Preface
September 30, 2021. Finally, the weight on my heart has been lifted.
Although I had long known the outcome was a done deal, only when I clicked ‘Accept’ in the system did I feel that everything had finally settled.
This is already my fourth year of university life. From that initially withdrawn, introverted, and taciturn high school student, I have gradually grown into who I am today.
Only now, feeling that my efforts have finally yielded corresponding rewards, do I feel that everything was worth it.
Before University
I am a student from Shandong. I can say that my academic performance in regular subjects was never particularly good, far behind the top students. In middle school, relying on a bit of ‘cleverness,’ I stayed around the top 3 in my class, though it wasn’t very stable later on. I successfully got into Shengli No. 1 Middle School for the high school entrance exam, which was considered a great success at the time 233 (by the way, the nickname ‘Xiao Bing’ was given to me back then in middle school; I also had a friend named ‘Nandao’).
However, there is always someone better, and mountains beyond mountains. The advantages I had in middle school were completely gone. I must admit, there are indeed significant differences in educational standards across regions, much like the difference between ‘giving a fish’ and ’teaching how to fish.’
In high school, the luckiest thing that happened to me was participating in the informatics competition. Coincidentally, after learning about informatics competitions for just two days in middle school, I dared to apply for the independent recruitment exam at Shengli No. 1. At the time, fueled by sheer determination, I read through Tan Haoqiang’s ‘C Programming Design’ and felt that finishing it was a success in itself. Of course, independent recruitment or competitions didn’t test these basic syntaxes; algorithms were completely unknown to me back then, or rather, I had never even heard of them. The result was predictable, and to this day, I still feel I was truly bold.
But this turned out to be a stroke of fate. I successfully left my name in the informatics group, which became the opportunity for me to join. Shengli No. 1’s tradition was to ask applicants to fill in their areas of interest when submitting materials (I don’t quite remember the specific method). If your ranking was high enough, they would call to ask if you were willing to participate in competition training, which would take place during the summer before high school started. My high school entrance exam scores weren’t particularly good, but the name I had left earlier played a role. My mom didn’t receive a text message notification (since I didn’t have a phone at the time, and the contact information provided was all for my parents), but another parent who knew my mom saw my name on the list in a group chat and told her (I’m ashamed to say, I can’t remember who that parent was). My mom immediately decided to take me to the training. To this day, I still don’t know why she was so insistent about making me go (at least looking back, my mom always cared deeply about my opinions). I packed my quilt and went to report the next day. At that time, I had just finished the high school entrance exam and was preparing to relax and slack off, so I was very reluctant. Perhaps it was because I was used to obeying, but I went anyway. When my mom arrived at the school, she spoke with the teacher in charge of the competition (Old Li), saying she hadn’t received a text message but my name was on the list. I didn’t hear the details of their conversation; I was just standing nearby, hoping the teacher would say I could go back. But after a while, I was told to go upstairs. That was the building to the right of the entrance of the old No. 1 High School. I don’t remember its name now, and it no longer exists (the old No. 1 High School was demolished).
That was another world. During the summer training, I truly came into contact with algorithms and competitions. I learned that so many students from the middle school department of No. 1 High School had already participated in competitions, and I discovered there was something called the Olympiad in Informatics and a competition called NOI(P). Since my home wasn’t in Dongying, I naturally had to board, and I built revolutionary friendships with other students who were also boarding.
Perhaps seeing my small ’talent,’ I passed the first round of screening at the end of the summer, successfully skipping the military training (continuing with the training, though we had also had military training in middle school). I missed a great opportunity to bond with my classmates (although after that, I felt like I had become a ‘Compiler Principles person’).
However, my path in competitions was not smooth; there are even some parts I don’t want to recall. I’ll briefly note them here, and if I remember anything later, I’ll come back to add more.
First year: Attended training on regular weekends, attended normal classes otherwise. Result: Provincial Second Prize in NOIP.
