NUA
｜A Cultural and Artistic Platform with Depth and Warmth｜
With a GPA of 4.05, she was granted direct admission to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She is skilled in design, loves baking, is passionate about volunteering, and enjoys studying circuit boards.
From Nanjing University of the Arts to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, from an art student to a science and engineering girl. Today’s story is about Wang Tongwen, a graduate student in landscape design from the 2013 class of NUA.
1
Gaining Admission through Summer Camp Participation
Unlike most students who apply for graduate studies, Wang Tongwen obtained her admission opportunity by participating in summer camp workshops. This past summer, she signed up for design summer camps at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, and Jiangnan University. These are free workshops aimed at university students nationwide, where outstanding participants receive priority admission or bonus points for re-examination.
In the summer camp at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which only accepted 26 participants nationwide, Wang Tongwen stood out with her excellent academic performance, becoming one of the few students from the art college. Alongside her were outstanding students from prestigious universities such as CAFA, Zhejiang University, Xiamen University, and Soochow University.
With the intention of honing her design skills alongside top talents, Wang Tongwen initially did not expect to receive the direct admission opportunity as an outstanding participant. At the beginning of the summer camp, since most of her peers were from industrial design backgrounds, she was assigned to work on graphic layout in her group, which limited her involvement in the actual design process.
During the workshop at Jiao Tong University, the group was tasked with designing a smart glove that could secure a needle while a child was receiving an IV drip, and also provide safety alerts. Initially unable to contribute to the design, Wang Tongwen thought to leverage her landscape design expertise by incorporating a mapping function and connecting the glove to parents’ smartphones via an app.
She also applied her knowledge of landscape installations to the design, creating an interactive board that displayed medical knowledge and could transform into an emergency evacuation map in critical situations. Her suggestion not only impressed her peers from top universities but also earned recognition from the Jiao Tong University instructors during the group presentation.
2
Receiving an A in the Interview
What truly set Wang Tongwen apart was her performance during the final interview presentation of the workshop. When asked by the instructors about her perspective on design, her response resonated with them:
Design should be about solving problems, not creating them. Many people design for the sake of design, which leads to more issues, contradicting the very purpose of design.
Wang Tongwen has always been well-prepared for her future. During the interview, when asked to present her sophomore design project on the Nanjing Massacre in English, she had already enrolled in an online speaking course six months prior and practiced speaking for half an hour every day leading up to the summer camp. Her ample preparation allowed her to handle the tense interview with ease. (Many seniors have noted that English proficiency is crucial in graduate school interviews.)
Thus, Wang Tongwen from the art college successfully secured one of the only ten direct admission spots in a workshop filled with design experts from engineering disciplines. During the interview, one of the instructors even remarked, “You should be able to get this A.” A-class participants are eligible for direct admission, while B-class participants receive priority in the unified graduate school interview.
3
The Engineering Girl Who Loves Baking, Volunteering, and Inventing
In fact, Wang Tongwen’s university life has been spent completing various designs. In her words, under the high-intensity assignments from her instructors, most of her classmates reached the level of graduation design by their sophomore year.
Her design college has always adhered to cutting-edge aesthetic concepts, not only in design philosophy but also in maintaining high aesthetic standards in visual expression. This is a significant reason why she has stood out in a comprehensive university known for its engineering disciplines.
In her sophomore year, she had to complete an assignment every five weeks. At that time, the only software courses offered were Photoshop and 3D MAX, so she utilized her spare time to learn other software and architectural knowledge, while also conducting site surveys for her landscape design projects. This girl also has a hobby of auditing classes; she wanted her graphic expression to be more refined, so she attended graphic design courses. She plans to continue auditing classes at Jiao Tong University.
Wang Tongwen is not just a top student; she enjoys baking, volunteering, and participating in various performances at school. Standing at 170 cm tall, she has also modeled in graduation exhibitions.
Choosing to pursue a master’s degree in engineering, she has shown a talent for science and engineering from a young age, enjoying inventing and creating. While other girls played with dolls, she preferred circuit boards. She even had an experience of using a milk can to create a microphone, which resulted in spoiled milk.
Postscript
The design college at NUA has provided her with an artistic perspective, and she hopes to further improve her skills in industrial design and user experience design during her studies at Jiao Tong University.She aims to learn more rational design principles in an engineering-focused institution.
For Wang Tongwen, her four years at NUA have equipped her with a solid foundation in design and a high standard of aesthetic vision, and this steady and determined girl hopes to learn something different in each of her upcoming years.
NUA
｜Telling Warm Stories in the Name of Art｜
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