China students use Internet to prep for study abroad

With all of the unfortunate restrictions placed on the students of that region, I was actually shocked that so many Chinese students are being groomed for schooling outside of their home country.

Chinese students are putting the “world” back into the Worldwide Web, using the Internet to prep each other in ultra-fine detail on the unfamiliar and often laborious process of applying to study abroad.

Online chatter in China’s cyberspace has intensified to a virtual roar, as many U.S. colleges this month issue admission letters for their Class of 2010.

A posting at one of the most trafficked local sites, www.cuus.cn, keeps an ongoing list of the latest admittees from China, including one to Harvard, one to Princeton, five to Yale and six to Stanford, among the 65 schools listed.

Earning a degree from a foreign university has become big business, not only for schools looking to diversify their student body, but for Chinese students, who hope that an overseas education — with four-year tuition often running $100,000 or more — will open doors for them and end with lucrative jobs.

“Without the Internet, you don’t know where to start, and you don’t know there’s a way you can get into American universities,” said Chen Shuang, a Shanghai high school senior who will go to Stanford in the fall. Source: Reuters

[tags]china,students,big business,foreign university,overseas education[/tags]