Thinking back on the last year regarding my daughter’s experience as a freshman at College, I reflect upon what a rollercoaster ride it has been. Mind you, it turned out to be a great year for her, and academically it was her best year ever. However it is the rollercoaster ride that bears talking about.

Every student who has gone through a college admission process, and sets his or her sights on a coveted place at their dream school, enters the process with a bit of trepidation. Once they have secured a place at their chosen destination, a whole new set of anxieties sets in. “Will I make friends?” and “Will I be academically successful?” are a few that come to mind. However these kinds of doubts are normal and expected, but sometimes, what needs more attention are the more difficult aspects that need to be dealt with during the challenging pre-transitional period.

While she was very excited about the courses she had been enrolled on, she was unaware of the different types of professors she would come across: full-time, part-time, and adjunct professors, not to mention tenured professors who struggled with their hearing and sight. One of her professors was teaching part-time at several different universities in the area. Communicating with him and arranging office appointments was a challenge.

Coming from a high school where teachers were easily accessible made the adjustment period harder. Furthermore, as a new member of the student body, getting to grips with the names and whereabouts of members of faculty can make the beginning phase of college life much more daunting.

Another issue for newly enrolled students at college is the expectations of their professors, many of whom will have differing approaches to their teaching role. Some of what they expect will differ significantly from what students are used to in high school. Attending more classes, having to write papers using a blue fountain pen, grammar dictators, deadlines with no exceptions, and adjusting to more free time are just some of the concerns students will have to deal with. In addition to a new and what may be a grueling schedule, students will also have to contend with a number of different teaching styles and execution of academic programs. For example, how might a fresher deal with a professor who decides to change the direction of a course in the middle of a semester?

On one occasion my daughter was sick and asked if she should get a doctor’s note for missing class. But things became more complicated when my brother in-law passed away and we planned to attend the funeral. Having notified all of her teachers in advance, everything seemed set.  But while she was away, one of her professors assigned students a major group project, leaving her out of the mix. She had to plead or do the project on her own.

My daughter’s school has a Winterim period during January. There are fewer classes and many students study abroad during this time. My daughter decided to stay and take a language class. With fewer students on campus, a cold winter season and the reality that she had chosen a school in the middle of nowhere hit her hard. That mingled with unexpectedly having to “rush” for a sorority, led to more anxiety, (“Rush” is a time for potential new members, usually referred to as “rushees”, to go through a recruitment process to secure membership at their chosen sorority house – if you think applying to university is hard, wait until you rush. Brutal!).

Anyway, what I refer to as the ‘Freshman Blues’ hit like a hurricane in October. The Blues came from the overwhelming feelings that typically hit sometime around late January or February. Finally settled in, she thought she had everything figured out. However when she came home for the winter break, seeing all her old classmates resurfaced her feelings of wanting to be close to what was familiar and loved, “Dad, why did I choose this school?” “I have nothing in common with the other students.” All led to the dreaded – “I think I want to transfer.”

A perfect storm of events, loneliness, isolation, and being an international American are just a few of the things that added to the struggle. It is not unusual for students to go through this kind psychological pattern. While other students may want to transfer to trade up, my daughters’ emotional thread of consciousness may be more common in some ways. As a father and a college counselor, I turned to my college-counseling hat: “Go talk to someone!” Schools have loads of support services that many students are either unaware of, or feel ashamed to use. My daughter was neither, thankfully. Talking to someone can be the catalyst to preventing depression and other psychological issues, which many young people and students suffer from when under mounting stress, pressure, and isolation.

I tell all of my students, take a year to transition. There is so much to learn, to experience, to adjust to and be aware of in the first year. Let it all sink in before making a decision. There is no perfect school, but usually a student ends where they belong, it just may take some time to understand that. I will say that my daughter is bolder, more mature, and confident now that the year is over and thankfully she took all the right steps to successfully complete the year. With a sigh of relief, I know she is looking forward to taking on the next set of challenges in life.

Freshman Blues, be gone!

