SMU Personal Statement

SMUPersonalStatement
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Describe the highlights of your most outstanding achievements or contributions (Maximum: 300 words). Information that is declared in this section may also be used for selection of admission into SMU under the Discretionary Admissions framework. Examples of such achievements/contributions include but are not limited to the following:
  • Excellence and/or leadership in sports and/or arts;
  • Impactful leadership and/or participation in community service and volunteer programmes;
  • Significant awards and achievements in area/s relevant to the course applied for;
  • Noteworthy involvement in work (internship) relevant to the course applied for;
  • Noteworthy involvement in entrepreneurial activity;
  • Ability to overcome significant difficulties and life challenges.

Copies of supporting documents, where available, to attest to these achievements, must be uploaded online at Applicants’ Self-Service after submitting your online application for admission.



Personal statement for SMU 300 words

When I was 7, I decided I would make music for a living, spending 12 year in choir with 4 leadership positions in total, and attaining a grade 7 pass in piano at 15 years old. At 12, I switched over to film and theatre, pushing myself to consistently top my O Level Drama class, and at 17, I gave up trying to plan my entire life out. In all these vocations I laid out for myself, I struggled to make art, to be like the ones I admired: Debussy, Stanley Kubrick and Christopher Nolan. I possess an insatiable love for the expression of thought, as well as a voracious curiosity for exploring the functions of brain and society, which drive or influence the very thoughts I seek to express.

Growing up relatively larger than most girls my age, my determination to become who I wanted to be started with losing 12kg in the course of a year, and exercising my social skills by seeking out a more diverse group of people with similar interests as me on the internet. With an even greater thirst for adventure, I ventured out of Singapore to sunny Melbourne, where I tried my hand at interning at an architecture firm, and attended a 2-week long leadership program-specialising in psychology- which pushed my sociability to new heights, having such a large group of peers from different nationalities to talk to.
In Junior College, I stepped up during our community service activities to lead my class in cleaning the bedbug-infested home of an old man, understanding that my temporary minor discomfort would bring this man ease for much longer. After A Levels, curiosity brought me to Vietnam where I spent 10 days living with 2 orphanages in order to learn about poverty outside of Singapore.

Scholarship Essay for SMU: significant challenge and how i overcame it. 300 words

When I was 12, I received 2 devastating letters, which broke me spiritually for a time. One informed me that I had been rejected from an arts school I had been wanting to go to for 6 years, whilst the other stated that I had failed my Grade 8 Musical Theory exam which I had spent 2 and a half years preparing for. As someone who spent their entire life basing their existence on a talent for music, to say that this broke my heart would have been an understatement. I was always taught, up till this point, that if I worked hard for something, and if I wanted it enough, the world would be fair and give it to me. This instance triggered a fundamental change in my mentality, which would stay with me to the present day.
Of course, like any sad little girl, I wept for my loss. I had been utterly, and permanently made aware of the fact that Life Simply Is Not Fair. For a time, I could not face the music, literally, as I felt like I had lost my entire identity. Physics always taught me that there was a finite amount of potential energy in the world, so I assumed that maybe I had used all of mine up. This was when I heard the story of Pandora's Box, which reiterated that only in the darkest of times, could there be space for inherent human hope. I was transfixed by this story, and started to write down my feelings, finding that music was not the only art form I had a natural inclination towards. Strangely enough, this rejection forced me out of my one-dimensional hole, allowing me to experiment with many other things which I would have lost, if not for that failure.


NUS Personal statement 2000 characters
When I was 7, I decided I would make music for a living, spending 12 year in choir with 4 leadership positions in total, and attaining a grade 7 pass in piano at 15 years old. At 12, I switched over to film and theatre, pushing myself to consistently top my O Level Drama class, and at 17, I gave up trying to plan my entire life out. In all these vocations I laid out for myself, I struggled to make art, to be like the ones I admired: Debussy, Stanley Kubrick and Christopher Nolan. I possess an insatiable love for the expression of thought, as well as a voracious curiosity for exploring the functions of brain and society, which drive or influence the very thoughts I seek to express. This, is why I believe that the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is the best possible institution for me.

Growing up relatively larger than most girls my age, my determination to become who I wanted to be started with losing 12kg in the course of a year, and exercising my social skills by seeking out a more diverse group of people with similar interests as me on the internet. With an even greater thirst for adventure, I ventured out of Singapore to sunny Melbourne, where I attended a 2-week long leadership program-specialising in psychology-which pushed my sociability to new heights, having such a large group of peers from different nationalities to talk to.
In Junior College, I stepped up during our community service activity to lead my class in cleaning the bedbug-infested home of an old man, understanding that my temporary minor discomfort would bring this man ease for much longer. After A Levels, curiosity brought me to Vietnam where I spent 10 days living with 2 orphanages in order to learn about poverty outside of Singapore.

Life has taken me to many places, many which I have not wanted to go. However, in the end, as Aristotle says, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” I am greater than my experiences, as I possess the free will to decide who I am and who I will be.  

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