Second year: Almost all subjects except core ones were dedicated to competitions. Result: Provincial First Prize in NOIP, Silver Medal in APIO, Bronze Medal in CTSC. Failed in the first round of provincial selection (if I remember correctly, I lost nearly 200 points due to two small mistakes; a slight modification afterward would have passed). Failed to turn things around in the second round (my mindset was truly broken during the first and second rounds, and I had no desire to solve problems). Retired from competitions.
Third year: Retired from competitions, focused on catching up on regular subjects, took the college entrance exam (Gaokao), and applied for independent recruitment. Shandong University: -20 points, Tianjin University: -60 points. Gaokao score: 582, provincial rank approximately 30,000. Missed the mark. Gained admission to Hainan University with my raw score.
To say I wasn’t unwilling would be a lie. My competition results brought me no advantages; instead, they seemed to become a burden.
Later, many people asked me if I regretted participating in the competitions. If I hadn’t, and had devoted myself entirely to regular subjects, my scores would certainly have been higher.
However, my answer has never changed: ‘No regrets. I love it.’
Without the competitions, I don’t know how I would have spent my three years of high school. It would have been just reading and studying, reading and studying.
This is absolutely the most precious wealth of my life, perhaps without equal. Even considering the outcome, the answer remains the same. As someone who grew up in a small town, I was exposed to a much broader world, met impressive people, learned about their efforts, and recognized the gaps in talent and insight. Sometimes, a more comprehensive understanding of oneself is more important than anything else. At the same time, I felt the ‘gap’—not just in talent, but in environment and cognition.
Along this journey, whether the people I met were good or bad, I am grateful for them all.
However, regarding my hometown, Shandong, although I shouldn’t feel this way, I truly don’t like it. In the fierce struggle of the Gaokao, my desperate desire to get out was largely due to this reason. I wanted to go south. In my college application, I probably only listed Shandong University as a reach to see if I could make it, and Qingdao University as a safety net. Apart from those, all my choices were schools in the south. The final result was also a 211 university: Hainan University.
Hainan University
First Encounter
Hainan University, a bottom-tier 211. Why it managed to get the 211 designation, those who know probably know the reasons.
When I first arrived at Hainan University, I saw dilapidated dormitory buildings and shabby rooms. The door handles and bed frames were covered in rust (although I later learned that our dormitory building is actually called the ‘Prince Building’ because it can be considered the best male dorm in Hainan University: 4-person rooms with private bathrooms. I’m very grateful for our counselor’s luck at the time!). Later, after comparing with dorms at other schools, I realized ours were actually quite comfortable,after all, the space was large, with one bed and desk per person). But I never considered repeating a year; I didn’t want to go back and study those boring cultural subjects again. I just adopted a ‘go with the flow’ mindset and came here.
But after staying here for a while, I actually grew to like it. I probably fell in love with the ‘coziness’ here. Now, if anyone says Hainan University is bad, I will definitely be the first to jump out and oppose them!
University is where friends from all over gather. I’m fortunate that my three roommates lived with me in harmony; our dormitory relationship never had any issues. Everyone was quite generous. I love you, hhh.
To be honest, when I first arrived at Hainu, I indeed held a very dissatisfied attitude, even feeling that this place didn’t deserve me, which led me to say many negative things. However, one thing that can be pointed out is that Shandong students coming to Hainan University actually have quite high scores compared to students from other provinces. Especially when Shandong uses the National Paper I, while other provinces use National Papers II or III, yet the cutoff scores are similar.
As a freshman, with no interview experience whatsoever, and even quite introverted, I still signed up for many student organizations, including the University Youth Volunteer Association, University Youth League, College Youth League, College Youth Volunteer Association, and many others I’ve forgotten. But I forgot them back then, not now. This also led to many interesting events.
