Sheng Jit Koo

My dad went to school here, and he got me hooked on the idea. I had always wanted to visit the U.S., so I was very excited, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit scary. I transferred here three months before the pandemic started. The moment I got off the plane, I was a bit overwhelmed.

The orientation really helped kick off my experience, especially the International Student Welcome. I connected with other Malaysians during this time. Some of the Malaysians that I met were in the same college as me. It was nice to know that I could relate to them, and it helped minimize my confusion.

One difficulty that I had to work through as an international student was adjusting to classes. In Malaysia, I was used to having a class of—at most—25 people. In the College of Business, it’s common to have a class of more than 300 students. I also grew up with the Cambridge system, so switching over to a U.S. system was a little bit difficult. I eventually overcame these struggles through frequent 1-to-1 visits with my professors.

I’m currently involved in the Malaysian Student Association (NUMSA). I’ve really enjoyed participating in the events—especially the Lunar New Year and Malaysia Night. I met my current friend group at the Lunar New Year celebration. There were over 600 students; the atmosphere was just really vibrating.

The thing that Malaysians care most about is our food. People who have never tried the food get excited about it. I also like sharing the culture. Malaysia is diverse in the way that it has a mixture of different cultures, people and languages. An Indian in Malaysia could be quite fluent in Mandarin as well as Malay. I think it’s cool to talk about these things with students.