Photos: Pixabay

Recent misunderstandings circulating on Weibo about admission to Cambridge University have shone a spotlight on the controversies surrounding the increasing numbers of Chinese youngsters studying in the US and the UK.

China’s equivalent of Twitter buzzed around an image being circulated from Cambridge University’s website, about their admission procedure. The (genuine) screenshot announced that Cambridge would accept the Gaokao (China’s university entrance test) as a qualification. Less pleasing was the suggestion that applicants would need to score in the top 0.1 percent in their province.

The screenshot circulating on Weibo

Despite this, netizens rejoiced that they could apply for Cambridge with the Gaokao alone, without the need to take the IELTS test demonstrating their English language capability. There’s only one problem: this isn’t true.

Cambridge has been accepting the Gaokao for many years; the Chinese test is recognized as one of the most academically rigorous in the world. However, applicants also need to score 6.0 or above on IELTS (or an equivalent test), with no less than 5.5 in each element. Even if Cambridge decided unilaterally to relax this criterion, it’s a legal requirement for a UK student visa.

Furthermore, Cambridge also assesses applicants on their wider interests and aptitudes, looking for students who have rounded personalities, possess skills of critical thinking, and will enhance the overall life of their college, whether through sports, arts, or other secondary activities. This is going to be a more challenging requirement for anyone who has spent years in the sort of intense tutoring many see as giving the best chance in the Gaokao.

It’s not clear how the misunderstanding arose. China Daily suggests that it was triggered by a speech given in Beijing recently by Stephan Toope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. However, the idea that students, however academically brilliant, might be admitted to one of the world’s top universities without having to demonstrate aptitude in the language used for teaching, highlights differences in perception of the purpose and value of degree-level studies.

The recent scandal about children of the rich “buying” their way into top universities illustrated the trend in recent years to the marketization of universities. Professors complain that these students are eating up faculty time and dragging down standards for everybody; but they do so anonymously, fearing reprisals from administrators for whom these students represent a valuable source of income.

And the same is true of international students, and particularly Chinese students. “In my experience,” writes Adele Barker, a professor at Arizona University, “most of these students arrive here with not enough English to succeed and scarcely enough to pass, if they do at all. Last year, all 20 of the Chinese students who took my 100-level Russian history course failed. Why? They couldn’t understand my lectures. They were unable to read or write in English… And yet without enough English to succeed, or in most cases even to pass, the Chinese students keep arriving on campus. What is going on here?”

Professor Barker is concerned that the students are not receiving the education for which they are paying so heavily. She suggests that the problem is due to the “Faustian bargain” between students and universities: “The Chinese students need us for the elite status, the high-paying jobs and the lifestyle they so desperately want back home. We need them to help us keep financially afloat.”

The problem is still more acute for British universities, which, in a single generation, have seen the end of student maintenance grants, a huge expansion caused by the reclassification of vocational “polytechnics” as universities, and the introduction of tuition fees. Instead of students competing for places, universities are now competing for students, and the temptation to lower standards is immense.

I can offer some personal experience of this: in my brief time teaching Creative Writing at a UK university, I had one Chinese student who attended no lectures and whom I never met in person. She emailed me with a sample of poetry, asking if it was likely to be good enough to pass. I responded saying that it was impossible to prejudge her final result, but that the sample was quite good, and I offered her some advice on writing poetry. Her final submission though was a short story in a completely different style. The university authorities, clearly already suspicious, invited her to a meeting to discuss her story and produce some further writing in person. She neither responded nor attended the meeting, and was subsequently expelled on the basis that she was buying her work online.

This is, of course, a single piece of anecdotal evidence, but what was striking to me was that it was neither a scandal nor a shock, but a smooth and well-established procedure, in response to what appeared to be a common problem.

Chinese broadcaster CCTV recently suggested that Brexit might offer more opportunities for Chinese students as UK universities lose links with their European counterparts. It certainly seems likely that the UK will be offering student visas as a bargaining chip in trade talks with countries like India. However, this perhaps underestimates the extent to which the Brexit vote was driven by anti-immigration sentiment.

