How would you describe your course to someone who doesn’t know about it?
I’m currently doing a double degree, and it means I graduate with 2 pieces of certification. One says Business, another says Social Sciences, major in Sociology.
For Business, let me explain it in a simple context. We all buy goods and services, and there are companies that sell them to us. So Business is essentially the complete study of these companies — finance, marketing, HR, all of that. That’s what a Business degree is preparing you for.
Sociology is slightly harder to explain. It’s the study of human beings in groups. Not individual humans, but how humans behave when they are in a group. So the easiest way I can put it: we look at things like social change, diversity and inequality on a societal level, big concepts like Democracy and Meritocracy.
DECISION MAKING
Where were you previously and how did it affect your decision process?
I was from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), where I studied Business. The thing is, when you’re going from poly to uni in the same field, it’s actually not that big a jump. A lot of the core concepts you would have already covered. So because of that, I wanted to do something more than just a Business degree. I didn’t want a single degree, single major in Business when I was already familiar with so much of it.
In NYP, I actually took a couple of general modules in Sociology and it sparked my interest in it. When I was looking at universities, SMU was the only one that allowed me to combine Business and Social Sciences into one structured programme. NUS and NTU don’t allow you to pair something so different. So that was a big reason why I ended up here.
What were the main factors that shaped your decision to choose SMU?
There were three main reasons.
The first was location. I was very, very sure I did not want to stay in a dormitory. That was my number one thing. Because SMU is a city campus, wherever you stay in Singapore, you can generally get there in under an hour without needing to move out. If I’d gone to NUS or NTU, staying in a dorm would have been a necessity. SMU was the only option that let me commute from home.
The second reason was the combination itself. Business was always going to be my first degree, that was set. For the second degree, there was a little bit of deliberation. What I ended up doing was just a process of elimination. I listed everything out, crossed off what I knew I didn’t want, and Social Sciences was what remained. I also had prior exposure to Sociology from my NYP modules, so it already felt somewhat familiar.
And honestly, the third reason ties into both of those. SMU was genuinely the only university that offered this specific pairing as a structured programme. So the decision became quite straightforward from there.
ADMISSION/SCHOLARSHIP
How competitive is it to get into this course, and what does the application process look like?
I was very fortunate to go through early admissions. Some universities open up early admissions for a select group of students in December, about a month before the regular January cycle. One thing I’ll say: early admissions at SMU comes with no application fee. So you save $100.
What really stood out to me about SMU’s process is that everything is in one portal. Your degree application, your scholarship application, your financial aid, all in the same form, about ten sections. At other universities you have to apply separately. I know for NUS, at least in my time, I even had to print out documents, put them in an envelope, and physically mail them in. SMU is really all-in-one and fully online, so that made things a lot smoother.
After you submit, it depends on your profile. If you’re a really strong applicant, SMU might not interview you at all. They’ll invite you to something called Discovery Day instead, which is basically a half-day event to find out more about the school. Free buffet lunch included, so please go if you get that. After Discovery Day, they send you your offer.
For everyone else, there’s a 30-minute Zoom interview with two professors and sometimes an alumnus. And I think the thing about SMU interviews is that there really is no set question. Everyone I’ve spoken to had a completely different experience. Mine was about the China ban on private tuition, which was in the news at the time. I’ve heard of people being asked about army leadership, people being put through business cases, people just being asked about their personal profile. So you genuinely cannot prepare for a specific topic. After the interview, SMU sends you a templated letter with a short handwritten note from the professors at the bottom. It’s a small touch but it was really quite nice.
Is there anything about the application process you wish you’d known earlier?
I think I was a bit surprised by how much personal detail they ask for. The form really does go deep. Academic transcripts, personal statements, your reasons for each programme. If I could tell my younger self anything, I would say: get all your documents in order before you start, and write down your reasons for applying in advance. Because when they ask you question after question, if you haven’t thought it through, you’re basically rethinking everything on the spot for every single section.
Are you on any scholarship? Which ones would you advise juniors to look out for?
I’m on the Lee Kong Chian Scholars Programme (LKCSP) and would highly recommend it, but with one very important caveat. The requirement is that you must have a double major, with one major in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, and the other major outside of Business. So if you have absolutely no interest in studying Business, this scholarship is not for you. Don’t take it just for the money if the combination doesn’t align with what you actually want to study. That’s a really important thing to be clear about.
