Li Xueying with the university offers she received [xdkb.net]

Li Xueying, a girl studying at a low-level college in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province has recently received offers from six prestigious overseas universities.

The institutions that accepted her application to study Mechanical Engineering included the University of Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds.

Merely three years ago, Li was faced with her poor performance at the National College Entrance Exam, and had a hard choice to make when deciding her major at university.

Li loved literature, and her teacher even handed out her essays to everyone in her grade at senior high school. But she performed badly at math. Her natural wish was to study journalism and work as a reporter. However, the poor grades combined with her mother's worries about future employment pushed her in the direction of machinery design and production.

In her first mid-course exams, Li turned in an almost blank paper. Yet, she set herself a goal to achieve something extraordinary. She spent all day long in the library, for a whole six months, accumulating knowledge bit by bit.

By the second year, Li and her friends participated in the 6th National College Students' Machinery Design Competition, and collected first prize. "Anything is possible as long as you spend enough thought and work on it," she said.

Li also came first in her province in the national 3D design contest and published two theses in key journals. In addition, she mastered the highest expertise in playing Guzheng, a Chinese plucked instrument. She did well in Chinese martial arts, too, and assisted the teacher in managing the class.

This September, Li turned in applications to several famous universities in the U.K. and her gleaming resume wowed interviewers. An array of offers have arrived one after another since mid-November. She can now choose to enter one of the six institutions when she finishes her study in China and successfully passes the IELTS language examination.

"I could never have imagined what I would have done when first entering the university," Li said. "Now I find that as long as you make steady steps forward, you will reach a height that may surprise everyone."

(Source: xdkb.net/Translated and edited by Women of China)

Editor: Eileen Cheng( Women of China）