On the morning of September 6th 2014 when the early autumn was still tinted with the heat of summer, Siping Road was filled with hustle and bustle as usual. Yet the busy scene failed to divert your attention, for your heart was attracted to the classic and your long-cherished entrance of Tongji University. You knew that, a step into it would mean embrace of a brand new life to be inspired by wisdom and knowledge, dreams and ambitions.

When you entered into this beautiful campus with your families or classmates, you had become one of the 4100 new student members of Tongji University. Welcome to Tongji!

Miss. DU Fei, a first-year student from Shanxi Province, said, “I preferred School of Design and Innovation to its counterparts in other universities in China after careful considerations. I was so lucky to be accepted by Tongji, and I hope to achieve something in this field in the future.” Tongji University enrolled only one student on that course from Shanxi Province. That was why she cherished this chance so much.

Tongji had made full preparations for the coming of its new students. Staff members from different schools and departments were ready to give new students their Tongji-style welcome and willing to help you in all aspects.

Some of you may have already had a chance to meet Professor PEI Gang, President of Tongji University, and other university leaders on your registration day. When you met them, you may have asked them questions related to your study or life. If you didn’t, you could have kept your questions for a meeting between the president and student parents at 19:00 in the assembly hall on the same day. You were welcome to attend the meeting with your parents!

The university had established twelve Innovation Experimental Zones for Talents Training and one Experimental Base of Foundation Subjects for top students. If you had an ambition to become an outstanding innovation talent, you could get support from the above mentioned zones or base, detailed information of which was available from the special issue of Tongji Newsletter for New Students attached to your Admission Letter. If you had any further enquires, you could get help from theTeachingAffairsOffice. You could do the way Mr. LIU Chen had done. He was a first-year student from Henan Province and was enrolled in the Department of Biological Science since he had a strong interest in biology. As soon as he went through his registration procedure, he applied to join the Experimental Base of Foundation Subjects for Top Students and was accepted right away, simply because he had done his “homework” well. He said, “Tongji is my dream university and I long for the Experimental Base of Foundation Subjects for Top Students. I wish to start my new journey from here.”

You could easily get help from the volunteers as with previous years, since you could see the “red caps” in almost every corner of the campus. There were almost 300 student volunteers this year. They were happy to help the new comers and would love to pass on the spirit of volunteering.

If you had difficulty in paying your tuition fees, don’t worry! The university had already set up a “green passage” for you. The university would not allow any of you to lose the chance of doing a degree course at Tongji because of your financial difficulties.

Tongji is committed to becoming a world leading university of sustainable development. It aims at providing education to potential talents who will lead the sustainable development with solid academic knowledge, practical ability, creative thinking, international vision and social responsibilities.

Dear new comers, are you ready to challenge yourself?

Translated by May Language Studio