(Above: File photo of student beauty contestants from NTU, NUS and SMU.)

IF FIRST impressions count, students from Singapore Management University must make the best ones.

It secured a clear plurality of the votes (36 per cent) as the local tertiary educational institution with the most 'physically attractive' individuals in our impressionistic poll of 156 youths aged 17 to 27.

The National University of Singapore and Ngee Ann Polytechnic came in second and third with 22 per cent and 16 per cent of the votes respectively.

Interestingly, the majority of students from these three institutions voted for an institution other than their own, lending some credence to the notion that the grass is always greener (or better looking) on the other side.

Our 84 respondents who were either university or polytechnic students also rated men and women from business faculties top in terms of looks.

The most important factors behind their decisions were, as 45 per cent of our respondents claimed, 'personal experience', while 29 per cent attributed it to the 'general reputation within/of the institution'.

Youth in the poll defined physical attractiveness as 'a beautiful bright smile, nice double eyelids and expressive eyes, high cheekbones and a slim athletic build'.

Phrases such as 'pleasing to the eye', 'shapely figure', 'good personal grooming and hygiene', 'physically proportionate and symmetrical', and 'charismatic, strong facial features, good dressing' - all added to this week's poll being labelled 'The Unabashedly Shallow Poll'.

If looks alone mattered in life, you now know where the best-looking students in Singapore are to be found.

Andre Oei, 22, is a graduate student at Harvard University.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 20 Oct, 2008.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.