sparsely furnished, with only a microwave and induction cooker. There are no pots and pans, no utensils, no fridge, and no kitchen. This is not great if you intend to cook all your meals. Since there are a lot of convenient and affordable food options around (see Food section below), I personally found that most meals were best settled just by buying (much quicker, less hassle, affordable enough).
TV lounge: There are also TV lounges on at least 2 levels of each block. It has a TV that no one uses, and aircon that everyone does. Mostly it’s just a nice chill place to gather with friends. Of course you can study there too if you’d like. No booking is required, which also means that you’ll have to chope the room or see your luck.
Sky garden: This may not be a feature of every hall, but mine had a balcony area at two different levels. It’s like a nice outdoor space with benches.
Facilities Within Your Hall
Multi-purpose hall: Again, I’m not sure if this is a feature of every hall but mine did have one. It’s quite often used by the hall dance group for their practice sessions.
Seminar rooms: There are some rooms around which you can use for various meetings and activities.
Reading room: This is where you can find tables and cubicles for some focused studying. It’s just like what you’d expect of a conducive study room, nice and quiet, and importantly, there’s aircon.
Printing services: Each hall should have their own printers. The libraries definitely have them too and probably someplace in your school as well.
Facilities Within NTU Campus
Shopping mall: Our mall on campus is North Spine Plaza (everyone just calls it “North Spine”). There’s everything you’d need with a supermarket, bookstore, many F&B outlets, and a library.
Supermarket: The supermarket everyone goes to is Prime Supermarket at North Spine. If that’s not really along the way for you, what I like to do is get stuff I need when I’m on the way to hall (e.g. Jurong Point, any other mall or supermarket).
Convenience stores: These may not be all over NTU, but there’s a 7-Eleven at Hall 2, and a Cheers at South Spine. My hall was quite close to Hall 2, so it was really convenient
Library: If you don’t fancy reading rooms, libraries are great study spots. Besides the central Lee Wee Nam Library located right at North Spine, there are actually 6 other libraries in NTU. You can find the full list here. Definitely go explore if you’re feeling adventurous. For me, I found a nice spot at LWN so it just became my go-to place.
Clinic: Medical care on campus is provided by Fullerton Health @ NTU clinic. This one might garner some mixed reviews, because the waiting times can get quite long. Your best bet is to go there before their opening time of 8.30am. Not at 8.30am exactly, because by then there’d already be a queue snaking outside. But I always got everything I needed to get done there.
Sports Facilities
Gym: Some halls do have their own gym (but not all). They’d probably have the basic equipment, but would be smaller than the North Hill Gym, which NTU students can access for free.
Sports facilities: This might vary from hall to hall, but don’t expect too within the hall itself. Mine had a basketball halfcourt, plus a fitness corner. But we’re also right next to the Sports & Recreation Centre, which boasts a standard 400m running track, outdoor fields and courts for various sports, and indoor courts and bouldering wall. (I really liked this! — super convenient can just walk over)
Running track: Besides the 400m running track at the Sports & Recreation Centre, NTU also has a blue jogging track that goes around the whole campus. There’s probably a point along the track that’s accessible from your hall (for me it was just across the street). It’s easily recognisable by its blue rubber. There’s a 5km route, but apparently you can go anywhere from 1.6km to 7km.
Hall and Campus Food
NTU halls do not cater food for their residents. I think this is a huge plus point. There’s a great deal of flexibility. You don’t have to pre-pay for any meals or be limited to hall food.
Hall canteens: Each hall has their own canteen which is super convenient. The prices are quite reasonable, probably similar to Kopitiams outside (or maybe slightly cheaper, depending on the stall). Of course, you’re free to visit any other hall’s canteen, with your hall’s being the closest just a few steps away.
School canteens: You can also visit any school’s canteen (e.g. NIE Canteen). For hall and school canteens alike, there are diverse stalls to try. Go exploring or ask around for recommendations.
South Spine: South Spine also has a canteen, including franchises like Pasta Express and Subway.
Co-op Café: This café is just next to South Spine at The Hive. It’s mainly just Western cuisine—pasta, grilled chicken, etc. (It’s a student-run co-operative, so don’t expect super atas stuff.)
North Spine: As the mall of NTU, there’s a huge variety of food here. Besides the Koufu upstairs, you can find your favourite brands, including: Starbucks, MacDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut, The Soup Spoon Union, Umisushi, Mr Bean, Bakery Cuisine, Boost, and more. You can browse the full directory here.