Although I knew nothing and the future was uncertain, and although I was actually the first college student in my family with no experience to guide me from home (some advice was even wrong, just hearsay and simple herd mentality), the one thing I knew for sure was that university was the start of my new life. I also genuinely wanted to change myself from the bottom of my heart. It was this mindset of daring to participate and daring to try that brought me some opportunities.
The outcome for an introverted person with little experience was predictable. Sometimes when attending interviews, I would only receive the location and time information. Sometimes I even mixed up which organization was holding the interview… I hadn’t prepared my self-introduction much. If I were to interview myself back then today, I probably wouldn’t leave any impression, the kind of person who leaves no impression at all, hhh. Oh right, sometimes, truly, I didn’t know, myself, which, department, I, had, actually, filled in, hahahahahahaha. But luckily, the ministers of my College Youth Volunteer Association didn’t care how much you bragged; they valued your personality and character more. So I successfully joined the College Youth Volunteer Association. When I learned there was also a University Youth Volunteer Association, I instantly felt my level dropped significantly. But later, after seeing the workload of the University Youth Volunteer Association and watching my roommate who was in that org being so busy, I realized the student organization bonus points were actually the same. I even felt a bit relieved, hhhh.
Through participating in volunteer activities, writing articles, and taking photos over the year, I came to know and master some practical skills. Perhaps because I had a quite pleasant year, I finally chose to stay on in the position under the minister’s persuasion (perhaps they thought I was reliable, as others in our department also took the retention assessment, but I was ultimately selected).
One could say I forced myself not to be idle during my freshman year; I would find things to do whenever I had nothing to do. Another turning point also happened during this year.
Towards the end of the first semester, we got a new counselor. The new counselor selected students interested in research. Since the counselor was at the State Key Laboratory, I naturally joined in. Under the recommendation of our class monitor, I became some kind of research leader (I completely can’t remember what title). As for why I was recommended? Probably because in the first year, the college had an ‘IT Culture Festival’ with a programming competition. Relying on some algorithm knowledge I learned in high school, I easily achieved a perfect score (AK) and soundly defeated other contestants from the sophomore and junior years, hhhh (But to be honest, the difficulty of that competition’s problems was probably around NOIP Day 1 Problem 1 or Day 2 Problem 1 level. Most were just programming ability tests; if you could understand the problem, you could solve it. And there was no automated judging system; judging was done manually. You’d say you finished, someone would bring over test cases, and if the answers were correct, they’d give you points and record your time). From then on, everyone thought I was quite capable, especially in programming (who says competitions are useless, x).
Additionally, to add a note: when school first started, I also considered joining the ACM team. But after asking senior students, I didn’t even know what ACM was, so I gave up. Hainan University indeed didn’t have an ACM program. One reason is inconvenient transportation; traveling between cities requires flights since there are no high-speed trains, making the cost very high. Another reason I guess is that students’ starting point was quite late, and there was no one to organize things, no one to pull you in for a summer training camp before the semester started. However, nowadays, the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Association has an ACM group. That’s a story for another time.
Anyway, I don’t even know what I was doing when I first entered the lab. Usually, I just took my shift, which basically meant dragging my laptop over there and studying by myself. But at that time, there was an upperclassman working on network security who organized some training sessions. I picked up a bit of ESP82661, 2, 3 and Arduino4 stuff, which was quite fun 233. Later, they organized the first HDCTF5, and that was my first time encountering CTF. Relying on the number theory knowledge I had from high school competitions 6, 7, I could understand and work through RSA and similar problems. Also, since I had previously done Nazo, some of the web challenges were easy to solve. At the time, I even deliberately studied HTML8 and JavaScript9 content, though I was really not good at anything else. In the end, I won third prize? I forgot, but I remember the award was presented by our homeroom teacher, and the prize was a wristband. After that, I tried participating in CTFs because I found them extremely interesting, mainly just for fun. Later, an upperclassman invited me to become the Vice President of the Cyberspace Security Association, and I happily agreed (although I mostly just ate a meal and slacked off, pushing tasks whenever possible, which is truly embarrassing). Later, due to some matters, I stopped participating in CTFs, which is the turning point I mentioned.
