A mainland student's perspective: what is the experience of studying at the University of Macau?
I have searched for this question many times, in order to gain experience from the path taken by my seniors and sisters, or to find a sharing post from my peers to prove my inner thoughts. Today, I also decided to write a formal answer. I think this is an in-depth dialogue with myself, and I hope it can give more inspiration to future college entrance examination students and make them less confused when making choices.
Three years later, before the college entrance examination, I scored about 50 points in the liberal arts in the city. Converted into the whole province, it is about 300 places, which is 985 in Wu Zhongxia's file. Although my dream school at that time was Hong Kong Shenzhong, before the college entrance examination, I got a blog scholarship set up by it with my own competition experience and model test results. But unfortunately, the college entrance examination didn't realize my dream of being eighteen.
After scoring, I can't find a satisfactory balance between city schools and majors with my current grades. At this time, my family and I turned our attention to Macao. After seeing the official website of the University of Macau, it turns out that there is still such a hot spot in Hengqin! All-English teaching, international vision, springboard for overseas research, unique academic system ... plus the comfortable climate on the island, it is only more than three hours away from home by train. The day before the registration deadline, I filled in my personal information and college entrance examination results with a try. The short message posted on the list was sent to the mobile phone and was admitted to the business administration major of the University of Macau.
What is a college?
The life of the University of Macau belongs to the management of the college. The biggest difference from the general dormitory system is that the academy is more like a big family with a sense of belonging. The University of Macau has ten colleges.
Located in the south of the university is Shaobang Academy, which is close to supermarkets and shops. In the middle are the Second Academy (Kunlun Zhang Academy, Ma Wanqi Luo Baixin Academy) and the Third Academy (Zheng Yutong Academy, Lv Zhihe Academy and Cao Cursor Academy), among which the Third Academy is called the "School District Room", which is less than or equal to five minutes' walk from the School of Humanities, the School of Social Sciences and the School of Business Administration. To the north of the gymnasium are Cai Academy, Henry Fok's Zhenxi Academy, Memorial Academy and Stanley Ho's East Asia Academy. There are free buses around the campus.
Colleges and universities in the Mainland are randomly assigned. If you can actively participate in college activities, you will make a certain contribution to the college, and you can stay in the college for four years without violating discipline, thus avoiding the trouble of studying and renting a house in an overseas university. College uniforms will be distributed and welcome activities will be carried out when you report for duty. Seniors and seniors will take you to familiarize yourself with the campus environment and understand the website mode of UMMoodle, an Australian university.
The college will provide three meals in the morning, noon and evening, but the food in each college is different, and the best is the third hospital. Dormitories are all double rooms with separate bathrooms, shoe cabinets, wardrobes, desks and refrigerators. There are gyms, dance studios, small libraries and other public places, and each floor has a kitchen and study room. Instructors in colleges and student unions are responsible for organizing activities.
For example, large-scale high-table dinners, talent shows, badminton competitions, mobile phone case making and other cultural and entertainment projects help students integrate into the academy; Professors or industry elites will also be invited to give different kinds of lectures, such as film perception, career planning and scientific and technological achievements, so as to expand students' knowledge.
2. About learning!
The major setting of the University of Macau can be found on the official website, and the training plans of different colleges and disciplines are also very detailed. The most important thing to learn here is autonomy. Everyone is an independent individual, has his own class schedule, and has no class concept and the management of counselors. Even in addition to the direct grading of professional courses, other general courses and elective courses need to be understood and supplemented by themselves in the pre-selection stage. Otherwise, you are an out-of-school child with an empty schedule.
Freshmen can ignore the pre-selection course in the first semester and go directly to the next stage of addition and subtraction. Simply put, it is to give you the opportunity to adjust the class schedule or change professors (avoiding killers, commonly known as killers). Before the course is finalized, you can check the past students' evaluation of the professor through the small program "course selection", or consult the seniors' suggestions on course selection. If we don't grasp these two stages well, the effect of the following courses will be affected.
If you want to graduate from an Australian university, you need to complete the required professional credits, including comprehensive majors, general education, free elective courses and compulsory elective courses. Professional courses include basic courses and advanced courses, which run through the university for four years. The general education course is divided into four areas (gest science and technology, gelh language and humanities, gega global awareness, gesb social behavior), and eight courses should be completed.
