Why Do You Do What You Do, SMU?
By Shermeen Tan, SMU; Photography by Marvin Lowe, SMU

City campus. Short skirts and chunky accessories. Antique vases in the library. Seminar rooms with swivel chairs. Laptops open and cups of coffee in the middle of a cluster of students frantically typing away…..Welcome to SMU - where town's a stone throw away and a student cries if you crash his/her laptop in Week 13 (well, either that or you get strangled).

This is SMU where Week 15 means exams, Week 13 means a non-stop slew of presentations and report deadlines and when killer eyebags are the new fashion fad, while Week 8's mid-term "break" is just a joke of the actual definition.

SMU's the one with happy, perpetually jumping people on our publicity posters, the winner of CLEO's Campus Fashion Face-Off (search for the best-dressed university) and of course, transplanter of THE 70-year old, 37-tonne, 21 metres tall Raintree.

Here, we have seminars instead of lectures and tutorials, so if you're the sort that's thinking of skipping class to take a stroll down Orchard Road…. think again. It's easy to disappear in a lecture HALL of a hundred or more people, but try doing that in a seminar ROOM of fifty people.

However, if you're the sort that's all game for participating in class and enjoy working with people, hello? Have you been looking in the mirror recently? You have "SMU" branded all over your forehead. We are graded on participation. And project work? Please. Don't get me started. You'll be doing so much of it that "my project mates", "team work" and "meetings" will be your new answers to those questionnaires that ask: "What are you most commonly used phrases?"

You know, every single fortnight by some strange karma, someone will inevitably ask me why I chose SMU or why they should come to SMU. I've answered the same question so many times that I seem to have developed this marketing spiel as a reply:

"Why would you want to go anywhere else? If you're going to study a business-related degree, be it BBM (Bachelor of Business Management), BAcc (Business of Accounting), why would you even consider another place?

SMU is a business school. EVERYTHING is business-orientated. We have CEO talks, finance talks, marketing talks, corporate communication talks; courses such as Finishing Touch that teach you how to write your resume, dress appropriately and prepare for an interview; the Office of Career Services that sources for internships for us and provide CV assistance; opportunities such as the Business Study Mission modules whereby students spend a term studying the business and economic background of a major city (like New York or Shanghai) and at the end of the term, the whole class takes a 2-week trip to that country to visit renown corporations.

If you think about it, business is all about networking. So just imagine the benefits, considering that your entire current cohort will probably be the next crop of business, finance, economics and accounting individuals you'll meet when you step out into the working world."

Sounds a tad materialistic? Perhaps. That's a vibe some mention about SMU, and it's something I think most SMU students would admit themselves. We have a culture that's undoubtedly vivid and dynamic, but at the same time, with this glossy sheen to it.

The "gloss" is this picture-perfect quality SMU has about it - from the architecture of our new campus to the way students interact with each other to how all our events are presented. Everything seems a little larger than life. It's a prevailing surface pleasantness that is neither bad nor good; a superficiality that one might have to agree that it is necessary, like an occasion that calls for polite niceties. One could say it's similar to the corporate world, where everybody strives to upkeep the façade of civility and everything smacks of political correctness. So, I guess we're doing very well for a business school then, apparently we've even managed to simulate the corporate-environment.

It's an ironic testimonial: our "marketing" is too good. Most students have learnt to "package" themselves so well that the overall feel of the population is one that is beginning to border on "plastic". Can you blame us? After all, doesn't it make perfect sense to want to only showcase your better side? In the business world, that's what you always do with your product anyway. Marketing isn't about telling lies, it's about drawing attention to the best and sweeping the rest under the carpet. Half-truths, if you like.

So there are a lot of times when what you see in SMU might not be what you get. There are the events with big glossy posters everywhere and swanky advertorial emails that hype you up only to fall short of your expectations; there are the articulate, well-dressed acquaintances who you suspect are more (or less) than what they seem; the project mates that drive you up the wall, but you are forced to remain cordial with for yours, theirs, everybody's sake; and of course, the SMU "interactive pedagogy" and "participative methodology" that's much talked about, but frequently take a backseat to "8.30am-tiredness" and the usual student reticence when faced with the "I-won't-talk-if-nobody-else-in-class-is" atmosphere.

But hey, you know what?

I still love SMU and am really glad to be where I'm at. I know it sounds sappy, I know it sounds as if I'm giving in and being politically correct to appease my university's administration, but I'm not. I didn't get paid to say that (but if somebody wants to, SURE, by all means, be my guest!).

SMU's a university where you can have a blast, if you want to. There's a lot to be gained if you're willing to step out from your comfort zone and socialise, to try things you've never done before. True, the projects will stress you up and make you pull all-nighters in the GSRs; the food prices here are atrocious even with discounts (logically, we all understand it's the rent and prime urban city land which equates to EXPENSIVE EXPENSIVE EXPENSIVE, but don't sue us for complaining); and sports facilities, um, what sports facilities? (Okay, to be fair, besides our very impressive gym and a newly-opened multi-purpose sports hall.) Even so, just be confident and proactive, and sooner or later, you'll find your comfort niche and settle in.

So will anyone and everyone who enters SMU enjoy it? Honestly, it'd be ridiculous for me to say I can guarantee that. All I can say is that if you're a people-person and look forward to being involved in a multitude of university activities (where many here find their stabilizing core of friends) then SMU's likely to be the blend of work and entertainment you're looking for.

O Myth, Art Thou True? Check out this section as we bring light to all the myths about SMU!

So what do SMU undergrads think about the SMU? We kidnapped the nearest few we could find, shoved them into the nearest handicapped toilet and tickled them till they answered us. One escaped and we were caught. Subsequently, we were sued and now are appealing for release on bail. Oh, ha-hee-ha, my toes are laughing. If you had enough of this bad humour, please read on.

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