Chinese Applications To U.S. Schools On The Rise

Straylor, thank you for sharing this article. Interestingly enough, NPR ran a similar story not more than three days ago. The only difference, however, is that the NPR story focused on India and the extreme pressure placed upon students applying for India's top colleges. While it would be safe to assume that more Indian students are applying to college for the same reasons given in your article (one of them being the growing middle class/upward social movement amongst the population), the story on India attributes a large portion of the rise in interest for college simply to numbers. There are simply so many students applying to top Indian universities that admissions boards have been forced to look only at the scores of a single entrance exam and give little to no weight on anything else (grades, skill sets, extracurricular activities, etc.). This fierce competition amongst hopefuls has forced some to look towards the U.S. and bypass Indian schools altogether. And these Indian students are not applying to just any schools, but Ivy League institutions of higher learning. Yes, it is indeed easier for many to gain entrance into Harvard and Princeton than it is to Delhi University.

I can't help but wonder where many of our American students fit into this worldwide education picture. More specifically, where do my students fit into this global picture. Here in the U.S., many educators attempt to see students in a holistic way looking at their strengths, teaching to them, and utilizing those to build up deficiencies. Here in the U.S., we also have the best universities in the world (a title that will continue to endure into the future despite the rise of other countries). But as new superpowers emerge and begin to export their students, how will our students respond/compete in a globalized college market? Hmmm...

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/10/144902774/in-india-the-pressure-cooker-of-college-admissions
edited by bdeleon on 1/13/2012

Bdeleon and McJones I agree with you that the pressure is on for our students to compete in the globalized college market. However, I feel many of our students are unaware of where students in other countries stand. It is difficult for our students to see beyond their comfort zones. As a result, it is our duty to expose students to the global world. I also believe while the U.S. has some of the world's greatest universities, it is weak in its secondary education. While other countries assess students through project-based learning across curriculum, we depend on standardized tests such as the CST.

Straylor this is very interesting article you have touched upon and maybe we need to take greater clues form our Chinese counterparts and seek ways of gearing more of our students (or in fact start) to study overseas and in particular in China. Sadly, while our school speaks a wonderful number on the importance of creating a global community, I can not remember a single instance where one or any one of our students at West Adams spoke about studying overseas. There are many reasons why our students are not thinking in this fashion and perhaps we should take a lead at our school on expanding our student’s horizon. It can only serve our entire community and move our from simply talking about creating global students to actually creating them. I know in the past in other schools you have been involved in several programs and perhaps this is a worthwhile club to start looking into out campus. We can start by looking for opportunities for our students to study in the summer and from there hopefully move into bigger plans. Thanks for posting this article.

It seems interesting that the US and China's educational assessment testing accountability are on opposite sides of the spectrum. If only we just got along better so that we could come to a compromise of the two systems that would hold accountability in equal amounts to the students and society. That's what democracy was intended to maintain. An equal balance of powers and ideas. Just food for thought...