Exchange at Waseda: Breaking Through the Homogeneity of the Finance Department to Find Her Ideal Path
Nien, Yu-Hua, who attended the Humanities and Social Sciences Gifted Class at Taipei First Girls High School, discovered her interest in international exchange related to business, numbers, and trade during specialized courses in law, politics, and business. This sparked her decision to pursue studies in business school. She admits that when choosing her university major, she was still somewhat influenced by the popularity of certain departments. Since the College of Management allowed students to take elective courses from other departments, she opted for the high-ranking finance department.
Before graduation, she planned her time to engage in bilingual learning. She first joined the Korean language club, participated in Korea-China-Japan exchange groups, and earned a Level 6 certification in the Korean language proficiency exam. While on exchange at Waseda University in Japan, she discovered that Waseda offered a variety of well-structured Korean elective courses. During her time studying abroad in Japan, she improved her Korean and Japanese simultaneously, later passing the N1 level of the Japanese proficiency test.
While many of her peers were heading in the same career direction, Nien, Yu-Hua found an alternative path for her career development at Waseda University. She acknowledged that her classmates in the College of Management often had uniform goals for internships and jobs, with most finance students aiming for careers in investment banking or consulting. Securing an internship at a large company was seen as the key to a successful summer and future career.
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