Coffee Bean’s Growth Story
The first time Coffee Bean studied abroad was about two and a half years ago. At that time, she was still an inexperienced girl who, before entering the British high school, came to MeetCam to preview A-Level Chemistry and Mathematics courses. Fast forward to today, the tutors at MeetCam have accompanied her through the nervousness before going abroad, the struggles with course selection, and the tension of school applications. They’ve also been there to witness her joy when she received her first offer.
This time, we’ve invited Coffee Bean to share her growth journey in the hopes of inspiring others who are on a similar path.
Her story highlights the importance of starting early, building a solid foundation in key subjects, and seeking tutorship from experienced advisors. Through careful preparation and perseverance, Coffee Bean navigated the challenges of studying abroad and successfully achieved her goals.
Whether you're about to embark on the same journey or are already deep into the process, Coffee Bean’s experiences are sure to offer valuable insights and motivation.
Name: Coffee bean
A-level grades: A*A*A*A* in Maths, further maths, physics and chemistry
Offer recieved: imperial chemical engineering and interview from oxford chemistry
Meetcam tutor: Lynne(see tutor section)
Offer letters from IC and Oxford
Part 01
The start
A heavy snow from coffe bean's first year in UK
"My name is Coffee Bean, and I’ve received an offer from IC for Chemical Engineering and an interview invitation from Oxford University for Chemistry. Initially, I planned to attend a regular high school in China and study abroad for university. However, due to some changes in the middle school examination policy here, my parents thought it would be better to go abroad earlier and adapt sooner. So, I decided to study abroad.
At that time, I spent two years in the international department of a domestic high school in China before transferring abroad to study at a high school. My parents only made the decision for me to study abroad, helped with choosing the country, and provided financial support. They didn’t interfere with other matters, so I handled the entire application process to British high schools myself. My international department in China was partnered with a Canadian school. If I had followed their path, I would have spent a year of high school in Canada and then possibly gone on to university there. However, I personally preferred to go to the UK or the US, and ultimately chose the UK for safety reasons. I then started applying to British high schools on my own and ended up getting into a school located between Birmingham and Manchester. At first, I wasn’t very adaptable, especially in terms of language, and it took time to adjust. The first and second weeks were particularly difficult, and I often felt homesick in the evenings. Fortunately, my classmates and teachers helped me, and I fully adapted to the learning and living environment in about a month and a half."
Part 02
decision making
the view outside coffe bean's high school classroom
"Before going to the British high school, during the summer, I wanted to find some A-Level textbooks to preview. I happened to come across a post on Zhihu and joined a few preview lessons in chemistry and mathematics through MeetCam. When it was time to choose my courses at school, this is what happened: before the semester started, the teachers held a meeting about course selection, and we could choose different subjects to try out. I tried mathematics, chemistry, physics, and economics. After listening to the teachers' course introductions and their examination methods, I decided against choosing economics because it required writing an essay in 40 minutes, which seemed difficult for me. So, I chose physics. In the end, my selected courses were mathematics, advanced mathematics, physics, and chemistry. During the course, I realized that I wasn't particularly fond of physics, so I didn’t consider it for university applications. One opportunity to exclude Chemical Engineering came when I attended UCL’s Open Day. I looked at their Chemical Engineering program and realized it wasn't what I wanted, so I eliminated that as well. Actually, my parents hoped I would study mathematics, but I didn’t like it as much as I liked chemistry. Chemistry was the easiest subject for me among the four I took, and I enjoyed doing experiments and reading chemistry books. When I visited Oxford's Open Day and checked out their Chemistry Department, I really liked it, and in the end, I decided to apply for Chemistry."
Part 03
improving background and personal statement
nice cloud seen on path to school
"Preparing for university applications was a gradual process. When I first arrived at the British high school, I didn’t really adapt well in the first month or so, so I didn’t think much about the application process at the beginning. Around November and December, I learned about a chemistry competition, UKChO (UK Chemistry Olympiad), so I decided to focus on preparing for this competition to build up some experience for my university application.
