College class story

In 1984, 49 kids aged between 12 and 15 were accepted to the Juvenile Class ('84) at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the most selective / competitive university in the country at the time. As top high school students from their home counties, cities, or even provinces, they had finished the pre-college education one to three years ahead of the normal program. Based on their performance in the annual National College Entrance Exam, USTC student IDs were assigned to them from 8400001 to 8400049. (In case of your curiosity, my ID was 8400038.)

Our college life was full of exploration and learning, of friendship and competition, and of excitement and harmony. We were allowed the freedom to choose any department we wanted to join and to switch departments if our interests changed later. This gave us more opportunities to experiment with our interests than normal college students had. Such freedom later diversified our majors from computer science and electrical engineering to natural and social sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and mathematics. Many of my college classmates later received advanced degrees from top schools in the states.

Thirteen years after graduation, our classmates have achieved various degrees of success in both academia and industry. Seven of us serve on the faculty (at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa State, Missouri, Purdue, and Virginia) and a few more conduct research at other institutions and industrial research labs. Our classmates were also responsible for the creation of several high-tech companies ( Netbig, TurboCRM, etc.) as well as a college in China. Some others working on finance in the states have become quite successful and wealthy. :-)

The college experience was indispensable to myself and is deeply cherished in my heart. I always feel privileged to have been associated with such a group of young talented students, some of the smartest I have met in my life. And I am always proud of such experience too. My classmates helped shape my attitude toward learning and life and expand my knowledge far beyond otherwise I could have acquired. Some of them have become my best friends, inspiring me to keep elevating myself, as well as helping me sustain setbacks, including an almost fatal car accident on Dec 21, 1993, in my lifelong journey.

The Juvenile Class was later renamed the Special Class for Gifted Young (SCGY). In 1985 twelve other universities in China adopted this educational invention to recruit young talented high school students prior to their normally expected graduation. Seventeen years later, all of them have aborted their programs due to lack of success and/or deterioration of student quality. In contrast, the SCGY at USTC has stood the test of time, thriving steadily while keeping up to its prestige and high standard.

(last updated on Dec 3, 2002)

Class picture on July 3, 1988.

Some photos in the 1990s:-)

A couple more recent ones are under here.

Mailing list management.

Yan-Bin Jia