James Li, MIT Early Decision, Full Scholarship, Engineering Major

Due to the financial issue and the long distance, James’ parents wanted to persuade James to quit on the second year of studying here. Parents thought that James would not choose art major anyway, why waste money here.

But James was fascinated by the creative art and refused to quit. Right in front of US Fine Art’s front desk, James’ father said: “Here is the deal, quit and I will buy you the $500 toy that you wanted for a long time.” James looked at his dad in eyes and said “NO.” James’ father was persuaded by James’ unwavering determination and supported James pursue his art dream. Due to the ongoing training from our basic level class till our portfolio program, James has built up his creative thinking skills and art talent. More importantly, benefit from our art class, James improve his concentration and stood up from the crowd. He was elected to be the project leader all the time, and eventually became a leader of Walnut Robotics, an independently-run robotics team from Walnut High School, which won a worldwide robotics competition. After seeing how fast James grow and inspired by studying art in US Fine Art, they decided to support James no matter how hard the financial situation is.

After James received MIT’s offer with early decision and full scholarship, his mother holding his art teacher’s hand and said: “I still remembered you told me, whatever James would do in the future, he will do it great and excellent. You are right, he got in MIT!” When thinking back the path James walked through, mom felt lucky that she didn’t force James to quit at the beginning.