Jason Li, ’20, attends online classes at the University of Tsinghua in Beijing, China, while living in the U.S. and is majoring in architecture.

Q: Why did you choose your college and major?

A:  I chose my college because it offers one of the best architecture schools, and I’ve always wanted to study architecture.

Q: Are there any clubs you are in or are interested to join?

A:  Yeah. I’m interested in joining the Water Polo Club.

Q: How has the pandemic affected you during your classes?  

A: Oh, it’s limited. Sometimes when I have to make models I don’t have the material, so I would have to use a limited amount of materials. It’s hard for me to ask questions when I’m doing my work because whenever I’m awake, everyone’s asleep.

Q: How are your professors over remote learning? 

A:  I feel like they’re doing their best. Online students definitely feel a little bit more isolated than in-person students. It’s really hard for the teachers to balance the focus between the online students and people on campus because in China there are no restrictions anymore.

Q: How was your transition from Country Day to college? 

A: The difficulty of classes kind of benefits the discipline in college I feel, especially for math and science. The difficulty in classes from high school definitely helps because in college, if the material is hard, I still have the material from Country Day’s classes. 

Q: What have you done for fun during the pandemic? 

A: I really like my major, so I think it’s fun. In my free time, I would go hiking because that’s one of the entertainments that won’t get me sick, and I play video games.

Q: Would you prefer to be on campus?

A: One hundred percent prefer to be on campus. Everyone there is making friends, and it just feels really like isolation.

Q: Do you have any advice for the class of 2021? A:  I’d say don’t go for the name of the college. The name and the rank honestly doesn’t really matter because it depends on the major you want to be in. I feel like I really made the right choice, and, for me, I think that I got into a lot of good American colleges, but I feel like I won’t be as happy as I would be right now because I chose a major that I wanted to.

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— By Jonah David