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It is that time again for applying to study in USuniversities. A time of stress whether for Chinese American parents and their high school senior children or for students in China who wish to study  in the US for their undergraduate or graduate degrees. Motivations for applying to study in the US are different from family to family. But they usually involve the following consideration:

1.      For family in China who are rich enough to afford the US college cost (nowadays about $70,000 for  tuition ,  room and boardfor 9 months),  coming to the US avoids the problems of the Chinese  NationalCollege Entrance Examination – not everyone can score high enough to get into Beida, Tsinghua or other first tier universities. Besides a degree from a reputable university in the US  is worth more back home in China.

2.      For Chinese-American families who immigrated to the US and with college ready US born  children, most of them believe thatadmission to an Ivy League college or to Stanford/Berkeley on the West  coast is equivalent to have a ticket for success in later life.  Thus, competition and stress for college admission can be very high for the entire family.

From the viewpoint of the US universities, the following considerations come into play:

·        Not all universities are richly endowed as Harvard. Thus, ability to pay full cost influenced  the chance for admission.This sometimes creates tension between rich students from China and native Chinese-American students who come from typical middle class families.

·        Diversity of student population often enters into admission consideration. In many top US universities,  ethnic Chinesestudents (whether native or from China) population are already very much higher than the CA population percentage. For example, last time I checked, the Asian student percentage at Harvard (largely composed of ethnic Chinese) is at 18% while the Chinese population in the US is at less than 1%. Thus quotas or higher threshold/standard, sanctioned even by decision of the Supreme court ofthe US, for admission exist in many schools for ethnic Chinese applicants. In other word, Affirmative Action which helped Asian-Americans in earlier decades now actually work against Chinese Americans in college  admissions. The recent flare-up in political protests by Chinese-Americans on the issue of  “AsianDetail Disaggregation (ADD)” on both Coasts had some roots in this college admission consideration.

·        Many CA parents tend to believe that Ivy League college admission is a matter of life-and-death for future success. America is a land of many opportunities. The countries is full of success storie s  by people who did not go to well known college. But this longer term view is not persuasive enough for Chinese parents who have “face” problems or belief in the myth of the Ivy League brand.

I have worked with Harvard undergraduate and graduateadmission for years. The articles I listed below are what my own experience and opinions regarding the admission processes of US universities  over the years.They are offered for information purposes. Please don’t be offended if some of my frank opinions do not agree with your own perceptions.

1.  Applyingto US Universities for Admission

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&id=9164

2.   关于推荐信和评价（译文及原文）

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&quickforward=1&id=43323

3.   [转载]Stress of Chinese American High School Students/parents

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-1046850.html

4. Harvard College Admission Statistics andStories

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-1042903.html

5. Advice on applying to graduate school

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-1008346.html

6.   College Admission for Chinese AmericanStudents

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-986673.html

7.    Gaining admission to US Colleges for Chinese Students

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-951994.html  

8.   Chinese American College Admissions andthe Glass Ceiling

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&id=471528

Note added 12/7/2017: One more addition about "admission anxiety" and what parents can do about it. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/11/taming-admissions-anxiety?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12.07.2017%20(1)