 I am super excited because I'm about to see Julie. Julie was one of our first students at SCORE and she is already in the University of Cincinnati. So I'm on my way to go meet her right now and we're gonna talk to her about what it's like to be an international student in the University of Cincinnati in the United States. Okay, my name is Juliana, I'm from Peru. I'm starting my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati and I'm majoring in biomedical engineering. Why did you decide to study abroad? First, when I decided my major was very hard to do, I realized that only a couple of universities in Peru actually had that major and it was very recent and I wanted a program that was more solid and the opportunities, the job opportunities are better abroad too. So that's why I wanted to study elsewhere and also because of the experience because for me, studying in Peru would be the same as going to school. So just going to the university, getting to class and then coming back home doing work and the experience abroad would be more independent and it would be something different. Why did you decide to study at UC in the end? First, the scholarship really made me consider want to go but also the biomedical engineering program is very good. It has a lot of classes, a lot of universities even here in the US don't have biomedical engineering or biomedical engineering is really a recent thing they added and this university already has a program for decades so I kind of thought it was more reliable. I know that UC is the first university to do the co-op program so you stop studying to work but since it has such a history, the university has a long list of connections with a lot of companies so that would benefit my profile a lot to be able to have work experience before I graduate. Yeah, because if you graduate and you have no experience then why would they want to hire you? Because engineering I think is very like products like what do you do and not like what do you know? So when have you actually started classes? My classes should have started on the 23rd of August but I guess I came from an international flight and the schools like policy for COVID, I don't know, they made me quarantine for a week so actually last Friday was my first day of class. The first day I went I was like kind of lost so I was like using maps to get to my classes but everyone already knew where to go so I was the only one that was lost. It was a success for me just because like I sat in the right classroom and that's all I wanted. Everything turned out fine and I already made a couple of friends in my class and it's only the second day I've gone so yeah, I mean, I think it's going pretty good. What's it like being an international student at UC? I don't feel separated at all from everyone, like I feel like really a part of like the student body. I don't feel like people I don't know like can single me out and say, oh are you an international or whatever. Actually they like are pretty interested whenever I say like oh yeah, I'm from Peru and they're like oh my god, I'm from Peru. You can make friends with everybody and you just don't have to like hang out with international students but also I see a lot of like international students in my classes, like I've met some of them. It's good to feel like someone's also going through the same thing. It's kind of feel like everyone else, you don't feel different. Being like looking for clubs that are more related to my major just so like it's kind of relevant for my profile, my resume and that. So one of them is called Enable UC that is like a community thing. They like make prosthetics for third world countries I guess and that has a lot to do with my major so like I joined that. Another one was Society of Women Engineers. It's good to like connect with other women in engineering and then also like they have like networking activities and other like community service activities so yeah. What's like a day in the life so far? Tell me how it goes. I wake up. I kind of wake up my roommate with my alarm because she like has class a little bit later and then I take a shower and then I, today at least I went to the dining hall to meet a friend that is from my chemistry class so we could have breakfast and then go to chemistry together. Then it was raining when I went out so I went to the library that's right next to it so I could like take cover. Working on some things for my next class and then I walked to my next class with which calculus. I had calculus and then normally I returned back to my dorm. I, my roommate's there I think so I like ask her if she wants to go to the dining hall. We have lunch and then we just come back to the dorm like do all our assignments or whatever and then at night we like because I live in a suite where four people. I did like meet people online and then we were like oh like I like you. We should room together. Like my roommates all like theater and I like theater too. There wasn't an option to like just room with engineers because there was like a living learning community and I was going to do that but then I thought that if I'm going to like study with engineers and then live with engineers then I'm never gonna meet anyone else and we usually like hang out because we have a little common room. We like hang out, watch movies or like play on the switch and whatever and it's like the four of us so on the weekend we did we like get takeout or sometimes we just go to the dining hall and bring something back or just like eat snacks or whatever and then yeah and then we go to bed that's like 11 or 12. So how did you prepare your application? I took a gap year to like prepare my whole application so I spent basically the whole year studying for like the standardized sets so like the tuple and the SAT. I mean the tuple I took it I spent the summer preparing and I took it on like February and then for the SAT I did like study basically the whole year. I wrote my essays in like three months I think some of them were a little bit late. How do you feel about how we helped you? How score handled your counseling or how we helped you with your essays? Like you and everyone were like helping me check my essays they were helping me with his schedule because I suck at schedules like I really bad at like keeping I like due dates on that so yeah I mean you were all helping me and like I think it turned out good like I'm happy with where I am. I felt like they really pushed me to like like try to apply to some universities that I wouldn't have applied to and I got in the financial side was also like a factor but I mean there are some that I wouldn't have thought I like would have gotten in if it weren't for like you and Philly like telling me to like try it and apply. I think I like my writing improved a little bit just because like I was writing a lot and I usually don't do that but I also like realized I kind of do like writing. I'm really like satisfied with everything I feel like you were always there when I needed correction or when I like had a question or everything and like Philly every time I asked her something she was like I'm gonna send an email last I like hate writing emails so I love that. And what advice would you give to any other Peruvians who are thinking about studying abroad? I think you should really like manage your time well and like try to do everything in advance because that was something that was hard for me because I also like started out a little bit late with my essays and like to seeing my schools and everything so like starting early would be the best thing to do. And also like if there are some colleges that you really like you should like try applying even if you think you maybe don't have a chance like maybe something happens because applications and like admissions can be kind of random sometimes like you can expect to get in and not get in or you can like say you have no chance and then suddenly you're in you just have to like take the chance. All right, thank you so much. You're welcome, I had fun. If you're thinking about studying abroad and you need some help then go to purposecore.com and see how we can help you just like we did with Julie. I want you to be a success story too. So let us know.