Major: PPE, Economics
Hometown: Beijing, China
Where did you transfer from? University of Rochester
Why did you choose to transfer to the University of Michigan? By the time I entered the U of R, the PPE program there wasn’t fully cultivated. In search of a more mature and strong program, my eyes landed on the U of M.
Based on your personal experience, what is the one thing you want to tell new transfer students? Make sure that you plan early for the next step of your journey, whatever you imagine your next step to be. Think early and act early. For instance, if you want to apply for law school (as I do), make sure that you familiarize yourself with all the requirements and break them down into viable short-term actions. Think about who you want to ask the letter of recommendation from, and keep a close connection with that professor for as long as possible… Acting early gives you room for mistakes and wrong steps taken, because you will have extra time to correct them.
How did you make friends and meet other students on campus? I met my best friends in college in the study group for ECON 401. The fact that we are all econ majors and we are facing the same challenge gave us so many common topics to talk about and reasons to hang out together during free times.
What is your favorite part about being an LSA transfer student? Transferring for me represents my effort to strive for the best opportunity for myself. It makes me feel that I have the ability to survive in a more competitive environment than where I was before coming here. This experience gave me the confidence that I can handle challenges, however scary they are, on my own. I suddenly felt that I’m a grown adult and I can take care of my future very well.
What do you know now that you wished you knew before transferring to the University of Michigan? I wish that someone could have told me how useful and accessible office hours are. At the very beginning of my first semester, I was afraid to talk and ask questions, out of the concern that it would reveal my stupidity. But only after I made some attempts at approaching my professor did I realize how he was kind and smart at the same time. Office hours are precious one-on-one teaching sessions–sometimes even more valuable than lectures–for use to clarify our questions and also making close connections with professors.
Why did you choose your specific major(s)? I have always wanted to learn how and why the law came to be, not just what the law says. With this intellectual knot in mind, I find PPE major to be in the best position to address my question, taking into consideration various factors such as economic, historical, political, and institutional ones.
Office Hours
Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 7:00 pm