Four of them are compulsory, including quantitative reasoning under science and technology, China language and culture under language and humanities, Macau and Chinese civilization under global consciousness, and ethics and law under social behavior; The other four courses are one in each of the four fields. The Registry will list the general education courses offered each semester in official website, and you can choose according to your personal preference. Elective courses can choose courses that the college does not belong to its own professional category, or courses of interest across colleges, with a relatively high degree of freedom.
Compulsory courses are actually a form of specialized courses, but the range of choices provided will be wider, generally set in junior and senior. The credits of each semester can be adjusted flexibly. Generally speaking, five or six doors are more suitable, with a maximum of seven doors. Especially freshmen, it is not recommended to take too many courses. When you have no experience and haven't fully adapted to the pace of the university, it is unwise to sacrifice GPA for credit.
My school of business administration is the largest college in the University of Macau, and it has obtained three global business certifications: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. According to the School official website in March 2022, there are less than 100 business schools with triple accreditation in the world, and only 12 in Asia. The main majors of the School of Business Administration of the University of Macau include finance, accounting, business intelligence and data analysis, business administration, and international comprehensive resort management (including hotel management and gambling management).
Among them, the third year of business administration major will be divided into enterprise financial monitoring, global enterprise management, human resource management, business economics and marketing. After the first semester, there are opportunities to change majors every semester, mainly depending on the GPA. However, the probability of mainland students changing majors across colleges and universities is basically zero, and they can only change within colleges and universities, which should be taken into account when filling in their volunteers.
The faculty of Australian universities is more international, with professors from Macao, Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. Most of the teachers I met are gentle, with high academic level and are willing to communicate with students. Professor Stuart taught me two compulsory professional courses, microeconomics and macroeconomics. Her teaching focuses on logical reasoning and thinking analysis, not just on the theoretical level. Students are also welcome to ask questions after class. One night in the final review week, I did my homework until eleven o'clock and sent her an email when I met some doubts. I didn't expect to get a reply in ten minutes.
When I was a sophomore, I met Professor Grace Ho in Principles of Marketing, which also laid the groundwork for my later career choice. She is from Hong Kong, and both her undergraduate and doctoral degrees are from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. During the preparation of the team's report on the project, I went to the office to ask her for suggestions for revision. The theme of the report is how to improve a soft drink with low sales. She guided me to start from the psychology of consumers, why not directly think about why we young people don't buy this product. Then I mentioned professional diversion. She said that marketing requires a high level of English and is suitable for students who are extroverted, eager to explore new things and have keen insight.
I think it fits my own characteristics. When the diversion is over, the marketing score is perfect. Originally entangled in the two hot directions of enterprise financial monitoring and marketing, marketing was marked as the first choice. It is my happiest thing to be qualified to choose freely and follow my inner thoughts.
The diverted marketing courses will be more professional, involving the comprehensive cultivation of hard skills and soft power, and also have a global perspective. In the international business environment, we need to overcome time zone differences, language barriers, cultural identity and other issues to complete the industry report of multinational teams. After all, in this process, we may encounter African brothers who frequently lost contact due to the Internet, Indian girls who went to travel to send ins but didn't return messages, and of course, Brazilian handsome guys who are doing internships and homework with one heart and one mind, and Vietnamese schoolmasters who immigrated to the United States, all in our C group!
In addition to traditional items such as PPT and report, international marketing also needs to design posters and original advertising videos to promote domestic high-tech products to overseas countries or regions, including the estimation of new market size and profit forecast. Compared with the basic business education of freshmen and sophomores, juniors are more like the simulation of real business environment, which puts forward advanced requirements for the ability of telling stories and depicting consumers' portraits with data.
Besides specialized courses, I met a very good professor in a compulsory general course. He graduated from Harvard University with a master's degree and majored in history at the University of Hong Kong with a doctorate. He is fluent in English. Although history class involves many proper nouns, it is still a kind of edification and enjoyment. When the results of teaching assistants are not satisfactory, I send an email to discuss with the professor. He rechecked my test paper, affirmed it, decided to correct my grades, and apologized for the previous scores.
The marking system of Australian universities is in line with western countries, and the final score of the course consists of various evaluations, including but not limited to papers, group presentations, attendance, classroom participation, usual homework and mid-term and final exams. Therefore, it is not enough to get a high score only by surprise test before the exam. You also need to get into the habit of reading all English textbooks, practice literature retrieval skills and make public English speeches. As far as I know, the scores given by the business schools of Australian universities are relatively objective and fair, and the scores are rarely deliberately lowered, which is one of the favorable conditions for future applications. After all, the grade point of undergraduate course is the most important reference for graduate school.
