My Experience as a ZJU-MSU 3+1+X Joint Master Program Student

Shuting Deng 

It has been more than 1-year from the date I graduated from Michigan State University (MSU). When I arrived in East Lansing in 2014, I was very curious and excited about the life at MSU and what I would experience in a U.S. university. In May, 2016, I finally graduated and earned my Master Degree of Public Policy successfully. Today I try to write down something to express my gratitude for those people who helped me during the two years.

Firstly, I want to express my gratitude to the professors in the College of Social Science. They helped me a lot during my classes. I’ve learned so much from Prof. Lakdawala, Prof. Reckhow, and others. During their courses, I learnt how to identify problems, how to process policy-making, and how to evaluate policy influences. Prof. Sapotichne helped me a lot with my poster session. He  spent several hours in my data analysis problem. Prof. Bali and Karen assisted me with my courses planning so that I could arrange my courses systematically. Without them, I might not complete my master courses so smoothly.

Shuting Deng (second one on the left) with scholars and her friends in a group study.

Secondly, I want to express my gratitude to Ms. Xia in the International Studies & Programs. She is very nice and patient. I had many questions during the application stage, such as how to apply for the program, and what are application requirement, etc.  She always answered my questions patiently, which was really helpful for me since I planned to spend 2 years in a foreign country and needed guidance.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to my classmates and my friends. We always organized discussion on our courses, homework, etc. Every time I benefited a lot from their opinions and experiences. And we always organized activities also, like a trip to Uncle John’s Cider Mill, BBQ, etc.  We definitely had a great time.

With this 2-year-learning, I made a great progress in terms of logical thinking and analysis methods, which benefit my work now. I’m really thankful for those people who gave a big hand to me. I spent a wonderful 2- year in MSU, I hope I can come back one day.

我从密西根州立大学毕业已经有一年的时间了。2014年当我第一次到达东兰辛市，我对这里美国大学的生活充满了期待和好奇。2016年五月，我从密西根州立大学正式毕业并获得了公共政策硕士学位。回顾这两年，我想对所有帮助过我的人表示感谢。

首先，我想感谢所有政治学院和经济学院的教授们。在我所有的硕士课程的学习中，他们的帮助是我获益匪浅。尤其要感谢Lakdawal和Reckhow等教授，从他们的课程中，我学到了如何发现问题，政策的过程，以及如何评估政策的影响等等。另外，Sapotichne教授为我硕士毕业论文的数据分析处理和最终成果展示提供了重要的帮助。Bali教授和Karen在这两年中一直帮助我对课程进行合理的规划和系统地选课。可以说因为他们每一个人的帮助使我能够顺利完成学业。

第二，我想要感谢国际处的夏老师。她是一个非常耐心和细致的人。入学之前，我面临很多问题要解决，比如如何申请以及项目的具体要求，她总是非常及时和耐心地对我的问题进行解答，让我能够合理地规划接下来两年在国外的生活和学习。

最后，我想要感谢我的同学和朋友们。我们平时经常组织小组讨论。他们每个人新颖独到的观点和丰富多彩的个人经历让我获益匪浅。我们还会组织一些课外活动，比如一起去农场采苹果，烤肉聚会等等，这些都给我留下了美好的回忆。

在这两年的学习生活中，我所受到逻辑思维训练和分析方法为我现在的工作提供了巨大的帮助。感恩所有帮助过我的人，希望有一天我能再次回到密西根州立大学。