I studied in one of the first universities in ChinaDouble Non-African University, relying on my own efforts, I got it during the application seasonOffers from many prestigious American schools.
Now I think it's worth mentioning my whole application process, I don't mean the process of the school starting to send out applications, then I filling out the form, and then getting the admission;
It refers to the whole complete and long process of starting from the beginning when I had the idea of studying abroad, and then gradually determining my goals, major, school, and so on.
Undergraduate:
ShanghaiTech University.
Professional
Materials Science and Engineering.
gpa：
3.65/4.00（top 10%）
Admission Result:
the university of chicago: biomedical informatics
columbia university: applied analytics
university of southern california: operation research
george washington university: business analytics
fordham university: business analytics
The admissions I got were:Biomedical informatics from the University of Chicago, Analytical Statistics at Columbia University, Operations Research at the University of Southern California, and Business Statistics at George Washington University and Fordham University.
At first glance, students will think that my admission is so different and so mixed, but if you analyze it carefully, you will find that I am all going towards similar future employment goals.
In the next article, I will show you the most real me during the application season, and I hope to help you who want to change your major!
Many people may not know much about ShanghaiTech University because this university was founded in 2013 because it is very new.
I came to this university because I liked its philosophy, but it was only when I got to the application season that I realized the real difficulty – it wasA first-class university with double non-double and non-double non-doubles, almost all foreign universities areDidn't know or even heard the name of my university.
At the same time,We have little foreshadowing from our predecessorsThat is, the experience of seniors, we ourselves are pioneers, and we can only rely on ourselves.
It's obvious how bad this is for my application.
In addition to my university itself, my undergraduate major was materials science and engineering, and when I was applying, I went to the interdisciplinary disciplines of mathematics, analysis, and some business, which is the so-called transfer of majors with a large span.
This is another big difficulty for me to apply.
So I was able to get admission to a number of schools (including prestigious schools such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University).To a certain extent, it is a very successful application and my ability to apply.
Like most of my classmates, I have oneMuddy freshman:I don't have any clear goals, I don't know what I can do in the future, and I always feel that the days when I will go to society to fight in the future are still very far away, and I can live comfortably in this ivory tower forever.
What's worse is that I didn't even realize I was in a mess at first.
I only know how to go to class, eat, play, and sleep in a regular manner every day, and my life is the same but there is no plan at all.
One day, during a night talk in the dormitory, I talked with my roommates about what I wanted to do in the future, what I could do in the future, whether I wanted to go to graduate school, etc., and I suddenly felt that I was so chaotic that I should think about it as soon as possible.
Over the next few weeks, I began by investigating what kind of work I could do as a materials science and engineering major.
I've found that Google or Google search yields very limited results, and a better approach is to be directIt is a very practical and very current way to search for jobs that you are looking for in your profession on various job seekers**.
At the same time, I also asked several teachers in our department to hear what they would say.
Through my research, I found that it is not enough to only graduate from a bachelor's degree in a basic science and engineering subject like materials chemistry, and it is necessary to go to graduate school, preferably to study for a doctorate.
After graduating with a Ph.D., there is a high probability that you will continue to do research (you can become a university teacher, an evolutionary company, or a research institute for advanced study, etc.).
After having such an answer, all I need to do is ask myself: am I willing to accept such a future, i.e., whether I like to do research and so on.
I thought the best thing to do was to try it myself, so I went to my academic advisor and got into his materials chemistry lab.
In the second year, I spent the entire academic year in the laboratory conducting experiments in materials chemistry in addition to the weekday classes.
Unfortunately, although I did achieve some research results after a year of hard work, I realized that I didn't really like experimenting in the lab.
If I were to work in a graduate school in the future, I probably wouldn't be very happy.
So then I started thinking about the future where I arrivedWhat kind of work do I like and what kind of job suits me?
Coincidentally, at the end of my sophomore year, I enrolled in the minor program of the School of Entrepreneurship and Management, where I learned a lot about business, marketing, analytics, etc., and conducted a lot of case studies and projects.
I feel very energetic and happy when I do this kind of homework and project, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when the project is finished.
So I think it will be better for me to develop in a more commercial direction in the future.
In order to better understand what kind of career in business is suitable for me, I went to participate in some career planning activities held by the school(Generally, we invite business people who are employed in different companies to do career insights with us, etc.).
After a series of self-exploration work, I found that if I followed a pure business career plan, it seemed to be a bit of a "waste" of my science background.
At the same time, if I change majors with such a large span, it will be very difficult to apply, and I will not be able to compare with students with pure business background when applying for jobs in the future.
It would be more beneficial for me to apply for some interdisciplinary disciplines that combine business and science.
After learning about the different business careers, the jobs that I am more interested in and combine business and science are probably business analysis, data analysis, consulting, etc., but for me, they are all careers that I would like to engage in in the future.
Therefore, after more than a year of thinking and exploring, I finally set my future career goals.
Once you have a career goal, everything becomes clear.
The next thing I have to do is to work backwards according to my career goals to launch what kind of programs are to cultivate such a career, and then find what kind of schools have better similar programs, and then carefully review the application requirements of the school, and finally work hard to improve myself and meet the school requirements in the remaining year or so.
In this step of finding a program and matching school, I started to seek help from an agent.
In fact, there are pros and cons to finding an intermediary, the key is to find a good intermediary.
