Li Hao's Story

It has been a long and difficult road leading me here. If you had told me I would be attending NYU Shanghai while I was going through the torturous process of selecting a university last year, I never would have believed you. I simply didn’t have the time or resources to prepare for the TOEFL or SAT exams, which meant it would be difficult for me to attend a top university in China, much less an American university. Coming across NYU Shanghai was like stumbling across my destiny.

It was a beautiful day, I was wandering around Dali City when I suddenly caught sight of bright purple backpacks with NYU Shanghai printed across them. I saw that the backpacks belonged to some really cool looking people who must have been in the class of 2017. Since that day, I’ve had this sense in my gut that NYU Shanghai is where I belong. I haven’t considered any other school since then.

Since getting here, I keep finding out about things that I want to explore, but what I most want to do is to get to know all of the different people who come from around the world. I want to understand the world better through them, and elevate myself to stand among their ranks. The most meaningful thing to me is the act of self-realization, of finding out the truth about what you love to do and doing it. It’s not important what other people are doing, because if you devote yourself to something, there is meaning and respect for yourself and others in that devotion.

Over the next four years, my hope is that I will find that truth about myself, that thing to which I can devote my career and my life. Of course, I am afraid of failure, especially of failing my parents because of their expectations for me in attending such a pioneering school. Sometimes I feel I am under a tremendous amount of pressure, but at these times I try to think about some of the defining moments in my life.

The first was when I decided to learn English, which opened up a whole new world for me. The second was when I went abroad to Australia and experienced the world I had only glimpsed through English. The third was the moment I found out I had been accepted to NYU Shanghai. All of these life-changing moments came from trying something new, and overcoming fear – this is what I remind myself when I am overwhelmed. 

More Stories