Life in SMU: 20 thoughts/memories

A note i started on FB.

I know some of you can't wait to graduate and part with the air in the Seminar Rooms/GSRs forever. But somehow, as I count down towards my last academic day in SMU (Strategy Final Paper on 18 Apr 2009), i can't help but to feel a tinge of sadness (yes, being emo!) about completing the last mile of this journey. There are things which I'm glad I have achieved, and some which I have regretted doing or not doing.

So here's my 20 random thoughts/memories about SMU from a graduating student's perspective.

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1) A pity I didn't get to experience life at the old Bukit Timah Campus. How nice it would have been to have a garden in the university's backyard. Some of those NUS law students hor still complain so much about the place being too ulu..haha.

2) My first lesson in SMU, i remember, was LTB. There were 6 girls and 2345678987654 guys in that class, thanks to Registrar's brilliant idea (rumored) of arranging the class register based on NRIC numbers. However, great friendships, project groups and ONE brilliant couple has emerged from that class. So it'll always be a memorable university class I have attended.

3) Graduating at a time of recession certainly isn't very healthy for our morale as we gear ourselves up for start of worklife. But i think not many people will live through such tough times to be able to tell future generations about their struggles and bleakness at the point of graduation. Then again, what doesn't kill u will only make u tougher. So brace yourselves, my friends!

4) To call yourself a true blue econs or finance major, you really need to do more modules under each discipline man really. I generally feel the modular requirements under each major should be stepped up to allow students to learn more areas of the field.

5) Enough said about scrapping TWC, merging BGS & Ethics modules, making FT a pass/fail module...i don't think they're ever gonna change the system for years to come anyway, cos these uni core mods are part of SMU's selling points anyway.

6) For those majoring in Finance Majors, you really should be taking FAM (I think it's called Financial Mathematics now) as a compulsory module just like how Econs students must do Maths For Econs in their freshman year. FAM really provides good foundation in finance basics.

7) I'm actually damn glad that there's no FYP requirement for my majors. But then again, i probably won't be able to tell anyone anything about acad stuffs like thesis-writing.

8) Ok, I really regret not going on exchange. But then again, the situation wouldn't have permitted me to go away as well.

9) It was really a privilege to learn sailing thru' SMU Sailing Club, something you don't get to do easily from elsewhere. Go try it out! At least go learn how to sail dinghy boats for leisure or something.

10) To be fair, I think Office of Career Services (OCS) has done a pretty good job in providing avenues for internships and job-hunting.Maybe what they need to do is to increase their transparency in selecting resumes to send to companies for internships.

11) They should make Overseas Comm Service (OCIP) a compulsory pursuit for all students man. Seriously, OCIP can be very meaningful and is a cheap avenue to travel around exotic places. Also, this is where (again) strong friendships, couples and beautiful memories are formed.

12) SMU terms are darn short, totally not conducive to find girlfriends and boyfriends. While school terms are for mugging and scoring good grades, summers and december breaks are meant for enjoying yourself and pick up useful non-acad skills. So for the younger ones, forget about doin' summer modules really (unless u bo bian).

13) The rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer. This is somehow what I felt while trying to run a sports cca in SMU, struggling to fight for bigger budgets and getting ourselves recognized as a good sport that the school is worth investing in.

14) I don't understand why the school always has to spend money replanting the grass on Campus Green after the grass gets destroyed cos of various school functions held there or due to massive stampedes by wild people tossing flying UFOs or giant olive fruits around!

15) Fujitsu laptop fans seriously cannot make it. How many of you out there are holding fujitsu laptops that produce ferrari engine sounds?

16) I think we have a nice backyard with the national history museum and fort canning providing both grandeur and serenity. But somehow, i only found myself walking up and down the pavement connecting Sch of Econs and the Sch Library, stealing envious glances of tourists going in and out of the museum. Eh people, let's do an outing to the history museum (free admissioN!) before leaving SMU! Anything free is good (I quote KY)!

17) I should've taken the opportunity to do an overseas internship and experience foreign culture and independent living instead of doing some local saikang work just to get the supposedly nice name of the company on my resume. I think I was very narrow-minded in that sense.

18) I wish I've borrowed and read more books frm the SMU library. They really have some very good (albeit small) fiction collection in there. Geeeekies say aye!

19) I honestly think I would not have been very much different if i had gone to either NUS or NTU business school. But still, it's the things you see and the people you meet who make the experience a unique one. The opportunities offered by this school are plentiful. A pity I didn't grab enough of them. The way we all morphed has also been slow and subliminal. It's only in seeing how others have changed that we see some reflection of ourselves. Still, I hope all of us have stayed true to ourselves, dump the bad and bring along the good with us when we leave SMU.

20) Fate has brought me into SMU and meet some of you very great people out there. Cheers to our friendships for many many years to go. For those whose toes I've stepped on or whom I've upset, hope we can let bygones be bygones and all the best for your future endeavors yea.

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