Because compared to individuals, intermediaries have information and intelligence that our students can't know at once, such as what school's major is actually relatively pitiful; What schools have opened new majors that feel good; There are actually hidden requirements behind some majors and so on.
In fact, the agent is like a big data processing bureau, it can grasp and understand the application process of many students, so if you find a good agent or a responsible teacher, then you will definitely get twice the result with half the effortIt can give you a better suggestion by analogy to similar application success cases (as if to find a relatively safe path for you that has been walked before), and it can also give you a good positioning relatively clearly, telling students what schools are very difficult to apply for, and what schools are cost-effective.
But if the students accidentally find a black-hearted intermediary or an irresponsible teacher, they are likely to be taken to the ditch.
Some agents may persuade students to choose a bad major for a better reputation (the kind with a bad employment situation), and irresponsible teachers may make a lot of mistakes in the essay (write the wrong school name) and so on.
If students do not check it properly, it may cause some impact on the application.
Therefore, students must keep their eyes open when choosing an intermediary.
At that time, I first went to learn about the situation of Dachang (a very big and well-known study abroad agency), and found that Dachang was not satisfactory.
I think they're too factory-oriented, and you can't choose what your mentor is, and if you're assigned to an irresponsible mentor, it's a real disadvantage for the students.
So everything can only be done by luck.
After learning about the many situations that agents can trap people, I went to interview 4 small agents in depth.
Before the interview, I will learn about many of the professional situations related to me and so on.
But during the interview, I would pretend that I didn't understand anything, ask some questions first, and then guide the agent to some of the aspects I already knew.
Listen to how the agent responds, if he or she responds something similar to what I know, or when I deliberately say something not very good about the profession and tell me the truth instead of recommending me to go.
I would think that this intermediary is still good and sincere. Then I would ask him and she would give me some advice and ask them to tell me what I should do in order to get to the good major and good school I want to apply to.
From the advice they give, judge whether this agent is genuinely thinking about the students.
The second thing is to look at some cases done by intermediaries to see how their clerical level is.
Of course, whether to find an intermediary or not, or everyone should judge according to their own situation.
I'm going to talk about the other aspects of the application.
Take the University of Chicago's Biomedical Informatics program, for example, which is relatively new, and I only learned about it thanks to my intermediary.
First of all, I went to look at the curriculum and the focus of the project.
It was found to be a project that combines biometric and statistical information, and has several tracks for different focuses.
After looking at the curriculum and goals, I liked the program, and the University of Chicago was highly ranked, so I made this program my first goal, and then I reviewed what I lacked according to the needs of the people who were intended for the program, and tried to make up for it.
Of the three different tracks, I prefer the one that focuses on statisticsSo I consciously focused on data analysis to enrich my experience.
In terms of dataI participated in the 2018 American Mathematical Modeling Competition.
The project my team chose was to estimate energy use in four states, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, in 2025 and 2050, based on more than 3,000 data items provided.
After we looked at academics, we extracted 11 core data sets as the basis for our analysis.
Another challenge is to choose the appropriate analytical method to find a model on energy allocation with optimal economic indicators and the lowest cost.
Through this competition, I not only learned a lot about data processing methods, but also won awards that can prove my learning ability and data processing ability.
Of course, because the project is related to biomedicine-related data analysisIn addition to working data, we should also not forget that we have a lot of experience in biology.
In terms of enriching my knowledge of biology, I went to participate in an internship program in a biostatistics laboratory at Fudan University School of Medicine.
In this project, I first learned the basics of machine learning and convolutional neural networks, and then learned how to choose the appropriate model in different situations, how to model it, and how to obtain better analysis data for different clinical medical examples.
In a case study comparing the improvement of lung function between two drugs in patients with asthma, I performed a statistical analysis of two samples that were completely randomly designed by normality test and homogeneity test of variance;
In the controlled experimental analysis of new and traditional meningitis, I learned how to use logistic regression analysis, and further learned the analysis methods of linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression.
Through participating in a number of cases, I consolidated my knowledge of probability distributions (binomial, poisson, and normal distributions) and hypothesis testing (t-distribution test, chi-square distribution test, class 1 and type 2 errors, etc.) that I had learned in the probability and statistics class, and further learned how to correctly select the analytical model under different conditions in order to obtain correct results.
I believe that these two experiences of mine are very much in line with this program and are very helpful for my application. As it turned out, my experience really caught the attention of admissions officers and I was accepted.
Finally, I hope that students can start thinking about their study abroad application plans as soon as possible, because the earlier you start, the sooner you will know what you are lacking, and then you will have more time to make up for these shortcomings.
Like me, students can first find the direction they are really interested in or the career they want to do in the future, and formulate a career planning route.
According to the career you want to do (whether it is doing research, joining a company, or starting your own business, etc.), what kind of major is suitable for you.
With specific goals in mind, it's easier to find the right project.
If you want to find an intermediary to help, you must keep your eyes open, and at the same time, the intermediary must double check what you do for you; If you want to DIY or semi-DIY, you must start as early as possible, and communicate with your classmates and teachers to get as much information as possible.
TOEFL and GRE or IELTS should also start preparing as soon as possible, after all, the GPA of each school is different, and there may not be a good comparison, but TOEFL and GRE are basically unified, and your scores are very comparative, so the earlier you prepare, the better, and if the score is not ideal, you can take the test several times.
I hope that all students can get the admission of their choice!