For those who do fit the combination, the financial support is quite significant. Total scholarship coverage is close to $80,000. There’s also a $1,800 laptop allowance, which you can use not just for the laptop but also things like a mouse, monitor, or printer. A $5,000 living allowance every year. And about $16,000 to $18,000 for overseas exposure, which covers things like your flight ticket and accommodation for exchange. Certain expenses you pay first and the school reimburses you. This scholarship is also bond free for Singaporeans. Being able to graduate debt-free is something I’m really, really grateful for.
In terms of the vibe within LKCSP, it’s very chill. Nobody is pretentious. We don’t get together very often, maybe twice a year, but when we do it’s always a good time. There’s no internal competition. I have batchmates I barely talk to who would still help me out immediately if I reached out. It’s that kind of low-maintenance but genuinely supportive community.
One thing to note: the scholarship is only open during admissions. You can’t apply in Year 1 or Year 2. And the specific requirements do change year to year, so check the website when you apply rather than going by what seniors tell you.
Editor note: The amount mentioned here is subject to change, and does not reflect the updated amount that you will be getting as a LKCSP scholar. Do check the official website for the latest information.
TEACHING CURRICULUM
What’s your course structure like?
So for a single degree, the breakdown is roughly one-third university core curriculum, one-third your major’s modules, and one-third free electives.
For a double degree, you take your university core modules as per normal, and then you take the degree core modules of both your first and second degrees, plus your major electives from both sides. So there are no free electives. Everything is allocated. I think a lot of people don’t realise this before going in.
In terms of total modules, my specific combination required 44 modules. Without exemptions, that would normally take about 4.5 years. I had the maximum number of exemptions my school allows, which is five, so I’m completing it in four years. What that looks like practically: five modules for seven semesters, then four modules in my final semester.
Do note this varies a lot depending on your combination and exemptions. Business and Accounting can be cleared comfortably in four years. Business and Computer Science — most people need five years for that. So it’s really worth checking with your academic advisor in your first semester to map it out properly.
Are there specialisations within your degree?
My specialisations are Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources(OBHR) for Business and Sociology for Social Sciences.
I was already doing HR in poly, so it made sense to continue. But I did genuinely consider other options. Operations Management and Strategy both crossed my mind at some point. What helped me decide was just taking the introductory modules. For Ops, I quickly realised there was too much math for my liking. For Strategy, it felt a bit too broad and general for me. So after going through those intro modules, OBHR felt like the right fit.
My advice: don’t declare a major without taking its introductory module first. One semester of exposure will tell you a lot more than any amount of research. I also have a friend who did part-time internships across three different fields before declaring her major, communications, marketing, and strategy, just to test which one she actually enjoyed. She earned money while figuring it out, which I thought was actually quite clever.
The Social Sciences degree has two tracks. At the point of admissions, you choose between PPS, which is Psychology, Political Science and Sociology, or PLE, which is Politics, Law and Economics. If you choose PLE, that’s your degree. Your degree would show Social Sciences with PLE. If you choose PPS, you then declare one of the three as your major. I went with PPS and then chose Sociology as my major.
What is the format of your assessments/exams like?
For me personally it’s been roughly 50-50 between exams and project-based assessments, but that’s largely because I deliberately bid for modules that lean more towards projects. I cap myself at about two final exams per semester.
The nice thing about both OBHR and Sociology is that there’s genuine flexibility. You can skew towards exams or towards projects depending on your preference, because both kinds of modules exist across both majors. For context: Marketing is roughly 70% project-based. Finance and Accounting are mostly exams. Operations Management leans about 60% towards exams. HR sits around 50-50.
How heavy would you say the workload is for a double degree student?
Compared to single degree, single major, it’s significantly heavier. But compared to single degree, double major? For my specific combination, the difference is actually only three modules. So the physical workload gap is smaller than people assume.
Where the real weight comes from is mental and emotional. There are days where I’m in a finance mindset in the morning and I have to switch to a Sociology frame in the afternoon and then switch back to Business mode in the evening. These two fields are so different from each other that training your brain to keep toggling between them is genuinely tiring. I think if I had a senior tell me this upfront, I wouldn’t have struggled so hard in Year 2 when it started to hit. You need a lot more persistence and determination for a double degree than a single degree. That’s just the reality of it.
What is a day in the life of a student in your course & school like?
I also work part-time outside of school, so my day is quite structured around that. I prefer to bid for the earliest morning slot, usually 8am, so I can finish class and head to the office after. From about 1pm to 3pm I’ll take project meetings, then work through until the evening. So it’s really school in the morning, work in the afternoon.
