On September 29, Tsinghua International School (THIS) welcomed President David Leebron of Rice University and his wife, Y. Ping Sun, as their last stop of the day after visiting Tsinghua University. As co-editor-in-chief of the school newspapaper The Spartan Times, I was able to sit down with Professor Leebron, his wife Y. Ping Sun, and others to discuss university admissions, college life, and the future of both international and higher education.

Can you tell us what you’re working on in Beijing?
Here in Beijing, today’s visits were with Tsinghua University, and tomorrow’s is with Peking University. Our goal is to try and move forward joint programs such as student exchanges, and joint research programs.

More and more Chinese and US universities seem to be collaborating. Where do you see the future of cooperation between international institutions of higher education?
It would continue to be very complex. I do think there will be more student mobility, [and]eventually you’ll see undergraduates in dual degree programs. I would love, for example, to have an undergraduate degree [program]at a university like Tsinghua. There’s going to be an increasing number of [multicultural]people, so I think you’re going to see people [traveling overseas for school more]. We now take over 50 students from China each year [at Rice University]in our entering class of 950 students. So that’s a significant part of our student population.

There’s a lot of interest among high school students around the world to attend US universities. Up until now, standardized testing has been the best way to gain acceptance.  Recently however, Hampshire College stopped taking SAT and ACT scores.  Do you think this will continue to be a trend for colleges and universities?
I think that tests are going to continue to evolve. I think you’re going to see more schools go SAT-optional or get rid of the SAT. There’s going to be a few schools who just don’t think it’s useful, but you’re also going to see a lot of schools do it because they think that will help drive up [the number of]their applications. For Rice, we’re getting [18,000] applications for 950 places. We want whatever information we can get – we don’t want you to overvalue that information, but we still think the SAT is valuable.

One problem that has emerged is that there are many quality students who want to go to top-notch colleges, but too little resources, and too few schools. What kind of solution would you propose?
Our [current]solution is to expand the student body. We expanded by 30 percent, so now we’re educating, in percentage terms, more students than we used to. If you look at the top universities, it’s interesting that most of them have not grown their student bodies very much, but I think you’re going to see more schools growing [their student bodies.]But what [really]has grown, according to some analyses, is the number of schools that are regarded as top universities, including lots of state schools. For example, in Texas, where before there was only the University of Texas, there’s also Texas A&M, [and]they offer pretty high quality education.

You mentioned that for international students applying to colleges and universities in the US, environment is a big factor. Rice University has been consistently ranked as one of the schools with the happiest students. How does Rice University help international students integrate with other students and the environment?
There are lots of different kinds of international students we get. We get the Chinese citizens, who’ve spent the last three years in a boarding school in New England – they’re international students – or you have American students who’ve been abroad for a very long time. They’re not international students, but they may have some of the same challenges. We do have a special week-long program for international students [in which]we bring them in early because more things need to be explained to them. Some are pretty serious such as the Honor Code*;  some of the students we get from foreign locations [don’t understand] the basic principles. But the way we mostly succeed is by integrating students into a system that is very supportive and relatively small scale. At Rice, though many students spend one year off campus, we don’t have fraternities, sororities, or special dorms, so when you come into our residential college system, that’s a four-year system, the first thing that happens is that you’re welcomed by upperclassmen on campus. So the typical Rice student knows students three years in front of them, and three years behind them. And then you have advisers at the college level, as well as people living in the college assigned to provide advice.

*The Honor Code is a system unique to Rice where a council of students manages student life and handles any misdemeanors.

Rhea Jiang is a senior at Tsinghua International School, an international campus affiliated with Tsinghua High School. She is the co-editor-in-chief for the school newspaper, the Spartan Times, and co-president of the debate club. Through her blog posts, Rhea hopes to share her unique thoughts and experiences at Tsinghua International School.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact yvetteferrari@beijing-kids.com 

Photo: Ceremony and Reception – Rice University (Google Images)

Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing) recently celebrated their graduating class of 2015. Over 300 family members, teachers, and secondary students gathered for the ceremony held in the YCIS Beijing auditorium. Following the ceremony, the graduates took pictures in the park before heading to the Hilton Hotel for graduation luncheon.

