Studying for a Communication Bachelor’s at UCLA (Community College Transfer), Part 2

Part 1: https://offerland.cc/forum/757eeb9f-4c97-48c5-aeca-67afaf857e5c

Part 2 contents:

5. On-campus job

6. Where my classmates ended up working

7. Advice

8. Why I chose to return to Taiwan

5. On-campus job

“The experience I’m most grateful for & treasure most from UCLA, and it changed my life”

Thanks to GRIT Life Coaching, my first year after transferring (junior year) went fairly smoothly, so in my second year (senior year) I became a student life coach at GRIT Life Coaching myself.

Basically, each week I had 5 undergrads and master’s students and met each of them for 1 hour a week for a full semester, listening to them and, based on their needs, sharing different tools and ways of thinking for personal growth.

I also had 1 training session a week to improve myself, and I’d discuss cases with my supervisor and colleagues. Our job was like a simplified version of a counselor: students have to wait a long time for an appointment with a campus counselor, while we offered 1 hour of company and listening every week, and if we really felt a student needed help beyond what we could give, they could also get a campus counselor appointment faster through us. I thought a straight guy like me would struggle with this job, or I worried I wouldn’t understand the English... but luckily I could understand it, and I could still use my own strengths and experiences to do the role well. You just need a bit more confidence!

Pros:

- It helped me figure out whether I wanted to go into social work or counseling. I’m not heading in that direction right now, but since I work in education, I keep working on how people interact with each other, especially how to say things in Taiwanese culture and in spoken Chinese.

- I met people from all kinds of backgrounds: married people, master’s students, top undergrads, Chinese-speaking undergrads, etc. It let me show more empathy and put different theories and personal growth tools into practice, and it made me believe people share one thing in common = emotions can be understood by one another

- I met a group of friends interested in self-discovery & personal growth

- You get paid for reading training materials and handbooks... (unlike Taiwan’s labor conditions QQ). If the supervisor thinks a document takes about 1 hour to read, they pay us for 1 hour and don’t check whether we actually read it, but of course you need to be able to bring up points in the meeting.

Cons:

- You absorb all kinds of negative energy; luckily there was an internal support network that helped me face & release negative emotions

- I got used to American culture and the way things are said in English, but after returning to Taiwan I had to readjust to Taiwanese culture and Chinese wording

6. Where my classmates ended up working

Americans @ US

6.1: Real estate agent in California

6.2: Marketing at SpaceX

6.3: Lawyer in California

6.4: Human resources (HR) & headhunting

International students

6.5: Social worker + counselor (@ US)

6.6: PwC Consultant (@ home country)

6.7: International news reporter & anchor (@ home country)

6.8: International education (me)

Pretty wide range of jobs, right...!

7. Advice

If you want to go to UCLA: absolutely recommended

If you want to study communication: think carefully

1: Good English & background knowledge about the US will make it easier. My English foundation was weak (I scored 8 on the GSAT), and I’d never had any contact with the US growing up, so studying was harder for me. Not having enough background knowledge also made the coursework difficult, but of course in the end I could still hold my own academically against the locals (GPA: 3.807 / 4.0). I had to work insanely hard just to keep up.

2: You have to be willing to read a lot and write fast, and be interested in current events across many fields, so you actually have something to say. Back then I was interested in multiculturalism and underrepresented groups in the US, so I read a lot of material in Chinese and English to have something to say and get Americans to listen. After all, I had the advantage of knowing Chinese and could bring in an Asian American perspective.

3: You have to be willing to present & debate in front of the class. I had a lot of experience and training in this when I studied architecture at community college, so I wasn’t afraid.

4: Taiwan’s stereotypes about journalists and mass communication are also something to consider

8. Why did I choose to return to Taiwan?

8.0: With only 1 year of work time (OPT), I felt I’d just be treated as free labor and would probably have to pack up and leave before learning much. Unless I got really lucky in the work visa lottery or found a boss willing to sponsor my green card, etc.

I also wanted to find out what the work environment in Taiwan was really like, so through a chance turn of events I took a job at an international school, eventually became a team lead, learned a lot, and it was honestly pretty tough. I also saw the direction I could move toward and work on, so I went on to Columbia for a master’s in education leadership, and then chose to return to Taiwan again, hoping to do something different and make international education in Taiwan a little better.

In my next post I’ll share

1: Applying to and studying in Columbia University’s master’s in education leadership.

2: My career change.

Previous posts

Transferring from a California community college to UCLA Communication

Studying for a Communication Bachelor’s at UCLA (Community College Transfer), Part 1

IG: jimmy_intledu

ImAdmitted (匯錄取) international education news site: https://imadmitted.org/

ImAdmitted international education news IG: imadmitted

Hi~ I’m Jimmy Lin. I hold a master’s in education leadership from Columbia University and a bachelor’s with honors in communication from UCLA. I’ve worked in study-abroad advising in the US since 2015 and served on the committee of a US association of international university admissions. In 2023 I founded ImAdmitted (匯錄取), which provides first-hand information on overseas universities, such as international education news, admitted-student data from overseas universities, etc. I hope it can become the Google of studying abroad, so everyone can quickly and accurately find first-hand information on overseas universities.