Thinking about it, I’d better not mention real names. At the lab, I met classmate HY, who then recommended me to BY. I learned that BY had already graduated from Hainan University (in fact, during military training, a video of him being named ‘Person of the Year’ was even played at Siyuan Hall). He also had his RA-Team. This counts as another coincidence. If I hadn’t participated in the IT Culture Festival, if I hadn’t joined the counselor’s group, my class monitor wouldn’t have recommended me to be the xx person in charge, I wouldn’t have met HY, and thus I wouldn’t have known BY.
At that time, BY asked me a few simple questions, like what I could do, to get a basic understanding. After that, I somewhat confusedly joined my first innovation and entrepreneurship competition (the Hainan Province Artificial Intelligence Creativity Competition). My role was to present the PPT; I didn’t need to defend it, just memorize the script and present. I also met upperclassmen XM and LZ who were participating in the same competition. The result was quite good, roughly a first prize.
This story marks the official beginning.
Busy
It was from then on that I learned about innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and also understood the concept of recommendation for postgraduate studies without entrance exams. Although I hadn’t deliberately tried to boost my GPA, due to a lifelong stereotype, I still hoped for good grades, so I studied extremely hard during final exam review. My freshman year GPA was the peak of my entire university career, around 3.73. By June and July, most competitions had ended, and to participate again, I’d have to wait another year.
During the summer break, two things happened. One was that BY arranged for me to learn machine learning, so I followed Professor Hongyi Li’s machine learning videos. I was probably watching the 2016 version at the time, and I had covered most of the material. I submitted my study notes to BY, and the two blog posts about machine learning notes 10, 11 were written then. In high school, I had actually been exposed to some Python, but programming languages have never been a barrier for me. At the time, BY also assigned several small projects, one of which was Raspberry Pi for MNIST12, which was my first encounter with the Raspberry Pi. My very first small project was Raspberry Pi for Fire Recognition13. Back then, I used Keras’s CNN; I didn’t understand things like VGG, so I just went straight with CNN. I also didn’t know about object detection; I just needed to determine whether there was fire or not. I once wanted to publish a paper based on this, focusing on sensor and vision fusion detection, but it was heartbreaking due to the lack of data. At the time, I didn’t even know what multimodal meant; it was just a basic idea. Later, this actually participated in several small competitions and served as the opening project for the machine learning group.
The other thing during the summer break, although my involvement was minimal, had a huge impact later on. It was the establishment of the Hainan University Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Association.
When sophomore year began, everything got back on track. The busiest time at the start of the semester was welcoming new students and recruiting members (don’t forget I stayed on as the Minister of the News and Publicity Department of the College Youth Volunteer Association; of course, as Vice President of the Cyberspace Security Association, I also had to recruit; as the founder of the Robotics and AI Association, I also had to recruit; as the leader of the machine learning group, I also had to recruit…). The association recruitment also brought in the first batch of staff and ministers. I also saw some interesting juniors there. Since there were basically no competitions in the previous semester except for the initial period, everything remained smooth and steady.
Not long after the semester started, CJ, XM, and I went to Xi’an to participate in the Third Silk Road Robot Creativity Competition. Almost everyone who went won an award; except for the last few who got second prizes, the rest won first prizes and special prizes. We also saw some very impressive projects. In the end, we won a first prize and earned a fully funded trip to Xi’an.
Also, near the end of the first semester of sophomore year, BY told me about a new field called FL, noting that many problems remained unsolved, with incentive mechanisms being a key point. This later became the lead-in.
Next came the unexpected pandemic.
This unprecedented pandemic disrupted everyone’s rhythm, and all cities came to a standstill. Ironically, it’s both lucky and laughable that Dongying never had a single case. Perhaps it’s because Dongying sits at the end of all transportation routes; the flow of people was never large to begin with, and control measures were relatively effective.
