Chinese youth continue to eye US colleges

Skyrocketing costs do not appear to deter Chinese families from sending their children to colleges in the US, as demand for study- abroad agencies remains high.

Yuan Zhengxiang, general manager of the Shanghai- based OvEdu Center, an agency that assists students with plans to study overseas, told the Global Times on Monday that “although some parents were surprised when they learned that it costs from 400,000 to 500,000 yuan ($ 73,388) a year for a Chinese student to study in the US, they never step back from betting on a better future for their only child.”

“Most families of students planning to study overseas are affluent, so the increases remain acceptable,” Yuan added.

The top 50 private US universities increased their tuition for the 2017- 18 academic year by an average of 3.6 percent, with some increasing tuition by more than 4 percent, USA Today reported.

Harvard College, for example, raised its tuition for the 2017- 18 academic year by 4 percent to $ 44,990.

“The US offers better education, more universities and more subjects, providing more opportunities to Chinese students no matter how they do in domestic schools,” Yuan said, adding that the trend will continue.

When asked by the Global Times whether he would change his mind to study in the US if the cost continues to rise, a user of Chinese online forum Baidu Tieba surnamed Li answered “No” without hesitation.

Li was one of some 2017 gaokao examinees who posed on the Baidu Tieba on Saturday to complain about their poor performance in the exam, and expressed the desire to apply for a US college.