For those wondering if working part-time is manageable at SMU, I would say yes, it’s definitely doable. Is it tiring? It is. You sleep a bit less and you feel like you’re constantly out of time. But because SMU runs on three-hour seminar blocks, it’s actually quite easy to time-block your day around work commitments. The key thing is to find a role where your employer is flexible. If you need a couple of hours off to study for an exam, they’ll give it to you. At one point I was juggling CCA, five modules, and a part-time job simultaneously. So it’s possible. You just need to be deliberate about it
How are the faculty / professors of your course like? Any favourite professors!
This genuinely surpassed my expectations. SMU faculty are hired to teach, not to research. And I think that’s a really fundamental difference from some other universities. Your professor actually teaches you. They don’t outsource it to a teaching assistant. And they’re not there reluctantly. They are all very, very passionate about what they teach.
I’ve come to understand that faculty appraisals at SMU include things like how frequently they give feedback, whether they reply to student emails, how proactively they engage with students. So there’s a structural reason why they behave this way. Their appraisal depends on being a good teacher. And it really does show.
In four years, I’ve only had one professor who genuinely wasn’t in the right frame of mind to teach. Just one. Every other professor has been someone I’d describe as invested and responsive.
Are there any final year projects / capstones / thesis to do?
For Business, there’s a module called “The Design of Business”, the Business Capstone, where you work with a real client on a real problem. I want to be really clear that it’s not an FYP. It is one credit, the same as every other module. People sometimes over-stress about it, but it’s really just one credit. Recommended to take in Year 4.
For Social Sciences, you can choose to do a Senior Thesis, but that’s optional. You have to apply for it separately. There’s also the Social Science Practicum, where you similarly work with a real-life client. The difference is it’s pass/fail and recommended in Year 2. What you actually do in both is quite similar: project management, case study work. Just different in timing and how they’re graded.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE / PREFERENCES
What were your most and least favourite/interesting classes/part of your course?
My favourite has definitely been the Sociology major electives. I took modules on capitalism, on the communitarian approach in Singapore’s governance, on democracy. These are topics I’ve always found genuinely fascinating, and the professors did a really good job condensing very big concepts into something you can actually learn within a semester. Even though I can’t necessarily regurgitate the content now, what I got from those classes was how to think and analyse. That’s the real takeaway from a Sociology education.
My least favourite was the Business core curriculum. This is because you have to take introductory modules for all the different majors. And when you already know what you want to do, sitting through subjects you have no interest in is a bit of a chore. This is more of a personal preference as I just really knew what I wanted and found it frustrating to have to go through the rest.
What are some thing(s) you didn’t know/expect about the course before starting, and what are some things that surpassed your expectations?
I think I didn’t expect my second degree to be as heavy as the first. Subconsciously I treated it like a side hustle. But when Year 2 came and things got more intense, it hit me that both degrees are of equal weightage, like genuinely equal. I had to train my brain to give both equal attention, and that took real adjustment. I really wish a senior had told me this upfront: both degrees are equal, treat them that way from Day 1.
What surpassed my expectations was the faculty. I really did not expect that almost every single professor would be that passionate about what they teach. It made such a difference to the quality of my learning. I’ve only had one professor across four years who didn’t show up in the right frame of mind. Every other one, genuinely invested.
Are there any common misconceptions/stereotypes about your course that you would like to debunk?
Two, actually.
The first one, the classic: “SMU Business students are all snakes.” Let’s do the math, how can 100% of the snakes be in SMU Business? That is mathematically and probability-wise just not possible. Is SMU Business more hustle-driven and competitive? Yes, that’s fair to say. But competitive doesn’t equal toxic. There are people across the full spectrum here, and SMU is large enough that you can absolutely distance yourself from people who don’t align with your values. Please don’t let this reputation stop you from seriously considering the school.
The second is that a lot of people assume that if you want to study Social Sciences, SMU isn’t the right destination. I understand the instinct. But SMU’s Social Sciences school has been growing a lot in the years I’ve been here. And I think the really big benefit, specifically for SMU, is the double major option. A lot of Social Sciences students who aren’t sure where they’ll end up career-wise will pair their degree with something like Marketing, HR, or Communications. So if their primary interest doesn’t translate into a clear career, they have a concrete qualification in a second field. That’s a real, structural advantage. So please still give SMU a chance if Social Sciences is what you want to study.
What sort of student would excel in / be suited to take up a double degree?