The pandemic was agonizing, yet it was also an opportunity. After all, the work for both of my papers was related to the pandemic, setting the stage for the subsequent competitions.
Hainan University was relatively bold; as soon as the pandemic was effectively controlled in May, they reopened. I originally thought the competition would be postponed due to the pandemic, but it wasn’t. With hasty notifications and rushed preparations, I inexplicably accepted the unmanned vehicle project, while handing over the FL-based pneumonia detection project I was working on during the pandemic to YZ. The result? Both projects performed poorly, while the other projects from the association won so many awards they were hard to hold. Reflecting later, the reasons were clear: I simply lacked experience and did a poor job, especially not understanding the judging rules or how to package the work properly (in fact, since then, I’ve developed some aversion to such competitions; they weren’t truly what interested me).
However, as the saying goes, ‘a willow planted unintentionally grows into a shade tree.’ The pneumonia detection project won a second prize in the South China region of C4-AI and successfully advanced to the national finals.
Also towards the end of this semester, I learned about the Mathematical Modeling Competition. I had previously known about the Mathematical Contest in Modeling, but I was simply too busy to review advanced calculus, so I let it go. I immediately decided to stay on campus over the summer for mathematical modeling training. However, after attending for just two days, I started studying on my own in the dormitory. One reason was that the instructor taught a bit too slowly, and we had to fight for seats in the large lecture hall. Another reason was that I wasn’t used to the option of attending lectures; I could completely self-study. So I took Jiang Qiyuan’s “Mathematical Models” and read through it in the dorm, though I only got a general overview. (To be honest, I feel that even if I had finished reading it, it wouldn’t have been very useful. The most important thing is doing the assignments and learning various models through that process. Since mathematical modeling is essentially an open-book exam, the modeling approach is paramount. Don’t aim too high while your skills are low; you can only discover certain details when you actually start modeling.)
Sophomore year ended in a rather perfunctory manner.
Confusion
The most important thing at the start of junior year was the Mathematical Modeling Competition. I teamed up with XM and WJ and worked for three days straight. Let me briefly summarize: On the first day, we received the problems, and by the first night, we had to decide which problem to tackle. Problem A was a physics problem; looking at it, we immediately ruled it out—I didn’t even read the full text. Problem B was an algorithm problem, likely NP-Hard. It felt like any random algorithm could solve it, though a more reliable approach would be Reinforcement Learning (RL). RL seemed capable of handling it, but this environment was too difficult, turning it into a test of programming skills. Although I knew RL could work, my understanding of it was limited to Professor Hongyi Li’s videos, and I had only skimmed the material without ever implementing it myself. My teammates couldn’t help much with programming; I was primarily responsible for coding, XM handled the main writing of the paper, and WJ knew some SPSS, MATLAB, and various mathematical models (he seemed to know more models than I did, possibly having attended more training courses). Using RL would definitely be innovative and likely to win an award. Problem C was a data processing problem, quite traditional. So I was torn between B and C, finally deciding to go back and try something first, then decide in the morning. That night, I coded a bit and reviewed RL, feeling it was feasible. The next morning, I went over and decided I would handle the RL part. Since the first question didn’t require RL at all—just the shortest path—I originally planned for one teammate to handle that while I tackled the RL for the subsequent questions, and another teammate would start writing the paper. After about 2 hours, the teammate working on the first question had no ideas. I thought, “Isn’t this just a casual write-up for C?” So I switched to writing the first question myself, which left one person idle. Finally, around 9 PM, we decided to choose Problem C. The challenge with C was finding an innovative point. However, since C was all about data processing, I used Jupyter Notebook and messed around with pandas. Fortunately, I had done correlation analysis in a previous assignment (an analysis of Earth’s surface temperature, likely a past exam question), so data processing posed no real difficulties. I even used machine learning for classification, primarily using decision trees (since they performed well). On the last night, there seemed to be a major issue with the approach for one question, and I spent a long time thinking of a solution. I slept only about 3 hours that night. I rushed through most of the work, went back to rest for 2 hours at noon, then returned in the afternoon to supplement and polish the paper, organizing the final data and answers. However, right before submission, I realized that the data I had previously given to one teammate had not been updated. I didn’t know what happened, so I hurriedly asked him to modify it. It was obvious—no, I could clearly see—that his hands were shaking violently. I then fixed this part myself, completing the verification almost at the deadline, and waited for submission. The competition was over. One notable thing was that we worked at Siyuan, where most people were studying. To avoid disturbing the neighbors, we did our mathematical modeling in a place without air conditioning and no one else studying. I was soaked with sweat, while my teammates had already become “Buddhas” (calm and detached) hhh. I guess I just got used to it. Only on the last night, after everyone else had left, did we move to a place with air conditioning for the night, then moved back early the next morning.
