International Student Services

“The University of Washington is really big, it was hard to find the International Student Office”, these were the opening remarks from Steve Ng, graduate from Edmonds Community College.

Steve was accepted into the Engineering program at the University of Washington on September 2002. He is majoring in Aerospace Engineering and he came to Edmonds Community College to complete his pre-engineering work 2 years ago from Hong Kong.

Here are some of his comments about Edmonds CC and his first quarter at the University of Washington. “ Edmonds CC is a great place to come to improve your English and become used to the American culture. You can really get to know people when you are in a small school like this one. I still live in Lynnwood because the rent in Seattle or near the University of Washington is really expensive. At Edmonds CC the teachers are really good and they prepared me well for my engineering classes. They were tough, but I learned a lot,”
he said with a smile. “At UW, the instructors are not always accessible, in fact, most of my classes are taught by a teacher assistant. Our classes are really large, at least 100 in each classroom. That was a big change from Edmonds CC . My classes here had around 25 to 30 people maximum.”

Steve has some advice for students who are transferring to UW and to any other large university, he says: “try to get involved in school life, when you go from a small and friendly campus like Edmonds CC to a huge campus like UW, you tend to be shy. You can’t be shy, your attitude needs to change and you need to open your mind and your heart to people”. He finalized his interview by saying: “I miss Edmonds CC and I miss my job at EdCC. I haven’t found a job at the UW, but I continue looking, perhaps later on.”