How to make life meaningful at SMU
Hello, Im matriculating into SMU this year. I seen many threads here providing very cursory explanations, I am hoping for more niche responses based on the school itself on making life more meaningful. As someone who has chosen SMU over NUS, I must say that I got sold on the wrong things like global exposure and seminars because I soon realise the other 2 unis have them too. Still finding SMU super friendly and somewhere I will enjoy and I do see its perks, but Im looking for more reasons.
During Destination the Y2 student from BBM talking on stage just yapped a bunch of everything abt what makes SMU different but yapping a whole bunch of nothing because its generalized and all unis allow you to do that.
Other than stuff like
making friends because everyone is welcoming ( again depends )
central so less travel ( NUS and NTU does have some locations not too far either )
global exposure which is guaranteed ( I mean other schools also have just lower prestige partner unis for the average student bcos the high prestige ones are taken by FCHs )
the socratic culture teaching soft skills ( Im sure the soft skills can be learnt elsewhere too, the best students would already have them SMU just inculcates it further, besides soft skills can only take you so far, otherwise every non uni grad who has soft skills can outearn a uni grad, likewise every non uni grad with no soft skills cant outearn a uni grad which we know isnt true )
large amount of CCAs ( Honestly, all the top 3 has a plethora of CCAs, this doesnt set SMU apart )
seminar and class part ( Similar courses in management, biz do also have class part and seminars in NTU and NUS, doesnt really set them apart in the later years ) Prep work is also very present in the other unis
With the usually compared stuff brought aside, I do still see benefits though
Some things I can think of right now are
Friendly school administration ( Even admissions they do respond really fast )
Financial aids and bursary ( It is actually rather easy to get, and overseas sem exchanges only requires you to pay SMU school fees, excluding accoms and food )
Grind/hardworking culture ( I do want to grind in my uni years so this may be beneficial for me. Present in all schools but its more prominent in SMU for some reason )
Not many campus stay options so you arent missing out by not staying hall ( socialise out of school but not required to live on campus, never been a fan of halls )
Seminar from year 1 ( a friend told me I didnt need to readapt like NUS which introduces it gradually in year 3, so by year 3 when you are trying to maintain your GPA it should be a rather comfortable learning environment )
Some questions I have
/4 GPA, Why? Any differences? Obviously yes but how big?
Seminars, what if people ask stupid questions just for class part? Time gonna be wasted
Why are the students so enthusiastic? Is the school culture that great? Seeing people defend SMU on reddit non stop
Socratic method and soft skills. You can develop them elsewhere, why so heavily marketed? I would argue critical thinking skills can come from places like science majors away from a management school
Does the lack of S/U mods affect uni that much?
As a student who has already accepted SMU, Im just trying to find out more while airing some thoughts and preconcieved notions I have from conversations with seniors and friends. Please dont bash