Memo+27

Shen is a first year MBA student at the busniess school of a top 50 university in the US. She grew up at Shanghai, China. Her parents lost the opportunity to go to college during the Cultural Revolution, and they regret it a lot. They paid intensive attention to their daughter and wish her could receive the best education. Shen was a good student in high school. In 2004 she did great in the National Entrance Exam and was admitted by Tsinghua University—the best university in China. When choosing the major, she had disagreement with her parents. She wanted to study physics, which is her favorite subject. But her parents thought that it would be difficult to find a good job as a physicist; therefore, they insisted her studying Computer Science or Electric Engineering, which was said to be “hot” at that time. Finally she listened to her parents and chose Computer Science. Shen soon found that she had no interest in Computer Science--she prefer to contemplating on the laws of nature than programming. Yet she didn't have much time to think about her interest: students in Computer Science were all excellent, she had to study very hard in order not to fall behind. Her only hope was to have a good GPA and to apply for another major abroad so that she can find a job not as a programmer. In 2008 she got her Bachelor's degree and admission for MBA in an American university. When I met her in an alumni reunion of Tsinghua University, she told me that she had finished her course study and was looking for an intern, but it was very difficulty at present because of the economy; the difficulty was partly due to her lack of experience in business. She started to regret about her choice, she attributed her predicament to the wrong timing of changing major.