Southern Methodist University

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Majors: Biology and Health and Society Double Major
Minor: Chinese
Student Self Identifies as: South Asian Heterosexual Female

Summary

I’m part of Alpha Phi Omega, which is a community service fraternity. I’m part of Best Buddies. I also work at a coffee shop.

Background

Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: South Asian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

High School Experience: Private school in Columbus, OH with a graduating class of about 120 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Majors: Biology and Health and Society Double Major
Minor: Chinese

Extracurricular Activities: I’m part of Alpha Phi Omega, which is a community service fraternity. I’m part of Best Buddies. I also work at a coffee shop.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience? In what ways?
The different service clubs I’ve been a part of have impacted my experience. In high school, service was a big part of my experience and I wanted to continue that in college, so it’s been nice to do that on a larger scale. Then, working off campus is nice because I can walk there from my dorm and it’s nice to get off campus a bit.

Academic Experience

Can you describe your weekly coursework for your majors?
I have my Biology and Chinese classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have my Chemistry class on Tuesday and Thursday. I have a lot of lectures, one major lab for my Biology class. The weekly coursework is reading from the textbook and brushing up on things we learned in lecture and problem sets for Chemistry. My major graded assignments are mostly exams except in Chinese we are also graded on oral proficiency and how well we write characters.
Is there anything you feel that your majors’ departments do especially well or poorly?
I think the [College of Humanities & Sciences] does a really good job of providing a lot of extra help outside of the class. A lot of professors will hold group office hours where you can just go and ask questions in a big group setting after the lecture. They also have a lot of tutors and TAs that are available all the time.
I’m just starting with the Health and Society major and that’s in a separate school with separate advisors, so I’m just learning about that department.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
Within my school, it’s pretty collaborative. Everyone’s very friendly and helpful and everyone’s trying to help each other out, which is nice. I like being able to relax a little bit and all my peers are super helpful.
How accessible are your professors?
They’re all pretty accessible. All of them are required to hold office hours. Outside of that, if I need extra help most of them are able to meet if I need that. The professors are also super helpful.
What’s been your favorite class you’ve taken for pre-med?
I’m currently taking Genetics, which is really interesting. All of last year I took a lot of general Biology and Chemistry courses, which were very broad. Genetics is really interesting because we learn about different diseases and abnormalities and how those occur with the genes, so I find that really interesting. I also really like my Chemistry lab this year because we do a lot more hands-on experiments.
Why did you pick your majors? Are you happy with your choice?
I knew that in high school I was very science-based. I never really had an interest in pursuing business and knew that wasn’t for me. I didn’t know if I wanted to go to medical school or what I wanted to do with science, but I knew that I should try it out the first semester of freshman year. I really liked my Biology lab and found it really interesting. But, it was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be at first because I had all those science and math classes and I had a hard time adjusting. There were a couple of times I thought of switching but I realized that I want to go to medical school, so I’m glad I stuck it out.

Reasons to Attend

1) I didn’t realize that being in Dallas would be such a huge plus. I love all the opportunities that Dallas has to offer
2) The SMU alumni network is huge.
3) You get to meet people from all over the country. I’ve also met a lot of international students. You get to meet people from different backgrounds, which is really nice.
4) We have the Presidential Library, which is pretty cool.
5) We have a lot of very cool speakers come to campus.
6) They make the freshman transition super easy. We do this thing called Corral where we go explore Dallas and that is where I met a lot of really good friends. We then have an overnight retreat in cabins and you get really close to the people in your dorm. The transition was really easy because you get in a groove after spending a whole week with those people.

Reasons Not to Attend

1) It gets really hot.

Around Campus

Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: McElvaney Residential Commons with one roommate. It’s one of the older dorms but it’s in the middle of campus, which is nice. McElvaney is considered one of the more social dorms compared to the newer dorms, which I also really like.
Sophomore: McElvaney Residential Commons in a double.
How was transitioning from your hometown in Columbus to Uptown Dallas, TX?
They’re pretty similar. When I came here it had a Columbus feel because SMU is located in Highland Park, which has a suburb-feel, and the houses in the neighborhood reminded me of home. It’s nice having the suburb around me but also having the city there. The weather was definitely a transition, but I really like Dallas and like being able to have a bunch of things to do around me.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I think it’s really safe. I don’t feel like I can’t walk back to my dorm alone when I’m in the library super late at night. We have the blue light system and TAPRIDE where you can get picked up and taken somewhere on campus. I use that app a lot when I’m leaving the library or a friend’s dorm and don’t want to walk alone.
Was there any culture shock with going from the north to the south?
SMU is very different. There are a lot of out of state students from California and the people are very similar to my friends at home, so I didn’t feel a big culture shock going from the north to the south. [More than half of undergraduates come from outside of Texas. Following Texas, the leading home states for students are California, Illinois, Florida, and Connecticut.]

