Woman Dumped By BF ‘Cos She Isn’t From A ‘Big 3’ S’pore Uni, He Was “Embarrassed” She Went To A Private Uni

For some people, having different values or ambitions can be a dealbreaker in a relationship.

For one woman in Singapore, it was apparently the university she attended.

The woman recently took to Reddit to share how her “elitist” boyfriend of two years allegedly broke up with her after enrolling in one of Singapore’s “Big 3” universities — a term commonly used to refer to the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University.

She graduated from polytechnic and is currently studying at a private university.

While she acknowledged the difference in reputation between their schools, she said she never expected her academic background to “define [her] worth in his eyes”.

The woman admitted she only started taking academics and career planning seriously after poly, but has since worked part-time while studying, completed internships, taken on leadership roles and built up her portfolio.

“I believe that effort and character growth would matter more than the name on your degree,” she wrote.

“I was wrong.”

 According to the woman, her boyfriend told her during the breakup that had he known she would end up at a private university, he wouldn’t have dated her.

He also allegedly told her she “wasn’t smart enough”, lacked leadership skills, had low career standards and that he was “embarrassed” by her educational background.

Most strikingly, she claimed he told her he would have listened to her more during their relationship if she had attended his university.

“I’m still in shock that my opinions apparently carried less weight because of the uni I attend,” she wrote.

Her ex also allegedly compared choosing a partner to investing in a stock, asking: “If you knew this stock had a bad track record, would you still invest in it?”

“The implication was that I was a failed investment,” she wrote. “I remember just sitting there wondering how someone I’d spent almost two years loving could reduce me to a certificate.”

She said this was especially confusing as he had previously told her a degree was “just a piece of paper”.

The breakup also came just before university orientation, leading her to believe he wanted “a clean slate before hall life, orientation, meeting new people”.

Redditors were largely unsympathetic towards her ex, with many calling out what they saw as elitism over his “Big 3” university status.

“He’s probably gonna realise he’s just an average Joe in the Big 3,” wrote one.

Another mocked him for “treating Big 3 uni as Ivy League”, while others argued that educational pedigree would matter far less once he entered the working world.

“Honestly, when you go deeper into your career, most recruiters take a 2 sec look at your university and moves on to other stuffs anyway,” read one comment.

Some, however, questioned whether her educational background was the real reason for the breakup at all.

“He found someone else lah. The rest are just convenient excuses,” speculated one.

Others said she was better off finding out how he felt now rather than later.

“On the bright side you just dodged a MASSIVE bullet” wrote one Redditor.

“Bullet?” replied another. “She dodged an entire freaking missile.”

Photos: CNA, SMU