What is certain is that if western universities fall into the trap of lowering standards to secure more lucrative overseas students, then ultimately their appeal to those students will wane; they run the risk, through avarice, of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Photos: Diliff via Wikimedia Commons, screenshot from www.weibo.com

Editor’s Note: The following interview originally appeared in Chinese in jingkids magazine.

Rachael Beare comes to Keystone Academy from The Hotchkiss School, one of the top boarding schools in New England, where she was the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid from 2008-2012. She is now the Dean of Admissions for Keystone Academy.

Beare’s career in admission and financial aid spans more than 20 years and has taken her to many different day and boarding school environments in the United States, including Lakeside School, a leading day school in Seattle, Washington, where she was the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid for 10 years; Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire; Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts; and Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, her high school alma mater.

Beare is also a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals (AISAP) and a graduate of Amherst College with a B.A. in English, magna cum laude. She earned her Ed.M. from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

jingkids spoke with Beare to get her insight into how American universities select and evaluate applicants from China as well as some of the distinct qualities of the students themselves.

jingkids: Based on your many years of experience working in admissions for American schools, what do you think is the biggest difference between Chinese Mainland students and American students? What qualities do you look for in applicants?

The approach to education in China is very different than in the US. Chinese students are used to deferring to their teachers and seldom ask them questions. On the surface, it may appear that Chinese students are less curious that students in the US, but in reality, it just takes a bit more effort from the admissions officer to uncover that curiosity. I am looking for students who have interesting personalities, who have a strong sense of self and cultural identity, and who have well-defined interests that they hope to pursue.

JK: What applications materials were required at the schools that you worked for in the US?

In general, schools will ask for school transcripts, recommendations from two teachers, essay responses, a standardized test and an interview. Some schools will also request an additional recommendation, a piece of graded writing, or parent questionnaire.

JK: How do US schools evaluate applications from Mainland China? Have you encountered any issues when processing applications?

It is fairly common for schools to consider all applications from a particular country as a group to see how they compare to each other, especially if they have several students applying from the same school. The most significant concern amongst schools and colleges in the US is whether the information they are receiving is honestly presented and representative of a student’s work. Many schools have had incidents where documents were falsified or misrepresented.

JK: How do schools handle these cases? Do schools add any new admission procedures to deal with these issues?

In one of the schools where I worked we rescinded a student’s acceptance when it became clear that the academic records where false. In order to prevent these incidences, the school, on occasion, will contact schools directly to confirm that the information we received was accurate.

JK: Do US boarding schools and universities have a quota for international students? If so, does this quota include those Chinese students who are already studying in the US?

While schools do not generally work with quotas for specific groups of students, they may have general goals in mind for diversifying their student population. Most schools like to have a healthy mix of students from as many regions as possible, but not too many from any one region or country. I’ve worked for four US boarding schools. Those schools were dedicated to having talented students from all regions of the US and several countries around the world. They want to enroll students who bring a broad range of talents and experiences because they feel that this diversity enhances the richness of the academic experience of all students.

JK: You’ve seen many Chinese students in US schools. What qualities do these students have that allow them to adjust to new environments?

Many of the students who come to the US from China have an outstanding foundation in math and science and excellent memorization and test preparation skills. It can be a challenge for them, however, to get used to an environment where they are asked to express their own thoughts and ideas about the material they are presented. After they adjust, these students are now capable of establishing relationships with their teachers or being able to pursue their own questions about particular topics. Those students who are curious, outgoing, independent thinkers, and are willing to step outside of their comfort zone from time to time are able to adapt most quickly to this new environment and way of learning.

JK: In the future, do you think that students will start coming to China to obtain a better education? What will China need to do to get there?

While there are elements of the education system in China that are very strong, it is a system that rewards intense study and individual success, over innovation and collaboration. I have friends and colleagues in China who are hopeful that one day China will be able to produce someone like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. In order to get there, I think that the approach to teaching and learning will need to change. I think that when China becomes a place that is contributing to the next wave of innovation in the world, people will want to come here to study and to be a part of that creative process.