SMU Interview (11/04/2014)

(Note: Read the maroon words to skip all my ramblings.)

I am not doing anything with my life right now. I really just stay at home all day and do nothing.

Sooo I officially turned 19 yesterday~ Yay growing old~
After 19 birthdays the specialness of a birthday just wears off... I still enjoy the cakes though~

Alright. So now I am still in the process of choosing a university to go to. Thank God I am eligible for local uni. I really don't have the financial means to go overseas or private universities. Gonna have to take up loans just to go local u. ):
Why's education so expensive. Isn't learning new stuff beneficial to everyone? Like really, the student benefits by learning new stuff and securing a stable income, the family benefits (pride, stable income etc), society benefits (educated individuals do behave more rationally, plus literacy rates increase and who knows, the student might find a cure for cancer), the government benefits (pride, cure for cancer, improvement of standard of living of the country...)...

So why they make education so damn expensive when everyone benefits??
Like I read somewhere, "What if the cure for cancer is trapped in the mind of someone who can't afford an education?"

My mind is a mess. I don't really know what I'm thinking nor how to say it.

*SMU interview starts here* *Road to SMU interview starts here*
So I was scheduled for faculty of social sciences interview on 11th of April. I did a bit of research prior and all I read was individual interviews with a very casual setting where they asked about mundane things like what are your hobbies, what do you do in your free time etc to get to know you better. It was two interviewers to one interviewee.
So I happily went for the interview without preparing anything and it turns out, oh no, I was in a group interview of 5 interviewees to 2 interviewers. It was a very bad day for me. From the start, I was running late because I do not have a punctual bone in my body. Then Google Maps lied to me and said that it was a 7 mins walk to SMU from City Hall MRT. I made an unconscious left turn when I was supposed to turn right because of road obstruction, so I ended up walking in the opposite direction. The SMU people had to call me 3 times to direct me and they didn't know where the hell I was either. Such a bad day. And it was raining. I did not have an umbrella nor was there shelter. These kind of things only happen when it matters you know.

I spent another 10 mins loitering at the entrance of School of Social Sciences because I couldn't find the visitor's gate. *Ensues third phone call* I finally reach SMU School of Social Sciences an hour late.

(Take Circle Line MRT to Bras Basar. SMU is right outside the MRT station. There are two rows of gates beside an ice cream shop near Mr Bean. Walk towards the left row of electronic gates and the very left gate is the visitor gate.)

*SMU interview starts here*

When I finally showed up, they gave me my name tag and put me in a room with 8 other girls sitting around a cramped table, each reading an article and furiously writing (I was kinda intimidated at this point. Articles?? WRITING???) and told me to take a seat. I had to interrupt the girl beside me to ask what the heck was going on and she said that we had 20 mins to read the two article that they gave us which we are going to discuss later in the interview (whhaaaaattt??). They were all furiously writing small, neat, aligned words on the foolscap paper while I just started scribbling because I haven't written in so long and my handwriting... I'm so ashamed of it.

One of the pages of my scribblings

(They gave us two articles on poverty, one for Singapore establishing a poverty line, one against. 20 mins to read the articles, not allowed to bring the articles into the interview room where we then discussed about the articles. 5 interviewees to 2 interviewers, one a professor at SMU, the other a SMU alumni.)

And then they brought us to a waiting area (without refreshments, sadly) and split us up into two groups of 5 and 4 (one girl was absent). We chatted while we waited and that really helped to ease the tension we were all feeling. :)
No surprise, the first topic that came up was "how did you get lost??"
So when it was our turn, they brought us into a conference room where we seated opposite the interviewers, facing huge wall-to-floor windows where we could see people entering and leaving the elevator, which, honestly, was kinda distracting. I really liked the room though, because I like huge windows. It made the room seem bright and much bigger than it actually is.

The professor started talking first. She had a PhD in cultural rituals and was teaching Performance Arts. She talked about herself and the school and made a few jokes to help us feel comfortable because we were really tense. The alumni, male, was now working with the government to extend help to the people (sociology work, I imagine). We put our names tags on the table in front of us.. Which to me made the whole interview seem very formal.

How it feels like after you put the name tag:

In reality:

The first question we discussed was "do you think Singapore should establish a poverty line?"
Some people said no, some people said yes. All of them had very logical reasons for their stand so there I was, thinking "how do they decide who to enroll then, if all of us are about the same standard?"
One girl in particular had a very convincing and well-thought answer. She said that she was working in close contact with family with financial needs, and that a poverty line would be unfair because they calculate income per capita of a family, not of the number of people reliant on the working individual. For example, a single mom only has two children, so income per capita is divided between 3 people which is in acceptable range. But in reality, she has to feed her children, her parents, and her in-laws (I think the husband passed or is incapable.. I forgot that part). 7 people were dependent on her one source of income, but she could not apply for financial aid.

I forgot what the other 3 people said (also very logical reasons, just not that impactful)...
I said that yes, a poverty line should be established but it should not be an ultimatum because there is no certain, 100% foolproof way to measure poverty, like the girl above mentioned pointed out. However, a lot of resources, manpower and time is needed to cater to and calculate each household's poverty standard, and even more is required to extend modified help, so a poverty line should be in place as a filter to induce faster action. With a poverty line, the government can first extend help to those below the poverty line and then slowly cater the extended help. (Blah blah... Basically having a poverty line saves time, but said in a more sophisticated way *smirks* haha.)

And then they asked a few more questions and asked if we had any questions to ask them. There were quite a number of awkward silences as we were thinking of what to say but the professor managed to fill them up. The interview was kept very casual, so don't be afraid to laugh and joke to relax. Show them who you are and make them like you.

We said our kinda awkward goodbyes and left. The end of the interview.

Afterwards I talked a bit to the current student in charge of the interviews and I found out that we are graded upon 20 marks for our interview.. Nobody knows what they were looking out for to grade us. If you get above 16, you are guaranteed a spot in SMU. Of course, you won't ever know your score.

They sent me my admission email 4 days later on the 15th. (YAY~) I must've done something right that day. xD

(I still don't know where to go. NUS accepted me into Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences too. I have not heard anything from NTU. I have to accept an offer by 2 June, but that's a long time later... Supposedly. ;D )