On July 1, Wei Shujuan watched the live broadcast of the meeting celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC from home. It reminded her of the day she joined the Party, when she sat in her dorm reciting the oath under her breath.

Wei is a HUTB graduate. Two weeks earlier, at the university’s commencement, Room 1201 of Class 2201, Finance—her dorm—went viral: all six roommates had “made it.” Li Can was admitted to Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) for graduate study; Qi Zichen, Cao Mengying and Jiang Liangying to Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL). Zhou Ketong and Wei Shujuan were hired by the State Taxation Administration Xiangxiang City Taxation Bureau and Dongguan Chang’an Customs under Huangpu Customs District respectively. From Room 1201, the six girls each arrived at their own destination of choice.

Planning futures over the dorm desk

In the autumn of their junior year, “where to after graduation” became the dorm’s most repeated topic. The six would sit together and hash out the pros and cons of grad school versus civil service exams over and over.

“We genuinely debated it—what grad school offers, and what kind of person fits civil service,” recalled Wei, the dorm head. They even went together to consult a test-prep agency. Ultimately, four opted for graduate studies while two chose the civil service track.

Among the postgrad hopefuls, Li Can set her sights on Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, while Cao Mengying, Qi Zichen, and Jiang Liangying unanimously targeted the Master of Taxation program at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. When asked if they feared competing against each other for the same program,

 Qi Zichen responded candidly: “There are 69 admission slots. We were far more worried about someone not making it than about crowding each other out.” They knew that targeting the same university meant shared resources, pooled information, and traveling together for the interview—a far more reassuring strategy than going it alone.

Meanwhile, Wei Shujuan and Zhou Ketong quickly formed their own civil service preparation partnership. “Ketong wanted to stay closer to home after graduation, while I felt my extensive experience in student work made me a strong fit for public service,” Wei recalled. With one eager to explore opportunities beyond her hometown and the other set on returning to her roots, their goals were clear. They simply buckled down and focused on their respective preparations.

Study Partners: A Summer of Shared Struggles and Mutual Support

The summer break marked the most critical phase of preparation. None of the six roommates returned home; instead, they stayed on campus, adopting a rigorous "out by 7 a.m., back by 10 p.m." routine. While they spent their days immersed in individual study at the library or study room, following their own paces, the dormitory transformed into a nightly information hub.

"How far did you get today?" "Which instructor’s materials are you using for math?" "The 396 exam has way too many questions—I can barely finish." These conversations echoed through the room every evening. Effective strategies were shared instantly, and hard-won lessons from mistakes were never kept secret. Cao Mengying, Qi Zichen, and Jiang Liangying—all targeting the Taxation Master’s at ZUEL—naturally formed a study trio, sharing online course resources and review notes in their group chat for all six to access. As a team, they found more joy in a roommate’s success than in their own.

For Cao Mengying, English was a weak point, and the sheer volume of the 396 Economic Class Joint Examination Comprehensive Ability often left her hands shaking with exhaustion. "I went through a phase of extreme anxiety. I thought my goals were too ambitious and even started looking at job postings and sending out resumes," she confessed to Qi Zichen.

"Stop thinking about sending resumes. Right now, your job is to solve the problems one by one; don’t let anxiety fill up your time," Qi replied. Her words were few but effective. Cao put her resume away and returned to her books.

Qi Zichen herself struggled with anxiety. When the autumn recruitment season began, she found herself panicking between study sessions, fearing failure in both the exam and the job market. "Every time I shared these fears with Cao Mengying, they would listen carefully and comfort me, reminding me that everyone has their own pace and that I just needed to focus on what I could control today." They became each other’s anchors, turning shared stress into mutual motivation.

Secret to Collective "Success"

On the civil service exam track, Wei Shujuan and Zhou Ketong stuck to a weekly mock exam routine without fail, never missing a single session. They exchanged and peer-reviewed each other’s Essay Writing Section drafts, combing through every paragraph to refine argument logic and wording.

“She’s weaker in the Verbal Reasoning section, so I shared my tips with her; I’m slower at Data Analysis, so she taught me her shortcuts. We helped each other shore up our weaknesses,” Wei said.

After the preliminary exam results were released, Qi Zichen, Cao Mengying and Jiang Liangying all met the cutoff score. With the final interview approaching, the trio formed a mock interview group, booking the same high-speed train to Wuhan and staying at the same hotel for their assessments. They took turns acting as interviewers and interviewees, drafting and answering questions independently. When the admission results were announced, all three had secured spots.

When checking the civil service exam results, Zhou was too nervous to open the webpage, so Wei sat with her. The moment they saw Zhou’s score far exceeded the interview cutoff, Wei was even more thrilled than her. “She literally jumped into my arms,” Zhou recalled. The two laughed and cheered together in their dorm— that genuine joy for each other’s success is a habit forged over four years of living side by side.

Even after graduation, their dorm’s WeChat group remains active, with daily messages popping up to discuss TV shows, video games, and preparation materials for postgraduate studies.

“Everyone in our dorm always puts others first. We’re perfectly in sync, and we’ve all unspokenly abided by our shared dorm rules,” Wei said. That’s probably the secret to their collective “success”: they each worked hard toward their own goals, but always stayed within reach to support one another.

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