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Do you have Plan B?
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For a student who wants to enter a graduate program at a particular research institute, or under a particular (well-known) scientist, things sometimes don’t go as planned.
Neil was lucky, who eventually 《玩进科学院》. Yes, he worked hard, and he is very smart. I am sure there are quite a few unlucky young men who worked hard and were smart but did not get what they wanted. (Who knows, they might be doing well now, somewhere. Let’s wish them well.)
A college classmate of mine tried to get into a good graduate program in ND, and he succeeded after three trials. Luckily, he was working while taking one after another entrance exam. Another classmate of mine wanted to go abroad, though she didn’t really care much for Meteorology. I can’t remember how many years she tried, but she eventually succeeded and is doing very well as a civil servant at the NRL, still doing Meteorology.
What I am trying to say is you set up a goal, and keep on trying. However, should you keep on trying for more than three years? I hope not, unless you have a way of supporting yourself while trying to go after your dream.
If you love Physics or Math, I think you must be pretty smart. High school Physics was my weakest subject, so I aimed for Chemistry and Math in college. What happened then? I was told to study Meteorology, "because it needs a lot of Math," which is true. I never cared to understand what “toughs and ridges” were in daily weather report, but I had no choice: go along with the government’s decision, or continue farming, which I was not good at.
Well, I drifted along, and ended up with a graduate program at Zhongshang University in Guangzhou. A kind teacher took me under his wings, because he was from Zhejiang and SCO (Shangdong College of Oceanography). He told me to go abroad… I eventually did, with full financial support from my thesis adviser in the U.S. (twice of what the government was paying for each visiting scholar to the U.S. then). He even asked me if I needed help with the airfare, probably because I was calling him collect from China. I said no because I didn’t want him to think I was too much trouble... By the way, things were very different in the mid 1980s. I never took TOEFL or GRE before I came to U.S. and I was not asked to take GRE by NSU before I got my Ph. D. (A colleague of mine had to make up for GRE before getting his Ph.D from UM around the same time. Yeah, I was very lucky.)
Most of my Chinese colleagues came abroad with good financial aid packages from foreign institutes, and the rest from the Chinese governments. I do NOT know a single person in my field who came from China was supported by his or her parents. (Drop me a line, if you are out there.)
I am not trying to cause a “brain drain” in China. If you are not yet a “talent” in China and want to experience what another country is like, and if you majored in Math or Physics in college, you have a much better chance to come to the U.S. than to get into an institute under the CAS, if you choose Meteorology or Physical Oceanography.
I think this Blog is doing a great service to the humanity by attracting more young people to study climate-related sciences.
Good luck to you, the young and hardworking fellows in China. Oh, don’t forget to write to me if you indeed become my colleague some day because of this Blog
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-306792-327377.html
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