I’ve always said this. You need genuine passion in both your degrees. Not “I want to try” passion, not “it looks good on a resume” passion. Like, it has to be real interest from the bottom of your heart. Because statistically, very few double degree students at SMU actually graduate with both degrees. Most people drop the second degree within the first year. I’ve even met someone who dropped theirs in Year 4.1, three and a half years in. That’s a lot of time and effort to walk away from.
So if you’re thinking of doing a double degree to explore, honestly, just don’t. Do a double major instead. A double degree is a serious commitment and it will ask a lot more of you, mentally and emotionally, than you’d expect going in.
CAREER PROSPECTS
What are the career prospects like for this combination?
I’ll be upfront. This degree combination is very odd. Most people I know with it end up building their career around the Business side of things, whichever major they specialised in. The Social Sciences degree plays more of a supporting role. It sharpens how you think and how you engage with people, rather than being the direct career driver.
For me personally, I’m planning to go into something HR-related, in line with my OBHR specialisation. Longer term, I want to do a Master’s and eventually a PhD, with the goal of teaching at university or polytechnic level. It’s a mix of personal interest and professional direction. If I wasn’t genuinely interested, I wouldn’t be willing to put in the extra years of study.
Did you have any internships/work experience related to your career and did your school give you sufficient training & resources?
Okay, so I’ll be upfront. I’m a bit of an outlier here. I only did one formal internship. Mainly because I’ve been working part-time throughout university, so the need to stack internships wasn’t as pressing.
What I can speak to confidently is the career centre. SMU has, I think, genuinely one of the best career centres around, and most students don’t fully use it. My biggest recommendation is to email your career coach and actually meet them. A lot of people either don’t know what career coaches are there for, or they’ve had average experiences in JC or poly and assume it’ll be the same. At SMU they’re quite different. When I was preparing for job interviews, my career coach helped me craft my answers point by point. What to say first, how to transition, how to respond if the interviewer pushed back. She tailored it to each specific company. It was really, really helpful.
They also have free personality tests, resume workshops, interview prep sessions, and access to a lot of resources that you might not even know exist. The challenge is that there’s so much available it can feel overwhelming. So the simple solution is just to email your career coach and tell them what you want. They’ll point you to exactly what you need.
Practical tip: if your career coach is slow to reply to email, send them a message on Microsoft Teams. I know someone who did this, and it actually works.
STUDENT LIFE
Is there actually a vibrant student life at SMU without dorms?
I really, really disagree with the idea that SMU has no student life. Come stand at Bras Basah MRT on any given week during semester and there’s always something going on. The first seven weeks of semester especially, it’s non-stop events. I would honestly say compared to other universities, we probably have more, just not limited to one hall of people.
I think the key difference is that at SMU, engagement is entirely your choice. In a hall setting, you often need to earn hall points to keep your spot, so there’s a certain pressure to participate. At SMU, if you want to go, you go. If you don’t feel up to it, you don’t. That flexibility is what I think makes SMU’s student life its own thing.
And the production quality at major SMU events is genuinely impressive. Because we’re in the city centre, events happen at real venues. Skating at Marina Bay, arts productions at actual theatres. Patron’s Day, which is SMU’s annual birthday celebration, runs with a stage, lighting, and sound at a professional level. I’ve been to events at other universities and the difference is really noticeable.
In terms of the people and culture, I would say the general vibe leans quite career and resume-conscious, even from Year 1. A lot of people are already thinking about internships and full-time prospects early on. But SMU gives you enough space to decide how you want to engage with that. It’s a big enough campus that you can choose your own path.
What CCAs are you in, and how has that experience been like?
I’m in Broadcast and Entertainment (SMUBE), where I work as an emcee. I deliberately chose only one CCA, and I wanted it to be something completely different from my coursework. I was already emceeing back in poly, so it felt like a natural continuation in a new environment.
Through my EXCO positions in SMUBE, I think I’ve developed skills that actually translate quite directly to the workplace. How to communicate with stakeholders, how to manage vendors, how to do budgeting. These aren’t things you pick up from a textbook. My advice to anyone coming into SMU: commit to at least one CCA, go for an EXCO role, do it for your first two years, and then redirect your focus to career-building in Years 3 and 4.
Also, you’re paying school fees. You’re paying for this student life. Don’t miss out on it.
And if you’re interested in a CCA like SMUBE but feel uncertain, auditioning or interviewing is free. Just go for it. You can ask your questions during the process and get a feel for it firsthand. Give it a shot before deciding if it is for you.