The YCIS Beijing family wishes all the graduates the best of luck with their future endeavors as they move on to universities including Imperial College London, KAIST, University of British Columbia and University of California, San Diego to start the next step in their educational journey. Class valedictorian Ted Jin (South Korea), delivered the following speech to his fellow graduating class of 26 students.

Co-principals, teachers, parents, guests and fellow students,  good morning.

I’m Ted Jin, but many of you may remember me as the dancing man in the ‘Go with Yew Chung’ video. But more importantly, I’m speaking on behalf of the graduating class of 2015, and I would like to share with you the things we have come through together to get to this auspicious day. Preparing this speech was not easy, as I needed to think of good words and ostentatious phrases. I even looked at speeches from TEDTALK to see how Ted should talk. Then, I just decided to be myself, and reflect on the memories I have had with my fellow pupils at this school. Like many of my classmates, I can remember quite clearly my first day at YCIS Beijing. Many of us can even remember our first time standing on this stage. For me it was when I was a Year 10 student, volunteering as a rotational MC for the daily morning assembly. At that time, I was very nervous as I literally didn’t know what I should do – how to start or how to end an assembly. Luckily, my homeroom teacher Mr. Brown helped me on that day by encouraging me and showing me what to do, just as he had helped and encouraged so many others. The second time standing here was during the YCIS Beijing Challenge the Golden Bell as the organizer and MC of the quiz competition. Today, I stand here as the valedictorian of the graduating class of 2015. Our class of 2015 is unique in a way that we are dynamic but cooperative. Although each of us came to this school in different years we helped and supported each other as though we had always been old friends.

I’ve been lucky to meet many people during the four years I’ve been a part of this school. Throughout this time, I’ve seen the school change, not just the school itself, but also its community and spirit. Although we are not as large as other schools, this has allowed us to have the unique opportunity to develop close relationships between both other students and with teachers. I know that I will remember each of you who have become an important part of my life. Many of you I have met through the various after school activities offered here at the school, friends whom I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet despite being in the same school. I value the time we’ve had together, and even the advice the older students from years past have given to us. As I now look back at all the school activities, the one that sticks out the most is the 2014 Green Couture fashion show. It stands out because it shows how all the different classes could come together as one body and organize the fashion show. Throughout the event, students showed their talents in their performances, and the rest we reunited with the idea of protecting the environment. But it doesn’t stop there, we’ve worked hard together to be able to attend Math competitions, Beijing Model United Nations, the Film Festival and I was also glad to go and cheer on our sports teams that achieved some great accomplishments in many tournaments. In all of these events, we have shown our ability to come together and act as one. As we are about to walk through these doors for the last time, we will be leaving behind many things that we take for granted. The taste of the wonderful cafeteria food, the breaks and memories we had in the playground and all the good friends and mentors who will always be unforgettable. Many of us will be going on to college in just a few months. Hopefully all of us have already decided on which school we will go to. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those. I’m still deciding on which school to go to. Others might be taking a gap year to travel. Some will be going to the military to serve and protect their respective country.