But by January, I noticed that everyone was starting to get serious about their applications, and I started feeling the pressure. I realized I needed to start preparing for my application as well, so I reached out to an agency to help me plan my application timeline. That summer, I wanted to prepare my personal statement, so I attended an Oxbridge camp from another agency. The camp included some teacher guidance for the personal statement, but the teacher had many students to manage, and I felt stuck with the writing. The teacher didn’t have much time to give me, and I felt that the writing was progressing very slowly. By the end of August, my personal statement was still in a state where I hadn't written a single word. Many of my classmates had already finished a draft or had made several revisions, so I was very anxious. Then I remembered that MeetCam also offered personal statement guidance, so I contacted them, and they assigned me a one-on-one tutor from Oxford. The previous agency’s teacher didn’t manage things well, so progress was slow, but with MeetCam’s tutor, I was able to complete my personal statement step by step. Initially, the tutor’s availability didn’t align with mine, but Lavonda helped me switch to another tutor. This tutor was also in the UK, so our schedules matched up, and he helped me figure out what to write in each section. We also discussed what topics I could write about or what direction I could take. This tutor really helped me a lot, because I went from not being able to write a single word to having a logically organized personal statement. He spent a lot of time and effort on it. My school teacher gave me some general advice, and whenever I needed help, I would contact the tutor every two or three days, and we’d brainstorm how to implement the teacher’s suggestions. We started from the introduction and worked through the whole personal statement together. The tutor also helped me a lot with language, as my English essay writing wasn’t very strong. Another great thing was that he shared some knowledge beyond the A-Level curriculum, helping me prepare for potential university interview questions related to my personal statement. He gave me some resources to review in preparation. Additionally, utilizing school resources was also important. My school teachers would write some comments or recommendation letters, which would be submitted to the house master for consolidation. I was worried the quality wouldn’t be great, so I went to ask the teacher responsible for Oxbridge applications, who also happened to be my physics teacher. He said he could help me write the recommendation letter. He also provided me with many insights on my personal statement, and I learned how to make the best use of the resources at my school."
Part 04
Visions
"Aside from the courses and personal statement, my tutor would occasionally chat with me about various topics. I would ask her about things like my choice of major. For example, if I wanted to major in Medical Chemistry but hadn’t studied biology, would that be too difficult? She explained the different branches of the field and shared what she was currently working on, giving me insights from the perspective of current students. I found that really helpful.
Since I wasn’t sure about which college to choose, my tutor, Irene, also gave me some advice on that. Based on my interests, she recommended another senior who was studying chemistry at Oxford. Although this senior wasn’t a tutor, she also gave me a lot of helpful suggestions.
I am really grateful for my tutor at MeetCam. My personal statement turned out really well, and I am very satisfied with it. It was one of the reasons I was able to secure an interview with Oxford. The founder, Lavender, has been helping me ever since I started the preparatory courses about two and a half years ago. After each prep session, she would give me feedback. Since she had also studied high school in the UK, she gave me a lot of advice about both life and studying in the UK before I even arrived. It really helped me a lot."
Part 05
past experience and future suggestion
Don't be too stressed! enjoy the view
"As someone who has been through the process, my advice is that you don't need to be overly anxious about choosing your major, but you also can't take too long. Otherwise, you won’t have enough time to make sufficient preparations. Explore what direction you’re interested in, read relevant books, or participate in related school activities or competitions. Go with the flow and follow your teachers’ advice; you won’t go wrong. Especially if you're attending high school in the UK, many teachers are Oxford or Cambridge graduates, and they have a lot of experience, such as in interview topics. Many times, you need to proactively seek help from school teachers and make good use of this resource for your applications. Finally, don't be too anxious during the application process. Anxiety might slow down your learning of new knowledge. Stay calm and composed, focus on your studies, but also remember to look ahead and actively seek help. You too can get into great unis!"
Good luck for everyone!
Looking back, it's been nearly three years since Coffe bean started her journey with Meetcam.
The senior students at Meetcam have accompanied her throughout her high school studies and university application process.
During this unforgettable time, Meetcam and Coffee bean, both striving to grow, witnessed each other's development and transformation, becoming better versions of themselves.
Whether it's improving A-Level grades or university applications, feel free to reach out to the seniors at Meetcam for a chat.
We are here to support you, as we wait together for the flowers to bloom.
