From East to West: Trends in Chinese Student Recruiting

For many young adults in China, admission to top Chinese universities is intensely competitive—and many students looks to universities abroad, including U.S. universities, for a brighter future to reach their educational and career goals. Chinese students who have been seeking higher education opportunities abroad have been a dream opportunity for international admissions officers at U.S. colleges and universities, who have steadily lured China’s growing middle class to their institutions.

Yet as the Chinese student population at U.S. schools has grown, so have admissions challenges.

For one thing, Chinese students’ interest in U.S. schools is so robust that some admissions offices are actually scaling back their recruiting in China in hopes of better diversifying their campuses. And U.S. admissions officers sometimes find that today’s crop of Chinese applicants may look great on paper, but once they enroll, a lack of English proficiency and soft skills can make the transition to U.S. campus life difficult. Finally, the stark differences between the U.S. and Chinese educational systems make it difficult to ascertain which Chinese applicants will be the most successful once abroad.

“Where U.S. institutions want to see individual essays about personal growth and curiosity, Chinese students typically focus on academics and testing and are not expected to think about personal narratives,” said Benjamin Waxman, CEO of Salem, Massachusetts-based INTEAD, which offers schools recruitment marketing tools. “Where U.S. institutions want teacher recommendations, Chinese students often sit in classrooms of 150 to 300 students with one teacher, [who] simply cannot and do not write recommendations