Studying abroad
An ever-growing number of colleges in the country are accepting good scores in the grueling exam as part of their entry criteria. Zou Shuo reports.
More US universities accept gaokao scores for admission
Immediately after taking the gaokao, China’s grueling national college entrance exam, Li Ang embarked on another arduous study task — applying for a place at a university in the United States.
In June, the 18-year-old began attending English training courses as preparation to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language and the Scholastic Assessment Test, which he needed to pass gain entry to a US school.
There were eight classes every day from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm, including at weekends.
“I was going crazy remembering so many new words and phrases. It was as though I was back in high school,” he said.
“However, when I heard that the University of New Hampshire had announced that it would start accepting gaokao scores as part of its application process this fall, my hopes rose because my range of options had increased,” said Li, whose application is ongoing.
Every summer, millions of high school seniors in China take the gaokao knowing that failure to perform will affect their chances of getting into a top school, or sometimes any school at all.
The gaokao is considered the most important exam for Chinese secondary students as their scores will in large part determine their future.
If their results are disappointing, finding another route to university can take a year or more because they have to attend special high schools which only admit senior students who are dissatisfied with their score and want to take the exam again.
Now, a door has opened that could provide access to US universities, the top choice for Chinese students studying overseas, as more schools in the country are accepting gaokao scores as part of their application procedures.
Grueling schedule
After 12 years of grueling study in Henan province — where the large number of candidates means competition in the gaokao is among the fiercest in the country — Li scored 550 points out of a possible 750 in the exam.
“It was an OK score for me. It will guarantee entry to an average university in China, but I still think a degree from a US university may give me a better chance of landing a good job,” he said.
Unlike the high-pressure, test-oriented school system with which he is familiar, US universities present an alternative: a carefree atmosphere where students are independent, free to question received wisdom and can enjoy a wide range of social activities.
However, Chinese students who have applied for US colleges through the traditional channels have experienced a tough, complicated process.
When Gao Ang, from Hefei, capital of Anhui province, started preparing applications to US universities in the second year of high school, his parents transferred him to an expensive international high school in the city to improve his chances of being admitted to a college in the US.
Because there is no SAT test center in the Chinese mainland, the 19-year-old flew to Singapore three times to retake the SAT and improve his score. He also took the TOEFL exam four times to better his score.
“The international school organized different competitions for us. I also worked as a volunteer at a number of international events, took internships at several companies and even started playing cello to burnish my resume,” Gao said.
“I did lots of background research on different US universities and wrote personal statements tailored for different schools.”
His persistence paid off, and after spending 14 months and more than 200,000 yuan ($29,000) on tuition and English language agencies, Gao was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley, to major in political science and media studies.
For Wang Chaorong, 22, the opportunity to enroll at a US university came at an even higher price.
Realizing that he would stand a better chance of being admitted to a good university if he studied at a high school in the US, Wang attended St. Mary’s School in Oregon, a private high school that prepares students for college, after graduating from middle school in China.
His parents spent more than $150,000 on tuition and living expenses during his three years at St. Mary’s.
Eventually, he enrolled at New York University to study art history and further his childhood dream of becoming a movie director.
Despite his success, Wang now feels he went too far in his quest for acceptance.
“I now regret spending so much money on a US high school because I feel that intensive training at a Chinese high school could have helped me acquire just as much basic knowledge,” he said.
High standards
This year the University of New Hampshire will join other schools — such as Brigham Young University, the University of San Francisco and the Illinois Institute of Technology — in accepting gaokao scores in lieu of SAT or ACT (American College Testing) qualifications as entry criteria.
“The gaokao will replace the SAT or ACT (for Chinese students). However, admissions standards have not changed, and they remain high,” said Erika Mantz, executive director of media relations at the University of New Hampshire.
“Only students who meet the university’s expectations and demonstrate a readiness for university-level work will be accepted.”
The college’s website stipulates that in addition to a good gaokao score, Chinese high school graduates are required to have an interview, submit the score they achieved in the TOEFL test or the International English Language Testing System, and provide transcripts of tests they took in high school.
A similar program provided by the University of San Francisco has accepted 33 Chinese students through their gaokao scores since it was established in 2015.
“Collectively, the students who entered the University of San Francisco via the gaokao admission program have achieved considerably higher results than Chinese students admitted through the traditional admissions process,” said Jason Opdyke, assistant vice-president for international admissions at the university.
“The combined grade point average of the gaokao students is nearly six-tenths of a point higher than the Chinese students who applied through the traditional admissions process,” he added.
“The gaokao admission program has been a success so far. We have met our goal of enrolling an average of five to 10 students per year, and as a collective group they are outperforming our other Chinese students by a considerable margin. The type of students we have targeted are bright students who are clearly prepared to succeed at the highest academic levels.”
Additional benefits
Many universities in Hong Kong, Europe, Australia and Canada, including the prestigious University of Toronto, already recognize the gaokao as an admission criterion.
For most Chinese, especially those from less-privileged backgrounds, a high gaokao score is their only way of significantly altering their fate.
The way to gain a high score is to study, study and study some more at every possible hour. In fact, many students opt to finish their high school studies in the sophomore year and cram for the gaokao for the whole of the following year.
Comprehensive test
Unlike the SAT, which focuses on math, analytical ability and writing skills, the gaokao is a comprehensive test that covers disciplines such as Chinese language, mathematics, English, politics, chemistry, physics, history and geography.
Shi Yan, of the Chivast Education International consultancy in Beijing, said accepting gaokao scores in the admissions procedure will help US universities tap into a group of students who did not score highly enough to get into their first-choice college in China.
“Given the fierce competition for university places in China, studying in the US can be a good alternative,” Shi said, adding that study experience in the US can also improve a student’s resume, as it demonstrates that they have good intercultural understanding and a strong command of English.
According to the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit in New York, of the more than 1 million foreign students who enrolled at US universities during the 2016-17 academic year, 350,755, or about 35 percent, were Chinese, a rise of 6.8 percent from the previous year.
Sun Tao, president of Vision Overseas Consulting Co, a subsidiary of New Oriental Technology and Education Group, said the growing acceptance of gaokao scores in US universities will give Chinese students the option of applying to schools while also preparing for the exam or applying after the test.
The gaokao is an good way of selecting talent, and a high score in the exam is proof of good basic knowledge, perseverance, patience, and a strong ability to deal with high pressure and compete with others, according to Sun.
However, he conceded that in years gone by the singleminded focus on the gaokao isolated students from educational opportunities outside China because they had little time for anything other than intense cramming in the years leading up to the rite-of-passage exam.
He added that more US universities will probably begin accepting gaokao scores to attract a greater number of Chinese, who as international students usually have to pay full tuition and are therefore regarded as an important source of revenue.
I did lots of background research on different US universities and wrote personal statements tailored for different schools.”
Gao Ang,
student from Hefei, capital of Anhui province