Generally speaking, the hardware level, teaching staff and internationalization level of Australian University are no less than 985 in the mainland, but when it comes to learning atmosphere, this is where I have been disappointed with Australian University. I once regretted it when I was a freshman. Australian universities are public universities in the Macao Special Administrative Region, which means that most resources are tilted towards local students.
Mainland exchange and internship opportunities almost always give priority to local students, even limited to Macao identity card holders. Mainland students only account for about 30%. Macao's social welfare is high, and there is no competition for the college entrance examination. Excellent local students will generally be sent to the top two universities in the mainland or go to foreign universities to study. It's easier to stay in an Australian university, and I don't worry about high-paying jobs after graduation. This led to a large number of local students lying flat. When mainland students spend the night in the central teaching building of the library to get full marks, many local requirements for the course are only to repeat the course without failing.
I don't think such a contrast scene is common in any 985 2 1 1 double-class university. Therefore, when you are vacillating between mainland volunteers and Australian universities, please consider whether you have enough self-discipline and strong execution ability, which is not affected by the external environment.
The level of undergraduates is uneven, and the content and depth of professors' classes will also be affected. In a statistics class of a sophomore business school, almost all mainland students scored above 90%, but there are still students in the class who are in their twenties and thirties to forties and fifties. On the one hand, it stems from the gap of middle school mathematics foundation, on the other hand, it is the difference of learning attitude. Therefore, when the group newspaper teams up, my suggestion is to choose teammates whose goals and abilities match in all aspects.
Otherwise, if you want to get a 93-point A, others will think that 60 or 70 points is enough to muddle along, forcing others to do badly. Most mainland students have clear academic plans and use Australian universities as a springboard to apply for foreign graduate students. Under the circumstances that the overall environment of Australian universities is relatively comfortable and relaxed, this small group is still involved. GPA, TOEFL IELTS, gre/gmat, business competition, internship, textual research and scientific research are the constant keywords in this circle. It is true that there will be bad expression packs in the circle of friends from time to time, but I prefer to interpret them as the self-mockery of the big brother.
In recent years, the ranking of Australian universities has developed rapidly. In applying for research, Australian universities belong to Haiben. Even if some foreign universities require applicants to have a double first-class background, it will not affect the delivery of Australian college students. I heard seniors who graduated this year say that the results of their master's applications are generally good. Students who scored 985 points in the mainland college entrance examination have now entered the master's program in financial mathematics of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. If they choose to stay in the mainland for undergraduate studies, it is basically impossible for them to have such an opportunity.
For more examples, please refer to the official WeChat account "Duck Studying in Australian Universities" to see how Oxford seniors and London political science sisters make full use of the four-year undergraduate program. As for employment, I have no say yet. 985 is an academic passport in China, but the influence of Australian universities will vary from region to region. It is highly recognized in the Pearl River Delta region (as can be seen from the inclusion of Macau University in the selection list of Guangdong), and its influence on the north will be relatively weakened. Mainland students rarely choose direct employment, and most of them will go to Hong Kong, Britain and the United States for further study.
Generally speaking, Macao, as a port of Chinese and Western cultures, has given us more free and creative communication space. Although Australian universities are not strictly managed and have a general academic atmosphere, they have strong teachers and many exchange opportunities, which can provide many opportunities! Grasping it well can make you have a broader thinking and vision after mastering the basic knowledge, but if you lack self-control and driving force, four years of college is really easy to be wasted.
3. How to choose a university club?
Australian universities have a perfect school team, community and student union system, and everyone has the opportunity to find their own shining field. Most of the recruitment time is at the beginning of the semester, so freshmen should pay more attention to the push of emails and the promotion of official WeChat accounts. In terms of student unions, there are Australian university student unions, mainland student unions, colleges and colleges, as well as internal student unions, which are responsible for planning and organizing activities. Clubs include drama clubs, calligraphy clubs and various interesting associations, such as bartending and coffee research association and magic association.
The school team includes general debate team, English debate team, dance team, choir, national flag honor guard and so on. Campus reporters, student public relations ambassadors ... after studying, joining one or two clubs can open up social circles and meet friends from different professions around the world. If you are a team leader, you can also add a touch of bright color to your resume.
I am a member and one of the captains of the English debate team. The school provides all kinds of support for the English debate team. We usually have professional coaching training, intensive workshops before the competition, and group building activities such as barbecues. The English debating team is one of the most intensive teams in the school team, with three hours each time twice a week.