The final result was gratifying: a National Second Prize and a Provincial First Prize.
Then came the usual recruitment drive. I can’t remember other details; it was just a bunch of miscellaneous small matters. Meanwhile, my major courses increased, bringing significant academic pressure. My focus became scattered, and I didn’t review as seriously for the finals as before. I adopted a ‘one subject per day’ approach, taking exams in a laid-back, ‘Buddha-like’ manner.
By the way, of course there’s also the national competition I mentioned earlier—a fully funded trip to Hangzhou. I only won a third prize (x), but it did reveal many issues with our project. I felt a bit unwilling to lose because the judges immediately asked, “Do you know what smart healthcare is?” That question really caught me off guard; it was completely unexpected. I felt our project name was too grand, our focus too narrow, and our work insufficient. Additionally, another impact of this competition was that the day after it ended, I had the CET-6 exam. I essentially took it completely unprepared, so the result was predictable, but the impact was significant since this was the final exam before the recommendation for graduate studies.
There was also the Tiantie competition. With RK’s help, we assembled a ‘Galaxy Battleship’ team, easily securing a provincial first prize. I personally won a national second prize. I only found out about this competition this year; otherwise, I would have participated in my freshman year (though I’m not sure if anyone would have been willing to take me along).
Another small competition was the Maker Marathon. I handled the full-stack content myself, including data labeling, working on the ‘Sky Brush’ project ([code], [demo]). We won a school first prize, and it was also my first exposure to the field of object detection.
By the second semester of my junior year, the two previous projects that hadn’t yielded results continued. I took on the role of lead for the FL pneumonia detection project. After President Luo arrived, the university established the School of Biomedical Engineering, which aligned well with this project. I found a professor from that school to serve as an advisor. Of course, I was the project lead, and the project belonged to the School of Biomedical Engineering, yet I am not a student of that school. So, I can only say our college lost out (x).
With ZW’s help, I polished this project. However, we stumbled in our first attempt: we won a school first prize in the Challenge Cup, but only a provincial third prize. Later, as the project lead, I felt somewhat irresponsible, as most of the tasks were actually handled by ZW, ZC, and SY.
Around this time, my grades had been declining year by year, dropping to rank 11. I felt my chances for recommendation were hopeless or at least very slim (since our school’s policy allows a maximum of 0.3 points for awards and papers; I could easily max that out, but others might not. Based on the 5% recommendation rate in previous years, I probably needed to be ranked 9th. I felt there was still a slight chance, but not a strong one—it’s that edge-case dilemma, you know?). So, I decided to apply to universities in Hong Kong. My parents were very supportive, so I started studying for the IELTS. I read many articles on Zhihu, but most were marketing fluff; I’d advise against reading them as their reference value is low since everyone’s foundation and aptitude differ. At the time, I just studied on my own, casually memorizing vocabulary and doing practice questions. However, while reviewing for finals, I forgot to register for the first IELTS exam in the summer. G, so I couldn’t take the exam until the end of July.
