The US Studying Experience Exchange Meeting was held by the College online on 19 June, 2023.
Liu Faxue and Ma Lin, a year 2019 and a year 2021 entering student, were invited to share experience on studying abroad to the students.
Liu once attended the LL.M progamme at the New York University and passed the New York State Bar exam. She described her experience in three areas, application advice, study experience and the New York State Bar exam.
In application advice, she described her experience in choosing a school, taking a language exam, revising her resume and preparing specific application materials, such as recommendation letters and application documents for studying abroad. In study experience, she pointed out that studying at NYU was very challenging and it required a mental preparation. In taking the Bar exam, she suggested that students should start preparing for it as soon as possible and need to pay attention to credit requirements, questions from past exams and test-takers’ qualification for those who did not gain a Bachelor of Law degree.
Ma participated in the University's exchange programme with the University of California, Berkeley and spent a term in the US. She shared her exchange experience from the aspects of programme introduction, programme application, module selection, tuition fees and study experience. This programme was a half-year programme funded by the University, which was for pure exchange rather than obtaining a degree, so the language requirements were relatively low and it accepted multiple language test results.
According to her, in the application process, students needed to conduct an interview at the University and submit documents such as a study plan and a motivation letter. The biggest difficulty in choosing modules was that exchange students have a low priority, but they were allowed to contact professors to apply for sitting in on their lectures. In terms of accommodation, they could live in the more expensive international house or rent their own rooms. Ma reminded the students to pay attention to the selection of reliable location. In terms of the study experience, she believed that the overall academic task of the programme was very tough and required a lot of reading, but the benefit was that it could be clear in a short time whether it is suitable for further study abroad and that students may have the opportunity to obtain recommendation letters from well-known professors to help apply for a master’s or doctoral study.
The two guest speakers patiently answered the questions of the participating students at the end of the meeting. Certain students from the College lately showed their interests in studying in the US and participating in exchange programmes. This exchange meeting was helpful for those students to plan for their overseas study.