Cates (food delivery app): The most amazing thing about NTU is that we have this mobile app. You can order food delivery from anywhere in NTU, with no delivery fee. This means you can get food from any of the hall canteens, North Spine, or anywhere with just a few clicks. The food will be delivered straight to your hall. (Some are delivered by robots!) The level of convenience is unparalleled.
Vegetarian and Vegan Food Options at NTU
Even as a vegetarian, I lived (or rather, ate) very comfortably while staying in hall. I’m not a strict vegetarian, meaning I won’t take meat but don’t need the whole stall to be completely vegetarian. There was always something I could find to eat anywhere I went, with no compromise on variety.
Personally I frequented cai fan stalls (economic rice) the most, as I could choose the dishes and pick vegetarian ones. And they were usually the cheapest option haha.
The Crowded Bowl at North Spine is quite well-liked. They sell affordable DIY vegetarian salad bowls. I do not like raw veggies, so only eat salads if they have a good variety of cooked sides and mains—a criteria which The Crowded Bowl fulfills!
Of course there are a ton of other choices not covered here. Being a vegetarian at NTU is not hard at all.
If you’re vegan or follow a stricter diet, I’m not sure if it might be tougher on you. I searched around and I think @ntueatsgreen could be a handy guide to discover vegetarian and/or vegan food in NTU.
Hall and Campus Transport
In-Campus Shuttle Buses
Shuttle buses bring you to most places around campus. There are 3 shuttle bus routes: Campus Blue and Campus Red loop within the campus, while Campus Rider goes to and from Pioneer MRT.
You can find all the information, routes, and maps at these sites:
Heartland Shuttle Buses to and From NTU
On weekdays during term time, there’s a shuttle bus service to NTU from several MRT stations around Singapore.
Currently the page requires a login to access. I can only assume this means they do not wish non-NTU students getting onto these buses? So I won’t be posting the schedules here, but if it might be helpful for your consideration, these are the locations of the Heartland Shuttle service:
- Heartland Shuttle to NTU (7 locations): Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Gombak, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines, Yishun
- Heartland Shuttle from NTU (3 locations): Ang Mo Kio, Sengkang, Tampines
Hall and Campus Activities
Hall Orientation
You’ll kick off your stay with Hall Orientation. Not sure if it’s for every hall, but at least for mine it was called “TOP” (Transition and Orientation Programme).
I didn’t particularly enjoy mine because it was over Zoom, and I couldn’t even truly talk to anyone. But I’ve heard that in non-COVID times, it’s a wild affair and wilder than school orientations. So definitely go in with an open heart and mind, and have a good time.
(If you enjoyed the experience a lot, later on you can also sign up to be an OGL for the next generation of freshies.)
Hall Council
You can run for positions in Hall Council (even as a freshie). Together with the others, you’ll organise activities for your hall. It’s just like a Student Council for any school, but for your hall.
Residential Education (RE@NTU)
Residential Education is where your hall provides some programmes and workshops open to all residents. There are things like cooking, photography, woodwork, and much more. You can find the full list of RE@NTU programmes here.
Our batch didn’t really get to experience RE much since it was COVID and not many programmes were running. I did consider a photography workshop, but then it was over Zoom and just some PPT presentation. I think post-COVID you might get to experience more fun stuff through this avenue.
Hall and NTU CCAs
There’s no shortage of both hall and NTU CCAs for you to choose from.
In general, hall CCAs require a lower level of commitment compared to NTU CCAs. This is especially true for Hall Sports vs Varsity Sports, but may not be so for certain Clubs and Societies. NTU CCAs include anything under the sun, and you can check them out on the NTUSU page or the NTU website (too many to list here).
Hall CCAs typically include:
- Sports: Badminton, Basketball, Football, Table Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball
- Cultural: Dance Crew, Jam Band, Acapella, Audio-Visual
- Recreational: Chinese Chess, International Chess, Contract Bridge, Scrabble, Boggle, Othello, Darts, Carrom
Note: The CCAs may vary slightly from hall to hall. Most are quite standard, but some halls may not have a few of the above.
Both Sports and Recreational hall CCAs compete annually in the Inter-Hall Games (IHG) and Inter-Hall Recreational Games (IHRG) respectively.
Dance competes in the Hall Olympiad Closing Ceremony (HOCC). HOCC is a big thing in NTU. Hall dance groups put in immense effort to prepare and practise their performance.
Anything You Want With Friends
Of course, you don’t need an organised workshop or CCA to just hang out with friends. My most favourite thing to do was find some people to grab dinner together. The next best thing was spontaneous night games of captain’s ball or frisbee.
