Ooi Jian Hui

How has your high school experience prepared you for university life in SMU?

As an ASEAN scholar since the age of 16, I have lived in the boarding school with greater independence level than ordinary high school students. Therefore, living on my own was already a norm for me in university years. Beyond that, I was enrolled in NUS High School,

which operated more like a university rather than the typical O/A Level system. Every semester, we would learn a different set of modules instead of the same subjects throughout 4 years for O Level or 2 years for A Level. I also had the opportunity to attend a biology course with NUS during my high school year, which gave me a sense of how a typical auditorium style lecture would be. That gave me grounds of comparison with SMU smaller seminar-style learning, and I personally preferred the latter due to greater interaction and involvement in each lesson. Additionally, as NUS High exposed students to projects as assessments, it equipped us with the soft skills that allow smooth transition to my university years.

What is your career aspiration and how have SMU’s career prep programmes helped you in making progress towards your goals?

My career aspiration has always been audit. Having 30 weeks of audit internships and being a member and President of SMU FACT, I would say my interest in audit is relatively high. Beyond that, I have also participated in SMU Career Fair and explored other options, before deciding to pursue my audit internship. With the assistance of DKHMCC, the process of registering for credit-bearing internship has been smooth, and the surveys done also provided me inner goals to achieve via the internships. Networking sessions with professionals have also been useful, especially those organised by SMU ASoc.

What advice would you give to prospective students (especially your juniors from high school) who are thinking of applying to SMU?

It’s definitely not a common place for students from NUS High School to be admitted to SMU, but I would advise anyone interested to be open-minded. The content that you study in high school years may not be applicable, but what’s important are the distilled and refined soft skills earned through experiences in those years. And SMU is the perfect place for those who crave for a city life, great interactions during lectures and a well-rounded university experience. Other than that, I would say please research thoroughly on what you can get out of this university experience, and what will make SMU special for you and your future career.