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May 28, 2018

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Chinese pair tour US schools to draft tips

FROM April through May, Yu Xiaolu and Wang Dong conducted their annual tour across the United States to selective boarding high schools for updated information to help Chinese teenagers apply to study in this country.

“On one hand we prepare our clients for school life abroad before they depart; on the other hand, we meet with those already in the US schools and keep on providing support for them to live through the gauntlet of an overseas education,” says Yu.

Their first tour of the US was in 2010.

Totally at their own expense, the couple have set foot in over 140 boarding schools in 20 states over the years, including the Hill School and the Westtown School in Pennsylvania, the Episcopal High School and Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, and 35 others for this year.

While meeting admission officials and making friends along the way, they saw their former clients now studying here and recommended potential applicants to the schools they visited.

“We do our best as helmsmen for parents who are sending their children to study in America, or those who are planning to do so,” Yu says.

In 2009, the husband-and-wife team started in-depth research about American boarding schools in order to send their own daughter to study here.

Hence, the idea of the jaunt in 2010 to the United States, a litmus test of their linguistic and cognitive capability, turned out to be a life-changer.

During the quest, their daughter’s dream school was found, and, out of the blue, the couple became rather determined to forsake their profitable business in telecommunications equipment for a career of admission counselors on overseas study.

Small is beautiful

Under their guidance over the past six or seven years, around 10 Chinese students have settled in the United States for high school each year.

Ten each year is not a big number for the consulting companies that have mushroomed all over China since the 1990s to channel children from affluent families to US schools.

However, for Yu and Wang, small is beautiful. With riveted attention and focus, they adhered to the two-on-one counseling pattern all the way through the thick and thin of their clients’ studying career, and have never wanted to make the number big.

“We know that there are many agencies that are solely motivated by money. Many students’ futures have been compromised by their streamlined and commercialized service,” said Wang.

“We want to help them avoid the rabbit holes.”

In 2015, the couple inaugurated EduLinkUs LLC in Beijing to serve students within a more professional framework and a targeted mindset, insisting on training around 10 teenagers a year for all the nuts and bolts.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Chinese students typically pursued master’s degrees and doctorates. Into the 2000s, for more and more teenagers, the journey to boarding schools in the United States turned into to a natural choice. Yu and Wang woke up early enough to cash in on the tide.

In stark contrast with their counterparts in the industry, they veered into the game with more patience.

Profit was not their motive, but the comfort and sense of achievement to see a young one embark on the academic trek one dreamed to fulfill and help him or her integrate into the ever changing scenario of globalized education.

“The number of young students going abroad for study has grown drastically in the past decade, in step with China’s growing economic power and its people’s aspirations to personally experience the vibe of the other parts of the world and develop themselves in same tempo with it,” said Yu.

“You know, back in 2005, there were only 65 Chinese students going to boarding schools in the United States, more or less the same number we ourselves have successfully processed so far,” Yu added, flipping through the admission records of her clients.

Admission rates for Chinese students at elite boarding schools in America are as low as around 1.5 percent. Chancellors and principals accept the need to have some foreign attendees to enhance their schools’ diversity while capping such enrolments at five to 10 percent to defend their character.

This limit means Chinese applicants must be high-caliber and able to multi-task.

With passion and vision

“Our clients are not only top in terms of academics, but achieve high in athletics and arts,” said Wang.

“They love to read and are good at communicating and expressing themselves, with passion and vision.

“This means that the current generation excels comprehensively with better mien in comparison with those five or 10 years ago.

“In most cases, they meet the US demands and even exceed them, to the surprise and marvel of the admissions officials we talk with.”

Each year during February and March when offers pour in, the couple shares the ecstasy of the families they worked with, which again attests to the success of EduLinkUs’ two-on-one and holistic service pattern.

After each celebration, as always, a new trip to the United States is planned by the pair. There are over 280 boarding high schools in this country, which means that their research job is yet to be done.

The number of Chinese students studying in American high schools has skyrocketed by 48 percent since 2013, said a report issued by the US Institute of International Education in 2017.

Chinese attendees are strongly welcomed at US schools, as China’s highly uniform teaching style and efficient education system make its children accomplished especially in math and sciences, which are lacking in America.

“Why do American schools welcome students from China? Apart from their amicable character and deep-rooted virtues, an important factor is that most of them have impressive backgrounds in math and sciences, which complement the American education system in a perfect and even seamless way,” says Wang.

And the surging number of teenagers studying in US high schools has fed back advantages to China’s education institutions, with typically American programs like experiential learning, community service and utilization of a diverse range of educational resources increasingly incorporated into their curriculum.

“Meanwhile, parents have started to spend more attention and finance on home education. All of these further contribute to the empowerment of Chinese teenagers in an overall sense for them to compete internationally in future and career,” Wang.

“This must be a long-term boon for both countries,” his wife echoes.




 

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