Not forgetting suppers. NTU students’ favourite supper spot has to be the 24-hour coffee shop, Extension (964 Jurong West Street 91, S640964). It’s a 10-minute walk from the NTU entrance, right next to Nanyang Community Club.
You can even order Raydy Bee Hoon on Cates for midnight delivery! The 7-Eleven at Hall 2 is also open 24 hours.
(P.S. I’ve never been to a single supper my whole time in hall. This was a deliberate choice, as I prefer to sleep early and wake up early. I’ve also never drunk alcohol before. Of course I have absolutely nothing against my friends who do. This is just to say that you don’t have to succumb to supper or drinking or any form of peer pressure if you don’t want to. There are plenty of other opportunities to connect with your friends, and there’s no need to feel FOMO.)
Hall Point System and Recommendation List
ECA points are CCA points from your contributions to hall and/or school. There’s a tier, e.g. 7 points if you’re Chair/Vice-Chair, 5 points for Exco/Member. The points are non-stackable, meaning that even if you’re active in many CCAs, they’ll take only the activity with the highest points.
ECA points only secures you a placing. To get allocated the hall of your choice, you have to apply for Rec List. Rec Lists are exclusive to each hall. If you’re on your hall’s Rec List, it’s likely that you’ve been quite active in your hall, and as such, you get a higher chance of securing a place in that hall.
The Big Question: Should I Stay Hall?
This is the best advice: If you’re on the fence, just try. Especially if you’re a freshman starting your first year.
This is because although you’ll pay 2 months’ rent upfront (about $600+), you can move out anytime. If you regret or find that hall is really not for you, you can always leave.
Moreover, your hall experience is really what you determine it to be. You may be concerned about balancing academics and other commitments, with hall being one additional time-consumer. The truth is, you can deliberately choose what you partake in and what you don’t. This will allow you to experience hall while staying within the limits of what you have time and energy for.
Bonus: Hall for Medical Students in NTU LKCMedicine
Which hall will I be staying in?
In this, you have no choice. You’ll be randomly allocated to either Crescent or Pioneer Hall. They are right next to each other, and collectively known as CresPion.
This is actually a really amazing thing. You’ll be able to bond with your med school batchmates while you’re in hall, instead of being scattered all over the place.
How many people choose to stay hall?
In Year 1, majority will choose to stay hall, at least for the first couple of months. In Year 2, majority will not stay hall. (It might also be different for your batch? E.g. If the school decides to have more lessons at NTU, more people might see the utility in staying hall.)
How much lesson time is there at NTU vs Novena campus?
I think in Year 1 it’s around 50-50, in Year 2 much less of NTU campus and more Novena campus. However for our batch it may have been a bit different because all our TBLs (the main type of lessons we have) were online. Now they’re restarting in-person TBLs, which were mostly at NTU campus pre-COVID. So maybe more NTU campus in the future for Year 2 as well.
How do I get to Novena campus? Is it convenient?
Whenever there’s anything on your timetable at Novena campus, there will be a scheduled bus to and from Novena campus. You board the bus at Hall 6, which is just beside CresPion. (Bonus: you never have to worry about being late for class.)
There are also shuttle buses to and from Novena campus at fixed timings throughout the day. The first bus leaves at 8.15am, and the last at 5.30pm.
The bus ride takes about 40min. When traffic is good, it can be as quick as 30min.
Do med students take up hall and NTU CCAs?
When I first came in, I had the misconception that med students will be too busy to take on much else. But that notion was completely unfounded. Especially in LKC, we do have quite a bit of time and flexibility even during term time. Besides official CCAs and LKC activities, many of my friends pursue passions outside of school as well.
So to answer the question: hall CCAs, yes definitely. Of course if you’d like to join HOCC, give it a bit more thought, but many seniors have done it and done it well (both dance and med).
NTU CCAs, also yes definitely. Commitment level depends on the CCA. Clubs & Societies might be more time-friendly, Varsity Sports more intense. But we do have friends in Varsity Sports, and even national athletes in our school, so, anything is possible.
Useful Links
- Undergraduate Housing | NTU Singapore – official NTU website, should have all the info you need
- The Ultimate NTU Hall Guide (17 Questions Answered) – SG Unlocked – recent up-to-date guide if you want a bit more details
- The Ultimate NTU Hall Guide – Digital Senior – from a few years back so maybe read the one above first
- Internal Campus Shuttle | NTU Singapore – info on shuttle buses
- NTU Bus Routes (Beta) – maps and bus timings
Have a question? Feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. I read and respond to every message.