Regardless of our destination, we will be doing a lot of ‘firsts’. It will be our first time going out on our own making our own decisions, our first time living alone, our first time getting a part time job and managing our own money. The choices that we make during this chapter will affect the rest of our lives. I want to take a moment to talk to the upcoming Class of 2016. I want to encourage you to be better than we were, as difficult as that may sound. We were strong, but be stronger. We have gone through the difficult journey of IB. You can endure it with greater results. We worked hard, but work harder. We raised over 30,000 RMB for various charities and campaigns, but you can raise more. We were active, but be more active. Be eager to participate in the school community. I’m not saying we were the best class on earth, but I believe that we were outstanding, not because of any individuals, but because we worked together, and had great teachers and parents who supported us. We have left you our legacy, but go beyond us. In closing, I would like to say thanks again to the teachers, my classmates, and a special thanks to all the parents who supported both myself and the other graduating seniors. You have worked hard to send us to this school, you’ve paid for our extracurricular activities, and you’ve stayed up late to help us with our homework even when it became too difficult. You’ve driven us to our ballgames and picked us up from school, you’ve taken the time to listen to our complaints and have given us advice to help solve our problems about life, problems that we thought were serious at the time, but now we laugh at how small problems really were. You have been by our side since the beginning preparing us for this day, and we say thank you. We as a class and as a school have gone through so much together, we have had great times and we’ve had sad times, but we’ve made it through and become stronger as a school and as a family, persevering till the end. Congratulations to the class of 2015, including myself.

Photos: Courtesy of YCIS

This last week I attended the IECA (Independent Educational Consulting Association) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference, composed of programs, schools and universities, as well as independent educational consultants (IECs), was a great forum for professional dialogue about admissions and the practices of IECs.  As usual, I left inspired and rejuvenated by the job I do. More importantly however, I was constantly reminded about the importance of connecting students to schools and programs that fit their educational needs.

Probably the most intriguing presentation was from the President of Goucher College, Maryland, Jose Antonio Bowen. Mr. Bowen is the author of Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning. His basic premise is that if professor or teaches teach out of a book, they miss the opportunity to actually engage students. Today students have all the resources and information they need on their mobile phones. They can research at depth any topic possible, so why teach using antiquated means? Instead focus learning on taking knowledge and making it useful. If students cannot think critically, analytically, or communicate succinctly, that education has failed. Being able to use information to drive ideas and innovation should be the role of the professor.

So why is this important? For a couple of reasons. First, most readers will have heard of Goucher College, yet Goucher is on the cutting edge of new thinking education. But the purpose of this article is not to promote the college but to get students and families to think about the point of education. As students are currently beginning a new cycle of research into their next educational setting it is important to consider what education is all about. This leads me to my second point, finding a school that will drive the learning of skills for the next generation of jobs and careers. Each student has their own learning style, so finding schools that match their style or envisioning new ways of learning put students in a quandary if they have not stopped to think about how they learn or if there is a different and better way than their current school has provided.

Many, if not most students, are used to learning by going to the classroom expecting the teacher to provide them with knowledge – handing them information and data to memorize. But what if the learning happened at home and the classroom was where students applied their knowledge on projects and innovation? Or what if a student had only one class they attended for three weeks with no other courses to interfere? Or what if a student were required to engage in an internship to apply what they learned in an actual job, thus honing that information and tweaking it in a performance based internship? These three types of schools actually exist – Purdue University, Colorado College, and Northeastern University. And this is just a small sampling of the breadth of educational opportunities that exist.
Today a student came to me to ask what I thought about a particular university. They wanted to know whether its “brand” was good. With a confused look on my face, I asked why is the brand is important compared to actually learning? Does brand or rank imply better teaching or, for that matter, better learning? Particularly since it is impossible to rank the outcomes, is one learning environment better or worse than another? How does one quantify what is essentially one students experience over another?

So this brings me to the final part of this article – walking on the wild side of finding schools that provide the platform of learning best suited to the student given his or her learning style. But as often mentioned, There are important factors of a school aside from teaching skills: size of school, potential engagement of learning, environment (ie: location, weather, access to activities), potential for research, and internships to name a few.

Walking on the wild side provides the opportunity to seek one’s education not driven by fear of not attending a ranked university but seeking to find a personal setting to be challenged in a global context and a flatter world. But, the question behind all of this is, can you walk on the wild side? Can you take the risk of not just looking at a name of a school but finding schools that will prepare you for a future which does not exist today? The world is changing faster than the classroom, so are you ready to walk on the wild side?

Photo: Colleges 360 (flickr)