As a graduate pathway student in MBA, I have grown and learned more about both learning experience and broadening of culture in the United States. INTO pathway program also helps me to adapt myself to the American education system by providing English academic preparation and professional skills such as analytical skill, presentation skill and research skill.

In academic part and learning experience, doing research on plagiarism from PROV-501 class last semester is very useful as it is a significant fundamental issue in academic writing in all disciplines in the Western universities. In addition, establishing professional documents from PROV-502 class is also very helpful for students to apply jobs in the future. This shows that INTO program carefully concentrates on students’ progress all the way through Masters’ degree. The most significant parts of the past semester is critical thinking. Most classes, especially EAP-506 and EAP-507 required students to write assignments that required critical thinking skill such as article analysis, journal analysis, language analysis, CCP and MCP projects. This skill is considered to use in learning process. It is also particularly valuable in developing a successful graduate education and careers in the future. To talk about the cultural part, attending all the classes and joining events on campus were extremely helpful for me. It enhanced me a better communication with local people and understand more in classes. During this program, I had a chance to meet new friends and built relationship between American and other international students from various events, which can expand my connection in GMU. I can learn new things from different cultures and different people around the world from the event, not only about studying at George Mason but also living in the U.S. From this experience, it provided me an important aspect and helped me plan ahead for my future life of being a graduate student.

The overall experience of this semester allowed me to gain more perspective on the American education and culture as well as meet new people from classroom and events. This pathway program will help students to understand and practice a series of basic skills for graduate school. It is also crucial for my ongoing progress as a graduate student at George Mason and other graduate pathway students to become more aware of studying Master’s degree in the U.S.