I was the one who gave up the invitation of HKU and chose HKUST

Many people see this operation, it is estimated that they are very confused, how could I make such a choice, if to make a long story short, that is, on the one hand, the offer of HKUST came early, I saw that this is not the top three in Hong Kong, Ma Yu paid the reservation fee, and calculated the tuition fee, HKUST is 15w, HKU 27w, directly twice as expensive!

It seems to be all about money, hahaha, but what made me make this decision, of course, is more than that, I can only say that compared to the title of a prestigious school, I think it is more important to suit yourself.

01 Choosing Hong Kong Branch is not a hot head

I was very stressed before I got the offer, at that time I didn't have much understanding of the advantages of Sino-foreign joint universities, I thought that at most, it was taught in English, which could make me speak English very well.

So at that time, I positioned myself as a double non-non student with a low average score, and I didn't even think much about being able to get the top three offers in Hong Kong, but I didn't report it, and I said that I wanted to be a sea king in the application season, so I voted for it.

As soon as the offer from HKUST came, I was satisfied and quickly paid the reservation fee.

But the major I applied for was actually quite special, I remember that I didn't find a few majors in industrial interaction for half a day on the official website of Hong Kong Science and Technology, so I went to the interdisciplinary side, and happened to aim at the Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship major jointly organized by the School of Business and the School of Engineering, and the word entrepreneurship in it touched my nerves.

When I was looking for a teacher to write a letter of recommendation, I happened to have a course related to entrepreneurship, and the teacher also had a business background, so he wrote a letter of recommendation to me specifically about the word "entrepreneurship", which seemed to have a lot of relevance to me.

Looking at the course content again, it is particularly coincidental that although this course is a collaboration between business and engineering, it also includes a product development and prototyping course in the compulsory course, isn't this the legendary co-design, so I added it to the delivery list:

Source: isd.hkust.edu.hk

Later, when I learned about the course direction, I found that it mainly cultivates talents in two directions, one is a product manager, and the other is an entrepreneurial talent who is proficient in products, and even employment is very matched.

In addition, the Hong Kong school will have a live broadcast of the introduction of the major, I went in and listened, this major recruited 20 people last year, and this year it will expand by 4 or 50 people, and the expanded major will have a better chance of going ashore, and the teacher also pulled a few company leaders in the live broadcast, introducing that this major will have an internship of iFLYTEK and Shenzhen DJI, I feel too real, this is the major I want to study, so it has become the object of my application season.

Not long after receiving the offer from HKC, an invitation from HKU also came.

At HKU, I applied for Creative Communications, which teaches digital media and interaction, as well as creativity and leadership, which makes me feel like I can learn everything, and my positioning is not so clear, which is why I didn't have much thought about the invitation.

And I myself am not particularly artistic ideals, the original intention is very simple, to apply for a well-ranked school, with a better platform to find employment resources, that's all, since the tuition fee of 15w HKUST can be satisfied, I don't bother to climb the high branches.

02 Some of the interviews of HKUST were shared

Speaking of HKUST's application, it is still thrilling to think about it now.

Before applying, I searched left and right and didn't find the interface for portfolio submission, but I went to Xiaohongshu to search, how can all the design students submit their portfolios, and hurriedly sent an email to communicate with the admissions officer, saying that I want to submit my work, but the interface for uploading information is too small, what should I do?

They said I could make a link to a web page just enough for them to download the portfolio, so I made a link and attached it to my resume.

My cat cat

Later, I was quite glad that I asked more questions, because during the interview, the interviewer kept talking to me about the portfolio, and I watched other people's face-to-face sharing, usually introducing themselves→ professor asked questions about some information or CVs submitted→ and finally asked you to ask questions.

But my interview process was to talk about the portfolio all the time, asking me what the project did and how the product worked.

I had a product design project related to allergies, and he asked me if this product was for allergen testing after allergies, or for allergy prevention. There's a very amazing place here, didn't I mention earlier that this is a joint project between business and engineering, but the teacher who interviewed is a teacher of product prototype design, so for all design students, this major is still quite friendly.

The project also includes a service component

Also, interviewers like to ask scale.

