Your niece needs to first decide which course is she more interested in. Social Science or Business?


In choosing a university, she can look at more important factors such as the teaching style, the number of years it takes to complete her degree programme, opportunities for a more holistic educational experience and the location.

Culture wise, I am not able to comment much. However for the competitiveness you mentioned, the one that deterred her from choosing SMU, I just want to add that in any university, there is bound to be competition. Just that in SMU, because class participation accounts for about 10%~20% of the module’s grade, students in SMU are forced to expose and express their competitiveness. So wouldn’t it be better if your niece is surrounded by outright competitive people or by people who don’t show it? Not an advocate of SMU but hopefully this advice is helpful.