The Week of Summer Camps

Before I left Xingqing Campus this Monday after noon, I never thought that I was compelled not be back due to the restricted COVID policy in Xi’an that the whole city silences for one week to reduce the possibility of virus spreading, which is BA.5 variant. The restriction has been applied since Wednesday, lasting one week and it is subjected to change if the situation is still not controlled at that time. The suddenly enforced policy disturbs my plan and greatly affects my mood. As you have known last week, my every day in this testing center is ruined by the mess of bathroom and joylessness of internship. The only desire of mine during the weekdays is to escape here back to my school, spending the weekend with my beloved as recreation of body and charging of mind. But now, the frustrating new cases of COVID and their consequence shade the only light around, sealing me tightly into a boring center locating in remote area.

Last week I mentioned my internship in this testing center requires necessary rotation within different groups, but I didn’t go to a new group at last. The main reason is that although the workload in GC group is low and job is repetitive, it is already the highest among all. Also, I didn’t fully command all the skills in GC analysis, including data acquisition and processing, thus a further week in GC group is not redundant for me, and the spare time is adequate for many other formal or casual activities.

As a consequence, I was able to prepare for my summer camps without miscellaneous stuffs distracting me. Because of the uncertainty of COVID situation in China, summer camps held by most of universities or institutes were online activities, enabling us students to apply more than before because it’s OK to take them simultaneously via online meeting software providing if the time allocated for interviews would not conflict. In my dream list, seven universities/institutes sent me invitations to participate their summer camps, but I rejected some considering my limited energy to deal with excessive time-consuming interviews conducted during the summer camps as a procedure of assessment to select ‘Excellent Campers’ who will prevail in the future admission among all the applicants. For all summer camps I participated/rejected, see the table below.

Among all the rejected univ/inst, I feel slightly pity for the Westlake that it is the only one arranges the activities totally in campus, but out of some personal inclination I would not participate in their arguably most precious offline activities.

Fortunately, IRCBC’s, CEMCS’s and Tsinghua’s summer camps were fruitful for me that I have gained a lot information of them, for instance, circumstances of campus and labs, advantages in certain field of research, admission policy, and perhaps most importantly – the salary, etc. They are all the most outstanding univ/inst in biology in mainland China, but diverge in their adept fields of research.

As for the field of research, they are famous for diverged fields. IRCBC, as its name infers, is an institute dedicated on the cross study on biology and chemistry, thus chemical biology study, which is also my major in undergrad, account for a large part in this institute and that’s why I would like to apply for it. Then, CEMCS is famous for its national key laboratories in molecular biology and cell biology, indicating its leading position in the mentioned fields. Tsinghua, however, receives the best overall reputation in China not merely in biology. Together with Peking University, they are the most high-profile Gemini among universities in mainland China, proudly standing on the next level. The structural biology of Tsinghua is world-leading, instead, the other fields in biology or basic medical science of Tsinghua is less competent compared with Peking or CEMCS.

The environment of campus in Tsinghua is definitely the best among them but the climate in Beijing, as for me, is less satisfying than Shanghai in which the others are located. As a comprehensive university, the sole campus of Tsinghua occupies 4.42 kilometers square in the capital city, far greater than IRCBC or CEMCS, just like most other institutes, only occupying a few blocks due to their specified fields of research. But when considering the climate, Shanghai is better as it resembles the climate of my hometown after all, thus less risks will be taken to get accustomed to the local climate. And Beijing, just like Xi’an, scares me a lot by its dehydrated and frozen winter, which cracks my mouth and promotes acnes on face.

The salary and scholarship are also the significant points I would consider, because I don’t want to continue the life relying on my parents. Actually, I have neglected the univ/inst offering quite low salary, such as Shanghai Jiao Tong, Fudan, etc., and all I attempted to apply would provide satisfying wages, even those I rejected ultimately. Nevertheless, Tsinghua is in an inferior position on the topic of salary compared with IRCBC and CEMCS.

Now the final decision still remains uncertain. Each one has their advantages and disadvantages, and I can only stress my preference on CEMCS and Tsinghua for their higher reputation in biology study from the perspective of a common man. Because I past all the three interviews in the summer camps successfully, at this moment I can pick an ideal one before the deadline. Not quite sure whether I will select Tsinghua as people expect, but just hope all the decision deserves.

Let’s see what happens.

Additionally, I would like to express my sincere love and gratitude to my Miss 🐑 for her kind heart to buy me boxes of snacks and convenient noodle, helping me overcome the unpalatable meals in the testing center. She’ always the most gentle, considerate and enthusiastic, and I feel so lucky to have her with me in the rest of my life.

🐷❤️🐑 FOREVER