Mechanical Engineering in China

Ilana Roth is a junior in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue and she's currently studying abroad in China! Below is her blog post introducing her study abroad plans and explaining why she chose to travel!

Why China?

As I have shared my plans for the upcoming semester with friends and family, the first question is always “Why China?” I am a Spanish minor without any experience learning Chinese, and my major offers semester-long programs in both Spain and Colombia. In deciding where to go, I contemplated the many reasons people study abroad and which I identified most with. I thought about language acquisition, intercultural learning, taking a break from campus, and having fun.

Ultimately, these all factored into my location choice, but the decision boiled down to challenge. For me, challenge emerges in the unfamiliar. I spent the summer after freshman year studying abroad in Peru and traveled through Spain with friends after graduating high school, so those were out. I love learning languages, so the English-speaking countries were out too. China was the only country to survive every round of elimination.

The difficulty of living and learning outside of my Western culture and Romance language form the basis of all my excitements and fears for the upcoming semester, but I hope that this increased challenge will bring greater reward.

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Now, for the basics: I will be studying abroad at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China with approximately 20 other Purdue engineers from January through May. We will spend the first 6 weeks living in a hotel in Xuhui, which is near the city center. School won’t be back in session yet, so we will take classes with a Purdue professor on Mandarin, Chinese Culture, and Intercultural Teamwork. In mid-February, we will move to the main campus in Minhang, which is about an hour from downtown Shanghai. In Minhang, I will take Thermodynamics II and Heat & Mass Transfer and will live in an international student dorm.

Next time I post, it will be from China. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy following along on my adventures!

We hope you enjoyed Ilana's journey as much as we did! To read more of her experience studying abroad, click here to visit her blog!