If it is before the game, there will be some practice. This is a challenge to balance study and life, especially when the academic tasks are concentrated and the exam season is coming. The school will also exchange project subsidies (ranging from 6000 yuan to 10000 yuan) for team members who have made outstanding contributions, which can be recommended first in summer exchanges and will not participate in the open competition of the whole school.
Why choose English debate? Because of love. I not only love English and the debate itself, but also enjoy the feeling of building a debate framework in my mind and the process of deliberation and exploration with debaters. From education system to medical ethics, from abortion policy to credit system. Our debate involves political economy, social life, human geography and other aspects. During this process, the members of the Chinese-English debate team have been upgrading their skills, from childhood to debaters talking about Kan Kan and becoming real global citizens.
In the past competitions, my partner and I have won the honors of top ten debaters, promotion to the top of the points and reaching the semi-finals. English debate sometimes seems like a thrilling hurdle to escape from busy days, and you will meet interesting souls and wonderful things. For me now, learning is the main line and English debate is a sideline. Maybe one day English debate will become the main theme of life.
4. Life on the island
The Australian University is located in Hengqin, Zhuhai, but it still has to go through Macao Customs to reach the campus. There are Gongbei Port, Qingmao Port and Hengqin Port, of which the latter two ports have short construction time, less passenger flow, faster customs clearance and are more friendly to luggage. Gongbei Port and Qingmao Port are located in Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai, close to Zhuhai Station, which is a convenient choice for students taking the high-speed train. Hengqin Port is very close to the University of Australia, and it takes about 15 minutes to get to the school after customs clearance. Although Macao is an overseas region, it can go through customs independently without nucleic acid in the post-epidemic era!
The main way we usually travel is by bus. By downloading the "bus stop notice", we can clearly understand the transfer route, bus track and arrival time. It is 1.5mop for students to get the Macau Pass once, and 6mop for ordinary passengers. In the school season and when there are more luggage in winter and summer vacations, you can choose to call a taxi to the port, organize a group or carpool with friends, which will be more cost-effective.
Most stores in Macao support WeChat and Alipay payment, and the exchange rate fluctuates around 15%. However, you still need to prepare some MOP cash with you, such as recharging Macao universal calling cards.
I may be a little worried about the language environment before coming, and it is difficult to adapt without knowing Cantonese. But in fact, the penetration rate of Putonghua in Macao is very high, and normal communication is completely no problem. The political environment is also very stable, and "patriotism and love for Australia" is the knowledge of the whole society. Many primary and secondary school teachers in Macao returned to teach in Macao after receiving normal education in the mainland, which also enhanced the new generation's understanding of patriotism in Macao.
There are many local specialties, such as Portuguese food and tea restaurants. However, it is difficult to find food stalls without any fireworks from the mainland. Fortunately, customs clearance is convenient. On less busy days, after class, you can go to the socialist areas to improve food, eat barbecue, go to Sun Moon Bay in Zhuhai to catch the sunset, watch movies and play scripts.
Macao, a romantic town, is full of colorful fairy tales. In addition to punching in online celebrity attractions, there are streets and alleys waiting for you to explore exclusive memories. The business circle in Prince Edward area is very prosperous, and it has the reputation of "shopping paradise", with everything from affordable people to top luxury goods. Skin care products and cosmetics that girls often buy can be started at low prices, and sneakers and electronic products that boys love to shop are also affordable. The only trouble is that Taobao needs to collect it, and the arrival time will be delayed, which will cause additional expenses.
5. Poetry and Distance
Why did the TV series that once exploded in Shengxiao Mo contain many hopes for my university and life? Sweet campus love, three or two girlfriends, thank you very much for meeting him and them at the Australian University.
In the small islands and Australian universities with high happiness index, we don't have to cater to too many secular standards, but we have more time to experience cultural collision and discover the meaning of life journey, instead of just being trapped in the "excellent" thinking mode. For those of us who have walked through the road of solving problems in small towns, we may find that the holiday is not just "overtaking in corners", and we don't have to feel guilty for rest and entertainment. These things sound illusory and difficult to measure with numbers. Isn't it a compulsory course for growth?
Even if I think of everything related to the college entrance examination, I will still feel sorry. But looking back, the canoe has passed Chung Shan Man. The first professional GPA, the IELTS score in the first exam, and the big and small awards in business competitions ... At the stage of entering the 24 th autumn graduate application season, I can finally say that I don't regret my original choice and hope to reconcile with myself when I get the dream school offer in 2020.