Alumni Check-in: Michelle Lai (Class of 2024)

Q. Where do you live now? Why? What are you doing? 

A: I live in Debrecen, Hungary now. I attend medical school here at University of Debrecen, which basically allows me to get an MD, a masters, and a bachelor’s degree after 6 years.

Q. What are the biggest differences between there and Kaohsiung? What’s the biggest similarities?

A: Basically everything is different. There are no similarities as far as I can tell.

Kaohsiung is very convenient and it’s pretty lively. Debrecen is in the middle of nowhere and not much goes on here.

Q. What does a typical day look like for you?

A: I usually have class in the morning (or if i'm really unlucky, I’ll have a 3 hour lab at 7 am). Then usually I try to find time to eat lunch in between classes, and then I will go home or stay in campus to study.

We don’t have homework or assignments but we do have a ton of exams throughout the semester that will test the contents of 20 lectures, so i'm usually studying. 

Q. What's one thing you miss most about Taiwan?

A: The food + seeing other Taiwanese

Q. What advice would you give to the HS students?

A: Do not stress yourself out in high school. Yes, high school is important but it’s so much harder to get through university completely burnt out.

I’d say to really think about whether IBDP is something for you and necessary because 9/10 times it’s not necessary.

Don’t burn yourself out in high school because other than getting into university, your high school grades/ extracurriculars doesn’t mean as much as you’d think in university.

Q. Did your KAS experience prepare you for life after HS?

A: My HL classes did for sure, but the rest no.

KAS is very small and a bubble + IBDP (other than the HL classes) is not helpful. I will say, though, if you want to do IBDP, use the extended essay as an opportunity to write about something you’re actually interested in studying about in university, not just a random, easy topic. It will come in handy later when you’re trying to get research or meta analysis experience.

Q. What are you looking forward to most in the next five years?

A: Graduating and hopefully finding a job. 

Q. Anything else?

A: High school is a great time where you have a certain amount of freedom with less responsibilities than a college student.

Make sure you take care of yourself, do things for the love of it, and don’t stress too much about your CV or the prestige or whatever. It really doesn’t matter in the long run. Study, but also have fun.