Social Opportunities

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
My friends and I will go to restaurants to get off campus to eat. Dallas also has a lot of food festivals and farmer’s markets. Dallas always has fun things going on during the weekends. At night, there are fraternities that throw parties off-campus – we can’t throw any parties on campus since it’s a dry campus. Fraternities will rent out a bar or something and anyone can get in 18 or older and they also throw things in their off-campus houses. There are also a lot of places in Dallas that are 18+ that are fun too.
What is the impact of Greek life on nightlife?
I was in a sorority for a couple of weeks and I dropped, but I still can go to everything. Not being in a sorority doesn’t inhibit me from meeting people and I don’t feel like I’m looked at differently at all. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about that. A lot of my friends are in sororities and we’ll all do different things sometimes to start out the night, but we all end up in the same places.
How did your nightlife differ freshman year when you were less socially established?
Sophomore year I definitely figured out the places I like to go and the people I like to be with. Freshman year I didn’t know what kind of scene I liked and especially first semester freshman year there are a lot of different things you can go to, so now I know what I like and can pick what to go to much more easily.
How happy are you with the weekend options at SMU? Is there anything you would change about them if you could?
I’m really happy with the weekend options. We have a lot more offered every night than just going out to bars and stuff. You can always go to some off-campus party if you want more of a chill vibe. It’s also nice that you can go to so many places 18+.

Campus Culture

How did you meet your closest friends?
I met them in McElvaney freshman year. I think the second semester of freshman year is when a lot of people found their real friends. A lot of my friends also dropped from their sorority, so we all started hanging out after that. A lot of my friends met their friends through classes, but I didn’t meet many friends through classes.
How would you describe the overall social scene at SMU?
SMU has a reputation for being very social and a party school. I think it might be more social than other schools. It’s very Greek life-oriented and the population is larger than other schools, so that was a factor I was worried about going in because I didn’t know if I wanted to be in one or not. After being here for a year, I realized it’s not as big of a deal as I thought it was. Because SMU is a super social school, I meet people all the time and everyone is very outgoing. [Approximately 43% of students are in Greek life.]
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I feel like SMU is pretty diverse. I was part of the East Asian club for a little bit. There are clubs for everyone and there are events going on for different kinds of people, so I feel like everyone can find their place and their people here. I’ve never felt like SMU has a typical person. I find I meet so many people from different backgrounds and races and it’s really nice to be comfortable here with all of that.
How do you like the size of SMU in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has it impacted your experience? [There are about 6,700 undergraduates.]
Since I went to a pretty small high school, I knew I didn’t want to go to a big state school since that would be a big jump for me. I feel like SMU is the perfect size. Last year, I would see the same people on my route every day which is nice, but you can always meet new people going out. It’s really nice coming from a smaller school since it’s not super overwhelming.
Do you ever feel like you’re more so a resident of Dallas than a student at SMU?
Sometimes I can feel like that because I’m not on campus as much this year because I babysit a lot. But, the campus scene has a strong college feel so I think I feel more like a college student overall.

Careers

What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
I’ve gone to the career office to look into research opportunities for this past summer, and they were super helpful. Also, all of my past professors offer research positions and you can get set up with a lot of the nearby hospitals for shadowing and volunteer hours. They’re super helpful for the pre-med students.
Have you learned any computer languages or software that will be helpful to you professionally?
I took a statistics class last year and I used Excel.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, how easy is the office to work with?
I’m on a scholarship and I have to maintain a certain GPA. I dropped a class last semester and ended up being below the hours for a full-time student but it was past the add-drop period, and they were super lenient. I took a class over the summer and that factored back into my GPA.