For example, they also have certain considerations for students' mathematical foundations, and after picking out the portfolio, the interviewer said to me, "But I'm worried that you don't have a mathematical foundation", which directly startled me, thinking that it won't be brushed, and then he said "But I very much hope to teach students like you".

Then he asked me if I had taken a math-related course from my transcript, and I said that I had studied statistics, and he looked at my grades and asked me how many people were in my class, what was the percentage of A's, and if I had some small entrepreneurial projects, he would ask how many people were in the project, etc.

In general, this major of HKUST is not strict with students' background and GPA cards, and the interviews are very diligent, and students with double non-background can apply to try it, and this major will have higher requirements for interviews in the assessment.

But how to handle the interview, there are two points to refer to, one is to participate in more entrepreneurship/business activities, for example, I mentioned that there are some entrepreneurial projects in the background, and there are also business projects landed, the teacher is called a hard writer, (later they also said that they want to cultivate well-known alumni, which can be understood as wanting to accept some more ideas and passions).

Another point is that English is good, I studied in a Sino-foreign joint school, all taught in English, although at the beginning I said that I IELTS 6.5, but I recently retook the test once was 7.5, and the interviewer said that he had a very pleasant and smooth chat with me. Students who meet these two conditions can focus on this major when applying next year.

03A small review of the master's application

I'm coming to H· ART is very early, and my sophomore year is coming, so I have a lot of time to grind slowly with my teachers.

H· ART's prosperity

I still remember when I did the first project, I collapsed directly because I did too poorly, and I lost confidence in myself, and even asked the main teacher if I could gap, but as soon as I finished asking on the front foot, Mr. Liao, who recruited me on the back foot, immediately called me, saying that it is normal to have no confidence, as long as I stick to it, I will do better and better, etc.

When I listened to it, I also knew it was chicken soup, but I don't know why my heart was very warm when I listened to it, and because of these words, I insisted on it later, just two years have passed, to talk about my current portfolio is very good, I don't think, I can only say that two years have allowed me to pull from a very poor portfolio to the qualified line, but I am already very satisfied.

Research

If I insist on any advantages of my work, it is probably solid, every step of the research in the project is done by me, such as the aforementioned allergy project, from the beginning is my mother is prone to inexplicable allergies, I want to help her find allergens, in this process, whether it is the type of allergen, or interviews, I have worked hard, I really went to the allergy prevention and control center in Shenzhen to ask, selected a more suitable SPT for user operation, skin prick test method to add to the project.

In the later product design, I also made the project, although there is no physical object, but I also understand the problems that need to be overcome and the hard-core technology used.

Product decomposition

Looking back on the past two years, I have positioned myself as an obedient student, and the teacher asked me to change and search, and now I have made a lot of progress in design, and my aesthetics have also kept up, I am really happy!

So if you are also in the stage of dissatisfaction with your work, it's good to get through it, and it's actually a problem of aesthetic insufficiency if it doesn't look good, and I often communicate with Mr. Wang, who took me, and she comforted me that this is something accumulated over time and experience, and it will grow bit by bit when you get in touch with more cases, and the aesthetics will go up, and the things you do will look much better with the naked eye.

Finally, I would like to remind you that typography cannot be ignored!! don't think that this is just a simple visual problem, typography is actually the embodiment of personal expression thinking, many times my portfolio is called back by the review teacher, it is because the content is too "detailed", "no focus", "too many words", "paragraphs are not clear enough" and other reasons.

Later, after grinding for a long time, I learned to design pictures and texts from the audience's logic, in the past, I was a bit obsessive-compulsive, and I liked to explain every step, but now I have also begun to learn that the audience pays more attention to the key information, and it is good to explain the cause and effect at a glance.

Cat catch

In general, whether it is the choice of college, major, or portfolio preparation, I think the most important thing is to find out your own positioning, and then find the right and suitable way, and you can get the desired results by working on the right ones.

If you have more questions about studying abroad, or about postgraduate entrance examinations, graduate school studies, doctoral studies, background improvement, and portfolio creation, please contact Mr. Kang Shishi.