During this period, I contacted Professor W at a Hong Kong university for a brief interview and presentation. Since I had no experience, I didn’t know what to expect in an application interview. The questions covered linear algebra, advanced calculus, and probability, and I performed terribly—I was even embarrassed by my own answers. In the end, I didn’t receive an offer. However, I asked the professor if there were any opportunities to work on projects or other tasks, mainly hoping to produce results for a paper. The professor assigned me a project, which became my main activity over the summer besides preparing for the IELTS.
Joy
How did the summer IELTS go? 14 and then calmly signed up for a class. It wasn’t ideal, but things proceeded steadily.
When senior year began, the recommendation process started. With a glimmer of hope, I still submitted my materials. Many Hong Kong universities had already opened their early application rounds. Since Hong Kong universities require language scores before applying, and it’s first-come, first-served, I was quite panicked without any language scores. Additionally, at the end of the previous semester, I tried out for summer camps at a few schools, but unfortunately, none accepted me. I think there were a few reasons: 1. I hadn’t passed the CET-6, which is very important for recommendations; regardless of the score, one should at least pass. 2. The bar was too high, and my undergraduate university was a limiting factor. Fortunately, I passed the CET-6 in the previous semester with a score of 478, and that score was used for the recommendation.
Finally, when I saw that most people could max out the 0.3 points, I felt panicked. However, when the comprehensive scores were released, I was ranked 8th, which meant I had a very good chance. I quickly contacted professors and indeed disturbed many of them, applying to pre-recommendation programs at various schools. With my CET-6 score, the process was obviously much smoother. When the final recommendation quotas were announced, the number of spots increased significantly to 11, which was a sure thing.
Around the evening of September 13th, I received a call from a lab at the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT), though it wasn’t one I had applied to. They asked if I was willing to go, mentioning there might be a written test and an interview, with specific details to be announced the next day. Of course, I happily agreed. The next day, I received an interview notice from the lab I had actually applied to, which was different from the previous one. I started preparing for the nucleic acid test and the interview. Because of that earlier call, I thought there would always be a written test, so I was quite panicked and arrived a day early. I had intended to book a hotel near the ICT, but ended up booking one directly opposite the institute… It was too close… But you can imagine that because of this, the hotel room rate nearly doubled; I recall it was 300+ RMB per night.
However, I never received a written test notice later on, leaving me completely confused. I attended the lab interview and that was it. The interview process went relatively smoothly. At first, they asked for a self-introduction. I had read many interview guides on Zhihu, which suggested starting with an English introduction, followed by simple English questions, then technical questions, and finally project-related questions. However, when I got there, the professor just said, “Introduce yourself.” I hadn’t even had the courage to pull out my prepared English introduction, so I ended up translating my English draft back into Chinese… Then, I hadn’t had time to review the technical questions, so they just asked some questions based on my resume.
Three interludes: Before receiving the interview notice from the Institute of Computing Technology, I actually received a phone interview, which gave me a rough idea of potential issues in my resume. Another was an interview with a professor from Xiamen University (XMU) I contacted before the Institute interview; it happened on the morning of the Institute interview day. The professor was quite welcoming, and honestly, I quite liked that professor hhh. These interview experiences helped me stay calmer and more confident in future interviews. The third was spending an afternoon sightseeing in Beijing hhh. Let me complain: Beijing 7-Elevens actually have no seats for eating… Thinking back to convenience stores in Haikou, they all have seats… So I just sat by the window and ate something.
After the interview, I went to celebrate. Since the Mid-Autumn Festival was mostly a holiday, and few universities organize pre-recommendation interviews during this period, I decided to play for two days before returning to continue applications. That night, while walking in Nanluoguxiang, coincidentally, I had originally wanted to visit ‘Little Bear Diary’ but couldn’t find it on the map for ages. Yet, as I walked, I suddenly spotted it. Just as I stepped inside, I received an offer! So I immediately bought a Little Bear plushie, named it ‘Offer’, abbreviated as ‘Little O!’ With the pressure gone, I naturally felt much more relaxed. On the way back to the hotel that night, I found a print shop and signed the agreement.
