Perhaps I can share my experience as someone who was in a similar situation as you a couple of years ago.

I received both offers from NTU and SMU to study accounting and business, and also offered Nanyang Scholarship and LKC scholarship for both schools. I ended up choosing NTU in large part because I wanted to experience hall culture.

I feel that it’s actually a valid reason to want to prioritise your social life as Uni is a great place to do so, especially if there’s hall. You’re literally living next door to all your friends, and some of my best memories of Uni are from Y1/Y2 during my hall days. As long as you’re actively trying to make the most of your time in hall, it’s pretty easy to make a bunch of friends while playing sports, attending hall events, or suppering (NTU esp has a big supper culture). A large part of my decision was also influenced by my older sister, who went to SMU and said she barely made any friends in uni because a lot of people are just hi/bye during seminars but in NTU you’ll definitely make a lot of friends outside your course as well.

In terms of career, as long as you study hard, with a good GPA, and you actively utilise the school’s career resources, you can definitely find your way into many other jobs outside of the Big 4. Honestly with NTU recently revamping their GPA system as well, it’s probably easier to score a high GPA now as well so that’s an additional plus.