American Higher Education

Swee left for New York four weeks after the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts. 'So lucky, you!' Mary Chao said enviously. They had sat for the Senior exams together. But Mary, who had out-scored Swee in total A grades, was stuck in Malacca, looking at two more years of pre-college textbooks, lamenting her father's decision to send her to the university in Kuala Lumpur. She even forgot to make fun of Swee's college choice, New York Pepsodent College, although everyone else didn't. 'What for study in Pepsodent? You study for dental hygienist, ah?' Auntie May had asked. 'All life look into people's smelly mouth.'