College references.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/unigo/top-10-colleges-with-the-_b_1840568.html#s1448347&title=1_University_of

Next time one of your students asks what foreign school they should apply to...

I have a student from last year who is a freshman at one of those schools this year (Barnard) and whattya know, she is, indeed, extremely happy there.

Cool list Atrain.

One of my best students last year got her first acceptance from University of Wisconsin-Madison 5 weeks ago. She had applied to 9 different universities and I did her online references for each and every one. She's that good. I was overjoyed when she texted me, but she wasn't so much. I told her this was the best school for her and she got accepted there right out of the box. Take it! She wants to wait until the west coast schools she applied to decide. UCLA, Cal-Berkeley (not a chance), USC (which she seems to prefer). She's afraid Wisconsin would be too "rural".

I just emailed her with a direct link to that article. Thanks for that cite A-Train.

Berkeley seems to really have it out for Chinese students. ALL of my students last year were rejected by Berkeley, even those who were accepted to schools which are technically ranked higher, and these kids are high performers. I heard similar reports from other high schools in the area.

I sort of discourage my students, especially those whose English is not terribly strong, from going to school in California. There are just so many Chinese students out there and it is way too easy for them to fall into little Chinese bubbles and never come out. This is true to some extent for most big state schools, but California in particular is bad for it. I have a couple of students who have completed 4 years at UCSD and their English is no better than when they graduated.


Wisconsin-Madison is a great school. I have an American friend who is doing a PhD in Classical Chinese there and his wife (who is Chinese) is doing a PhD in Anthropology and they both speak really highly of the program.

She just needs a little enlightenment, OLD 34.  U.W. spent over $1 billion in research last year. More than every U.S. school but Harvard. More CEO's come from UW than any other university. It has the 4th most foreign students of all colleges and the other three are all on the coasts.  Yes, it is always in danger of being stampeded by unhappy bovines, but it is beautiful, fun and high quality.

"FuckemBuckey".

... it is way too easy for them to fall into little Chinese bubbles and never come out.

Seems to happen just about everywhere. Many cases of Chinese students paying for their dorm room because living there is mandatory, but then renting another apartment off campus with other Chinese where they actually live.

Visited my University in England and spent quite a bit of time with my former students from China. They all live in one place together and the British students are intimated to approach them. The Chinese students always complain about the loud music, drinking parties and various debauchery of the English kids. Seems to be little interaction going on.

On a side note, the Chinese say that the other Chinese students don'tr  hang out with them. Some sort of competitive disrespect going on. I question why the Chinese students even bother to go there.

The Chinese students always complain about the loud music, drinking parties and various debauchery of the English kids.  Seems to be little interaction going on.

Yeah I've heard this from students too, and there have been some articles about it recently:

http://www.cpoy.org/index.php?s=WinningImages&yr=66&c=237&p=3.2

Foreign students in China get a bad rep for their drunkenness etc too, and tend to make friends with only the more 'adventurous' local Chinese students.

On the other hand it's often said that university in China is 4 years of relaxation between the horrors of high school and the real world..but apparently relaxation for Chinese students does not mean sex, drugs, and rock and roll  

Also perhaps students studying abroad on the family dime realize that their situation is a little precarious and that they actually have to do some study...

I have a student this year who is a Freshman at a very small liberal arts school in Maine and she is having what seems to be a very "authentic" American university experience, complete with an American roomate, clubs, etc. The student I previously mentioned who is at Barnard is also really jumping into university life and seems to have made a lot of local friends.

I think the key is that the students have to really want it though and go into it with a positive attitude. If they are no more than reluctant participants in their experience abroad, they will not make an effort to branch out and connect with their fellow students.

I think as a rule the Chinese students look down their noses at the English/American kids who party "too much" and the Western students scoff at the machine-like Chinese whom they consider to be little more than warm blooded, worker-bees.

There's definitely a lot of middle ground, but the Western kids are put off and intimidated by the "packs" of Chinese students and the Chinese students don't feel that they can get a word in edge-wise during conversations with the Western kids.

I teach at a university that has both foreign, (mostly Russian and African), students and Chinese. They used to mix them in the classrooms...no more. The only thing worse than putting Western students in with Chinese students is to have a Chinese lecturer try to teach the Western students a course. THAT is a recipe for an international incident.