The China Boom on US Campuses

I am a Chinese who went to college (a small liberal arts college) in the States. This was 10 years ago, so I am not part of the current wave. I returned to China after graduation, and have recently begun interviewing applicants for my alma mater (because there are now so many applicants from China). I have been meeting currently enrolled students and applicants. Here are a few observations.

- there are indeed a lot more of them than before. at the time I was attending, each year we had maybe one student from China. Now they enroll 5-6 every year.

- more rich kids. when i was attending, the chinese students were all attending on a full scholarship from the school (private US education cost being what it was, and Chinese per capita GDP being what it was, few Chinese families could afford it without the scholarship) - these probably explains why they admitted only one student from China per year. but these days, the families don't seem to bat an eye paying the full $40K+/year.

- students are getting more mainstream. in the 90s, applying to colleges from China was like a hack. nobody knew much about anything. to even dream of such things was to be a little quirky. but these days there are all these SAT prep courses and consultants (two of my friends were in this business), and high schools have dedicated advisors on applying to US colleges. and this shows in the students admitted. I remember back then the Chinese students were more creative and original and adventurous (for coming to the US is a risky/adventurous thing to do. selection bias here, not unlike the adventurous 1st generation immigrants coming to the States); these days we get far more over-achieving resume-builders who were president of student clubs, and I think will go on to be investment bankers and have successful careers and I hope will donate back to the school generously one day. Instead of the odd kid who couldn't fit in, and said "f&!k it, I am getting the hell out of here" -- I was such a kid. (I realize this is probably an unfair judgment because I did not have as much interaction with the current students/applicants as I had with people whom I attended school with.)

I am quite ambivalent about the situation. I am happy that my school is getting some attention at this end of the world. but I don't know how I feel about the change in the kind of students we attract and will have as alumni.

> Britain and Australia got there first with the realisation that foreign students can be conned into going to third or fourth tier universities and paying handsomely for it

In Australia, this is partly because the price charged to domestic students is price-controlled. The "Group of 8" (conceptually our Ivy League) charge the same as distance education universities.

And the amount received is not very much. Fees for international students are unregulated and so it has come to pass that Australian students are largely educated at the expense of foreigners.

It's starting to unravel because the current government have closed a 'loophole' that led from the student visa to permanent residency.

This is a mirror image of the situation in Vietnam, not surprisingly. Loads of families who have saved too much money and are willing to send their ill-prepared children to no-name American universities (or community colleges). Lots of stories of students adjusting to student life abroad "too well", dropping out and spending their parents' tuition money on partying. In either case, ROI can easily be measured in decades.

OTOH, I see China's education system rapidly catching up, in sciences although maybe not in liberal arts.