Read today’s TODAY newspaper and saw headline news about SMU going to have city hostel near their new Bras Basah campus. And flipped a few more pages, I saw SMU’s advertisement about online acceptance from 3rd May to 6th June.
I could talk a bit about NUS and SMU because I am studying in NUS, taking Industrial and System engineering course and Y is taking double degree of Economics and Information System in SMU. But that does not mean these two universities are better than NTU. Quite contrary, I have heard a lot about NTU, especially at an education fair sometime in March, where NTU and SMU’s booth attracted a lot of people.
For this year, all three universities have come out with a number of new programs, e.g. NTU has a new hotel management course which is collaboration with Swiss, NUS start to offer double degree program etc. And I think that is really a good thing because it means now freshmen have a lot of new options.
Well, backtrack to SMU and NUS, I am actually not surprised to find the newspaper ads stating that there are over 9400 applications for 1100 places in SMU this year. I think if I am a new freshman this year, I would just have a more difficult time to decide where I want to go.
From an academic point of view, I really like SMU’s learning environment: SMALL Class Size with a great emphasis on Project Work. After studying two years in University, one year as common engineering student and another year as Industrial and System Major, I think I have experienced both a large and a small class environment. And I find it really an advantage to be able to have a small class of 48 course mates because you can really stop your prof halfway and have a discussion about the concept together with your fellow course mates. This kind of teaching enables you to learn actively, and truly realized the goal of independent learning. You maybe surprised to find that you actually learn more from your peers than your prof because they may have exactly the same problem as you face, thus easier to communicate with than your prof. SMU particularly encourages this by allocating a certain percentage of marks for a module to class participation which is aimed for the students to ask questions during the class. But this has not yet been practiced in NUS.
And for project work, I feel it really helps you build up what will be needed when you go to work, no matter which field you ultimately go to. When I was crazy about having three projects on hand and having all three deadlines within one week the past semester, Y just feels it a piece of cake because since her first semester she had averagely 3-4 projects for the 5 modules she did per semester.
And if you think SMU’s standard may not be as high as NUS, then you are wrong. Take software engineering as an example. Though I have taken two more foundation programming courses, my project only requires me to do two third of what Y is required to do for her software engineering course in SMU. And not only that, the presentation and report are also of a stricter requirement. E.g. The school is very particular about timing in presentation and length of report which I think is good because nobody is going to give you a lot of time to explain in real life. What you need is to capture their attention and finish with in as little time as possible.
And from the hardware part, I think I don’t have to mention the state-of-the-art equipment used at SMU’s new campus. I am quite surprised to hear the description of their going-to-be-like lectures from Y --“everybody will be using a tablet and they will be automatically linked to the projector through wireless internet. So the prof can just link the projector to any student’s laptop and then the student would use the tablet as whiteboard to share his work.”
And if you are still questioning the quality of education you would receive at SMU because of its young age (comparing NUS’s hundred-year history) let me tell you this - what NUS is offering now SMU is also offering and what only SMU offers in the past, now NUS also starts to offer.
SMU is the first one to start offering double degree among the 4 majors it offers: Economics, Accounting, Information System (IS) and Business. Now NUS also start to offer double degree courses but with less combinations. Just this year, SMU starts to offer social science degrees as well and also includes that as a second degree. I think a second degree is especially economical for students who want to get the most out of the 4 years of university education and don’t forget you are only paying the tuition fee for one degree.
The concept of a global education experience has been the new trend in education. It has been a tradition for European students to spend at least a semester in another country and world-famous universities such as Harvard has also considering making it compulsory for its undergrads. NUS is quite proud for its overseas Student Exchange Program (SEP) with a large variety of destinations, but SMU also offering same kind of program. Especially that it offers a Spanish language course which opens doors to entire South American countries,
And if you are worrying about how market will value a SMU degree, I would say it is already very good and it will only become better. This is because firstly the incoming freshman quality has obviously improved a lot and secondly the practical aspect of SMU education has made a great impression with the industry. Just take the ONTRACK system that helps SMU student source compulsory vocational internship opportunity. The responses from employers are overwhelming considering that SMU has been just a young university with probably just a few batches of graduates. As Y told me, there are more than enough vacancies for SMU students to choose from and there are many vacancies are not even applied by the application deadline. But for NUS, the internship is optional and I have to search on my own. For instance, I started intern search about the same time as Y, she got confirmed after 2 weeks though school where I only got mine after waiting for at least 5 weeks and sending numerous emails. And with their campus moved to the heart of Singapore Business Zone, I believe the University’s link with various business activities in town will only be closer and thus more opportunity for its students.
Accommodation used to be a big issue for foreign students, but now the university is even going to get a city hostel nearby, so I think it is reasonable for me to say that there is nothing prevent people to choose SMU, except if you want to study courses it doesn’t offer.
i'm quite confused on which university to choose. NUS biz or smu biz/.. im not a very vocal person so i think im more suitable for nus style of teaching...
无名氏 @ 5/26/2006 5:40:18 PMsaw a familiar name in this passage. hehe. leave a line to show my support.
blueberry @ 7/27/2005 10:47:34 PMHey,Ｉam truly fascinated by your description of SMU. If I read this piece earlier on, I may end up choosing SMU. Well, then how much they pay you to do this advertisement? Just kidding .Indeed true, last time , my teacher also did recommend this university. According to him, the students from this university is more marketable.
pinpin @ 7/27/2005 10:37:50 PMi agree with you last comment. it takes time for a school to build alumni network; and that's one of the weakness of SMU. SMU is trying hard building it.Regarding your second last comment, it depends on how you define "a broad based education" right? what exactly are you looking out from that broad based education?
cai @ 6/17/2005 12:57:02 PMWell, I went to this tea session at NTU and changed my mind after that. I was a go-SMU-or-nothing until then. SMU prides itself for offering small classes and seminars, however by over-emphasising this point we overlook actually other schools do have seminars as well. Btw seminar style may not suit everyone.Also SMU can't offer a broad based education like NTU and NUS do.It doesn't have the support of a huge alumni background and network.
就这样了 @ 6/14/2005 7:58:09 PMwonderful comparison. thanks for speaking so highly of SMU =)
cai @ 6/14/2005 1:47:21 PM请Please leave your comment here