In a commentary, ST Senior Education Correspondent Sandra Davie noted that SMU, Singapore's third university, began taking in students in 2000. From the word go, the University competed as an upstart with established players and got them to rethink what they themselves were doing. Faced with the challenge of establishing its own identity from the start, SMU chose deliberately to differentiate itself from NUS and NTU. Unlike the two established universities, which then admitted students based on examination results, SMU used a broad range of criteria when it admitted its first batch of students. By adopting an American-style of teaching students in small seminar groups and giving marks to students for class participation, SMU graduates were later recognised by their employers as being more articulate, confident and mature – and this was seen as the "SMU difference". SMU, as it prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary next year, is considering new offerings in the humanities, including history, literature and philosophy to broaden the undergraduate education for all its students. The University also wants to offer a full degree course in applied mathematics, a field which trains students to apply mathematical knowledge to solve problems in areas from finance to genomics. Also on the cards is a short-stay residential college, or "SMU Village", for students to incubate their project ideas.