Introduction
Exploring the unknown and pursuing true passion are essential parts of every student’s journey. The author of this article, Jack, is a Campus Life and Learning Advisor at Gulin Academy. Through sharing his personal experiences, he hopes to help more Gulin students avoid detours and move forward with greater confidence in their studies and life in the U.S.
Jack came to the United States at the age of eight, and from that moment, he has grown through the dual challenges of rigorous academics and cultural adaptation. In 2025, he graduated with the highest honors from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. During his undergraduate years, he interned and worked at several Fortune 500 companies, providing strategic consulting for some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical firms. Although his undergraduate studies and early career were primarily focused on finance and accounting, he later chose an entirely new path—preparing to pursue a Master of Science in Quantitative Methods at Harvard University and shifting his focus to the life sciences. Next, Jack will share with us his experiences and reflections on his academic journey and personal growth：
Hi. My name is Jack; I arrived in the US when I was 8 years old. My education here has been intense in both typical academics and hidden culture. I am going to share my findings with you, so you will move forward and succeed with fewer missteps about life in the US.
In 2025, I graduated from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University with the highest distinction offered: The Poets and Quants Best and Brightest.
While an undergraduate, I both interned and was employed at several Fortune 500 companies. Among my plum assignments were advising the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies on how to price their drugs, structure their deals, and decide which assets are worth billions of dollars and which are not. Prior to that, I worked and interned as an investment banker, a corporate strategist, a consultant. I am currently pursuing a Master of Science in Quantitative Methods at Harvard University, a complete pivot from my past work.
Nothing in my academic career had pointed me to working in life sciences. For most of my studies, I was convinced that I would become an accountant. I had no relationship with medicine, no familiarity with the pharmaceutical industry, and no real plan beyond chasing what felt meaningful to the people around me. The issue became figuring out what I wanted; this journey became intensely difficult when simultaneously trying to learn the basic unwritten rules of professional and public life. Here is the version of this story I want you to fully understand so you move forward confidently, unfettered by doubt.
When I arrived in the United States at eight years old, I started navigating American culture largely without a guide, the way most immigrants do; I guessed, I watched, and I got so much wrong.
What I ultimately came to understand, slowly, is that the gap between people who “make it” and people who do not, is rarely about talent. It is rather about a particular kind of knowledge, one that has nothing to do with classroom learning. There is a layer running underneath any syllabus, assuming that students already understand what is unspoken so no explanation academically required.
Here are three primary things that I wish someone had explained to me that might have smoothed my journey academically and culturally.
The Credential Trap.
Many of the strongest students I encountered along this journey arrived with records that were, by any measure, impressive: high grades, strong quantitative backgrounds, a genuine work ethic, superb references. And yet that did not always translate into success.
It is difficult for us as Chinese to believe that American culture does not primarily select individuals for hiring or advancement on credentials alone. Rather, it selects on signals that are considerably harder to understand and study for, such as how you carry yourself when an answer is not obvious or whether you seem like someone worth being stuck with for hours in an airport. Grades get you in the room. After that, they’re basically superfluous. Any serious investment of time in trailing indicators only provide disadvantages for you against people who figured this out earlier.
The Visibility Problem.
Across my time leading student consulting organizations, the gap I observed in one aspirant against another was rarely competence. The students who struggled were sometimes among the most technically capable and astute. What these students lacked was a feel for when to put themselves forward, learning to understand when a casual conversation was more consequential than any seminar, or when a relationship needed to be proactively formed. One conversation, at the right moment with the right person, can open a lucrative career or relationship. The same conversation, done differently, can become the regret of a career. This is of course a cultural fluency issue; fluency in something unwritten is hard to develop when no one has thought to tell you that the language even exists.
The Identity Problem.
This is the issue least discussed. Many of us come from cultures where deference signals competence, where speaking loudly about your own work feels not just unnecessary but faintly embarrassing. American professional environments tend to operate on the opposite assumption. If you do not allow others to learn about your achievements, a reasonable assumption might be that you have not accomplished much. That turns into a real and disproportionate cost. It is paramount to understand that what reads as appropriate modesty in one context reads as absence of thought or pride in another. You must continuously assess and decide how you need to present yourself publicly and professionally to achieve goals.
No one explained much of this to me. I learned through understanding bits and pieces, picked up slowly through conversations and also maintaining proximity to people who had already “figured it out.” Most of us do not even understand that. We all feel pressure to perform and backlash when we are swallowed up in that performance.
My advice is simple. Engage with others. Consistently. Americans, despite our faults, are genuinely interested in others and are willing to help people they meet. And remember, America is eternally open to “second chances” so success is always open to you.
