Designed First Year Experience at UIUC
Bio About Me
Hello guys, My name is Yudong Wang. I am a freshman student majoring in mathematics. I am from Weihai City, Shandong Province, China. I first came to America in 2020 for high school in New Jersey. I finished my 4-year high school there and was admitted by UIUC in 2024.
Hobbies
- Badminton
- Running
- Video games (LOL & Arcknights)
- Try various cuisines
- Watch TV shows/movies
Contact
- Ins: xpphlhpm
- Wechat: ayzfqftynp
- Email: [email protected]
Inquire: How was I challenged?
How was I challenged in the new environment?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Impressive rating based on 1,400+ reviews
New environment
- Deal with the sense of insecurity in the new environment.
- Adapt to the new education system.
- Adapt to college-level courses.
- Make new friends from various backgrounds.
Everything is on myself
- Visit and apply for residential hall.
- Find and go to classes in the big college.
- Buy food and sometimes cook for myself.
- Make schedule for study and implement it with discipline.
How has my confidence level changed so far?
Stage 01
C.L.: ★☆☆☆☆
Getting familiar…
After about a month, I was getting more and more familiar with the environment. I knew what I needed to do and where I needed to go every day without having to check it beforehand, which raised my confidence level.
Stage 03
C.L.: ★★★☆☆
At the beginning…
It was my first time being here. Everything was new for me. I was very nervous when I was taking my first class. However, since I took high school in the U.S., that experience brought me some confidence for my college life.
Stage 02
C.L.: ★★☆☆☆
Highly confident right now…
After experiencing a variety of first times in college, such as first midterm and first lab, I am getting more and more confident and feeling less and less insecurity. I have learned a lot of norms of how to survive in the college and known how to “operate” within these norms.
Where will I continue to explore?
UIUC Career Center
The Career Center is the school resource that I hasn’t explored yet. However, it’s very important for my college life, especially after I step into my junior/senior year. The service that it provides, such as mock interview is very useful.
ARC
ARC is the place where I have visited a lot for badminton but haven’t explored thoroughly yet. I have seen there is a big gym, two swimming pools, badminton courts, etc. I will try each of them to gain full experience of ARC if I have time.
Engage: What have I done so far?
My favorite building: Campus Instructional Facility
CIF is my favorite building. I fell in love with it when I first saw it and stepped into it for my Calculus III class. The building full of a sense of modern technology has a special structure inside with huge floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides of the building. It is designed with a completely different style from other instructional buildings. Whenever I see it, it always gives me a sense of growth and development.
My favorite class/classroom: MATH 241 in CIF
I am a math major student, taking two major classes this semester: CS 101 and MATH 241. I like MATH 241 more because it’s math-related on one hand and it is instructed in a spacious, bright classroom in CIF on the other hand. During the class period, sunshine usually passes through the windows and illuminate the classroom. With the illumination, I always feel my mind is fully exploited in the world of math.
My favorite studying place: Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
Grainger library is the best studying place for me, providing a quiet place for students to study. I usually do my homework, review for exams, and study during the time between classes there. The environment makes me concentrate on my work with little distraction.
McKinley Health Center
The McKinley Health Center is the first school resource I visited for the TB screening on the day after I settled down in my dorm before school started. I visited here the second time for my T-dap vaccine.
I felt it was a very reliable medical school resource because the whole process of my vaccination and TB screening was very smooth and quick. It made me reassured in case of being ill one day in the future.
Tel: 217-333-2700 (24/hrs/7 days)
ARC
I play badminton in ARC with my friends every Thursday. Badminton is a sport I usually played in middle school and stopped playing after middle school. I am very glad there are badminton courts in ARC so that I can pick badminton up and have fun with friends.
I also tried the huge gym in ARC once. The atmosphere, at once in which I can’t stop exercising, is perfect for workout. I hope I can build a regular schedule for my workout in ARC if I have free time.
Trending tags:
#uiuc
#workout
#badminton
Create: 3 Goals for Following 4 Years
Goal 1: Get at least A for each course
One of the main reasons that I chose to go to college and my parents paid me for college is to study and improve myself for graduate studies and career life in the future. Thus, it’s critical to keep my academic performance at a decent level. The crucial way to do so in college is to make rules that guarantee success in classes and follow them seriously.
Action 01:
Make a weekly schedule and leave sufficient time for HW and study.
Action 02:
Make my to-do list every day and don’t leave today’s things to tomorrow.
Action 03:
Figure out questions from each class on time by asking the professor or going to office hours.
Goal 2: Get a math-related internship in the U.S.
An internship in the U.S. is very valuable, especially for me as an international student. An internship in the U.S. not only takes what I learn in college into practice but also synthesizes international points of view into my own perspective. Furthermore, college is a transit from schooling life to society while an internship takes a step further to society and gives an opportunity to experience how working in a company is like after graduate.
Action 01
Make my own resume and do mock interviews at UIUC Career Center .
Action 02
Pick a couple of potential companies in which I am possibly able to intern.
Action 03
Try my best to inquire skills needed to be a good intern and master them.
Action 04
Attend HireIllini career fairs with my resume and get prepared for potential internship interviews.
Goal 3: Make one or two more new friends and develop these relationships.
Studying is not the only part of life, while knowing how to deal with other people is another very important part as well. I am not a person good at socializing, but I think it’s time to cultivate my social skills, especially during college life because I have more free time to distribute in college than any other period of life.
Action 01:
Join two or more RSOs in UIUC and get myself involved (have joined Badminton For Fun).
Action 02:
Try to know a couple of people from each class.
Action 03:
When conflict occurs between me and another friend, try my best to be the first person to discuss and solve the conflict.