Yin Minchi (front) and a classmate from Tsinghua University dance onstage at a students' festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chiu helped organize activities for the International Development and Exchange Association and the Model United Nations Association during her first year at RUC.

In the following year, she took three internships one after another, in a management consulting firm, a State-owned investment corporation and a securities institute.

That, from Chiu's perspective, has enriched her university life and helped her become acquainted with the world of work in advance before entering the job market.

"I've met so many studious contemporaries here, which spurs me on all the time," says the 21-year-old. "Contrary to what I had thought about a State-owned company before the second internship, the staff members there were passionate and patient, and far from spiritless."

Tsai Tsung-yu, 23, a senior in the Department of Chemical Engineering of Tsinghua University, launched his new materials company with a mainland classmate last year.