What’s been your most memorable CCA moments?
Patron’s Day, every year without question. The scale of it, the stage, the professional production, months of preparation coming together in one night, it gives you a feeling of collective accomplishment that’s really hard to describe. But beyond the event itself, the process taught me things I genuinely did not expect. How to source and manage my own outfit. How to communicate with professional hair and makeup artists. How to hold a big team together under sustained pressure. Seeing a six-month project come to life in front of a full audience, that feeling stays with you.
What overseas exposure did you take up?
I went to two places.
In Year 1, I went to Bandung, Indonesia, through an SMU-X Overseas module. SMU-X Overseas is SMU’s overseas experiential learning format. You have about a week of classes in Singapore, and then after exams you fly to the host country for about 10 days to work with a local client. My module also involved working alongside Indonesian students. Total cost for everything, flights, accommodation, programme fees, was about $1,500 to $2,000 and it’s very affordable. The barrier to entry for SMU- X Overseas is quite low. For most modules it’s just regular bidding. For more popular destinations like Germany or New York, some professors hold a short interview, but it’s really just a vibe check to make sure you’re genuinely interested in the content.
What I found most interesting was seeing how different the entrepreneurship culture is in Indonesia. It’s much more franchise-driven. Becoming your own boss by taking on established chain models rather than building something new. And the Indonesian students were incredibly hospitable. They brought us around even during their own exam season, which I thought was really something nice.
I didn’t do a traditional six-month exchange. The cost without additional funding was difficult, I genuinely couldn’t bear being away from Singapore for six months, and module mapping is complicated for a double degree student. But I want to say: there are plenty of overseas options that aren’t six months long. Don’t feel like the full exchange is the only valid path.
In Year 3, I went to Oxford for a six-week summer programme. That was about $16,000, which I wouldn’t have been able to do without the scholarship. Oxford operates on a lecture-tutorial-seminar structure, which is really different from SMU’s seminar-only format. Honestly, coming back from Oxford made me appreciate SMU’s format a lot more. Three-hour seminar blocks are so much easier to time-block your day around than multiple one-hour slots spread out. In terms of actual learning, I wouldn’t say one pedagogy is better than the other. It’s more that each suits the kind of subjects being taught. Oxford is very academia-focused, so lecture-tutorial-seminar makes sense for them. SMU is more management-focused, so the seminar style works better here.
What are some opportunities/facilities/resources that you feel that are not so well known among students that they should be utilising?
The library portal and its research guides. SMU has free subscriptions to academic journals, Bloomberg, paid world newspapers, and databases like EBSCO. Most students don’t know this exists and just default to Google Scholar. If you’re doing any research-heavy work, the library portal will really level up what you produce. There are subject-specific research guides for each field, just search for the one relevant to your major.
What are some food recommendations nearby?
Two spots I’d say are worth knowing.
At Plaza Singapura Level 6, there’s a Sichuan restaurant called Ba Shu(巴蜀), the one with the blue panda. It’s affordable and works well for group meals. When you split the dishes across three or four people, it’s actually quite reasonably priced.
At City Link Mall near City Hall MRT, there’s also Hundred Grains. You pick your dishes and they charge by weight, with free-flow rice. Good option for a filling weekday lunch on a budget.
PARTING ADVICE
What are some things that you think incoming students should know or expect about this course before committing?
I think if you’re doing a double degree, especially an uncommon combination like mine, you need to understand that you are the exception, not the norm. And because you’re the exception, don’t FOMO. Don’t compare yourself to people doing single degrees. Your schedules, your free time, your stress levels are just fundamentally different. Own the path you chose and be confident in your own choices.
The best advice I received in university was from a batchmate. He said: “In uni, you can do whatever you want. You just need to know the consequences of your actions, and if you’re okay with the consequence, then you can do it.” I think that’s really, really good advice. As long as you know what the end result looks like and you can live with it, just do it. If you look at the end result and it’s not something you want, then reconsider.
Any parting words or advice for juniors? :,)
It’s okay to not have it all figured out. I think a lot of young people today think really hard about their futures, which is good. But sometimes you can overthink to the point where it becomes its own problem. Follow your gut. Trust that things will make sense eventually. You’re in your 20s. Being a bit lost is part of the process, not a sign that something has gone wrong.
And honestly, most people who look like they have everything figured out? They don’t. They’re just better actors. Everyone is quietly trying to work it out. So don’t put other people on a pedestal and assume you’re behind. Just make solid decisions, and it will all fall into place.