Friday, April 06, 2007

Admissions Interview

It was a nice long weekend for me since I could stay out on Sunday night. It was only a few hours before the interview when I realized I didnt really have any dress shoes. I had previously made do with my dad's old air force black shoes but they were lost during our move. I was forced to choose between a brown comfy leather shoe which would have been perfect if it wasnt a couple of sizes bigger than my feet and my brother's St John Ambulance Brigade parade shoes which looked decent.(if your eyes merely glanced over it and missed out the shoelaces) I shall keep my choice of footwear that day a secret.

My first thought was that it was a ghost town. I spotted barely a handful of people hiding inside seminar rooms. Apparently it was Week 14, the week before crunch time.

The actual interview itself was rather enjoyable after i got over my nervousness at being interviewed. The interview was conducted by a prof and a current student. I drew the Dean of Acc who had a horribly sleepy voice which almost got me. Despite having sufficient sleep the night before, I had some trouble keeping my eyes open during that 20 minutes because of that old lady. She was rambling on for a while before I suddenly realized I totally didnt hear a word of what she said.(or rather I heard but it just didnt registered in my head) From then on, I switched my attentions to Grace(or was it Kelly? it was one of those forgettable names) which was a lot easier on the eyes.

The talk was mainly about the lack of proper "halls" and "campus life". Grace/Kelly/??? was adamant that just because SMU did not have residentials it did not imply a lack of "campus life". On the contrary, SMU students channel their energy into their CCAs. My other concern was that SMU was so geared for the biz world that its students are less "undergraduates" than "interns" right off the bat. To be honest, given a choice between NUS and SMU assuming both offered the course I wanted, I would pick Kent Ridge without a second thought. I always wanted my undergraduate time to be a blast, a time for me to do what I want to do before the trappings of the working world closed in around me. I dont want an environment where the pressure is on for you to stand out to secure your grades. The duo were unapologetic on this which was fair. SMU was modeling itself as the biz school in Singapore and what could prepare a graduate better for the corporate life than 4 years of it? If you want to study business, you better put on your best face. As I told Eugene, you cant have your cake and eat it. Just for you boy, I went to look up the origins of the stupid idiom - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_one's_cake_and_eat_it_too

Since I was in the area, I took a detour to check out the legendary Donut Factory at Raffles City. I was disappointed to see the crowds were still 2 hour long. Damn Singaporeans!