We attended a lecture about studying abroad given by Mr. Louis in Wednesday. The lecture was centered on four aspects: safety of study abroad, cultural adaptation and identity, interest exploration and academic development, destination countries and school selection.

When determining the target school, I often only look at the major rankings. The country in which the school is located does not matter to me. But after Louis' lecture, I realized that researching on the culture, ethnicity, religion, present and future of the destination country is important as well. This is because it might affect your safety and cultural adaptation in other countries. You endangered yourself if you unintentionally offend others by race or religion in a foreign country. Therefore, it is important to know what is "untouchable" about the race and religion of the country before you go abroad to avoid conflicts with others.

I often don't know what factors to consider when choosing a university. In this lecture, Louis suggested that we consider the school's acceptance rate, graduation rate, safety, job recognition, study abroad policy, length of schooling, internship program, and difficulty of the program.

During the lecture, Louis also emphasized that "the best fit for you is the best for you", so we need to know more about what we like first. Finally, I want to end with a famous quote from Einstein shared by Louis, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is a stupid.”