After that, I declined all subsequent interviews and pre-recommendation processes, and informed all the professors I had previously contacted about the situation.
Then I waited for the recommendation system to open. There were two waits: one was for Hainan University to process my application, which they submitted on the 25th, and I could only check my recommendation qualification on the evening of the 26th. The other was waiting for the admission notice from the Institute of Computing Technology after registration.
During the wait for the Institute’s notice, I was fortunate to join the ‘Green Group’ and met many notable figures, such as Brother Ocean! Brother Ocean is truly inspirational! Of course, the Institute also produced some iconic moments. The long wait was always agonizing. For two days with no notification, I had no mood to do anything else, mostly fearing unexpected outcomes. Meanwhile, the various events after September 28th were also emotional. Some people held onto too many offers and only released them during the system registration, causing schools to be massively ghosted, forced to fill spots with late admissions, or even completely ghosted, requiring them to prepare for a second pre-recommendation round. In my view, schools that over-issue offers are even worse than students who play the field.
When a school gets ghosted, at least they have backups. But if a student accepts an offer without keeping any backups and then gets ghosted by the school, they truly have no way out and can only hope to pick up leftovers. I believe the most important thing during this period is honesty. I can’t help but complain: for those ‘sea kings’ (players), why not release offers from schools you know you won’t attend? Wouldn’t it be better for schools to fill spots early? As for schools that over-issue offers, I have nothing to say… They deserve their ruined reputations. This vicious cycle is: students keep multiple offers (who knows which school will ghost them, after all, having a place to study is most important), and school admissions staff can only create long waitlists. Schools that over-issue offers will inevitably get ghosted by many. Ultimately, true recommendations still depend on September 28th, xs. Of course, we can’t guarantee that no one will ghost anyone, or that no school will ghost students,after all, school agreements are just pieces of paper.
Thank you, Institute of Computing Technology, for taking me in. I recommend everyone apply to the Institute’s 2023 cohort, even if it’s a bit too safe, but it counts as my first graduate school lesson hhhh. I received the admission notice at 11 PM on September 30th, by which time I had already started eating at Haidilao 2333.
During the waiting period, a professor from Hainan University also called me, saying that if I wasn’t admitted elsewhere, they would be willing to let me pursue my master’s at my home university and would provide the best faculty in the college. I was truly moved 555.
The Aftermath
During my four years of university, I had two romantic relationships, and there will only be two.
This article might not have many pictures. If I remember later, I’ll come back to add some, mainly because it’s troublesome.
Unfinished Business
Whether known or unknown, it doesn’t matter that much. After all, everything has already happened, so let the story continue.
I actually wanted to write this memoir back in high school, but first, due to psychological shame (probably because the outcome wasn’t great), and second, because I didn’t want to recall it (probably a form of avoidance).
This piece does feel a bit like a diary entry, but not entirely. I just wanted to share my experience with you.
I may have never shared this with anyone except my closest loved ones. Now, there’s you.
That’s enough, I’m getting emo. This article is nearly 10,000 words.
Written on October 2, 2021, at 4:26 AM.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my parents for raising me, for not bringing family pressure upon me, allowing me more opportunities to find the direction I pursue. Most importantly, thank you for respecting my opinions and choices.
Thank you to my darling who has always been by my side, encouraging me.
Thank you to all the teachers who nurtured me along the way, whether they were course instructors or professors I contacted during my recommendation or application process. Getting to know you all has been a wealth for me, and I am especially grateful that the teachers I encountered were so gentle and kind.
Thank you to the motherland and my university for providing a good living environment.
Thank you to Senior BY for my research enlightenment and guidance.
Thank you to the friends who encouraged each other during my low points, whether roommates or project partners. Maybe I wasn’t always the best person.
About Me
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