Chinese Thread

<p>i don't get this, y doesn't yy0712 think he is going to get in to ivies? did he apply for fin aid and is still chinese citizen? i am from Canada and i got shi tty stats, came to canada in 7th grade
1400 (800M)
640Writing (retaking)
780IIc
630 BioM(retaking)
applied to stanford (rejected)
penn, dartmouth, cornell, St.Louis and Amherst</p>

<p>Yeah, it is pretty hard for Chinese students to apply abroad.
The thing for us Chinese citizens in the U. S. is that we've been here for a few years, long enough to forget how to write fluent Chinese thus not being able to apply to elite Chinese universities, but too short to get the Green Card--making it much harder to get into a great university with financial aid. So we are kind of stuck in the middle of all this mess...
I guess life is just hard sometimes, but best of luck :)</p>

<p>Btw, if anyone is taking the Jan SAT I, please email/PM me. I have some verbal stuff that will REALLY, REALLy help (even if you don't have a lot of time to study)!</p>

<p>Yeah,now I regretted not applying to any LACs.Middlebury and Swarthmore are great in academics as the Ivies.Well,too late for me now...</p>

<p>Yeah it sucks but at least you're all in America, where you will have better opportunities no matter what college you go to in this country. There are millions of Chinese students who dream of coming here. Besides, grad school is more important and here what schools you go to doesn't determine your destiny like it might in China. </p>

<p>Also, what does LAC stand for? (I never really knew)</p>

<p>zhou: Good job on Tulane still! It's a very decent college and I know all the difficulties doing the research about colleges in China..... I am personally a big fan of LACs.....</p>

<p>manchu_princess: LAC is Liberal Arts College. CC has a lot of supporter for them....hehe. And I think America is not the only way for education though it is better than GaoKao in China.</p>

<p>Yup i agree with manchu_princess - at least you guys are in US right now. You would have much better college counsellors and your teachers will be ABLE to write better-english recommendations.
But I truly respect all those who left for US when they are young for their ability to quickly adapt and excel, and of course, those in China who have to travel to HK for SATs, all those must be sooo good and talented in order to get to the top colleges.
I personally think that chinese are just such hardworking and talented people. (okay, i know some people might disagree with me) </p>

<p>Just wondering, how do you guys compare the top US universities with Peking University and Tsing hua?</p>

<p>I think Peking is like Harvard, and Tsing Hua MIT. But of course Chinese colleges may not offer as many opportunites and resources with limited funding. But I've never actually gone there, so I can't really say.</p>

<p>Yeah I'm soo glad I don't have to take the Gao Kao. It has way too much weight on college admissions than it should. I don't think a test should be the one and only factor since many talented kids are just not the best test takers. Besides, people who scores the best on the test aren't neccesarily the most motiviated people with potential. </p>

<p>I agree with yy0712, but I think Harvard and MIT have better opportunities such as advising, seminars, and research. I've visited both Tsing Hua and Peking, their campuses were pretty nice as well, I think it's just inside they don't have as much facilities. </p>

<p>Also, I think top American schools have a better student body since in China, in order to get into Qing Hua and Peking, you have to be really good at test taking and be competitive. However, to get in Harvard and MIT, you have to be somewhat well-rounded with many ECs and leadership.</p>

<p>I agree that Havard, Peking, MIT, Tsing Hua are all excellent research universities. However, in China it's kind of hard to find great Liberal Arts Colleges comparable to Williams, Swarthmore, or Amherst. I don't think there're any LACs in china at all and the translation of LAC into chinese is pretty inadequate...</p>

<p>yeah there's Engineering institutes in China but I haven't really heard of a LAC there. I think it's hard to find jobs nowadays with a humanities major so many people are doing science or engineering majors.</p>

<p>This question has been bugging me.. What is meant by liberal art exactly? :S I appreciate any input and answers :)</p>

<p>Liberal art: (my definition) the humanities; such as English, History, Politics, Foreign Language, Literature...as the major concentrations
Liberal arts colleges--I just think of them as the opposites of MIT/CalTech :)</p>

<p>yy0712, i agree with parts of your definition </p>

<p>But... History and Politics are Social Science not humanities </p>

<p>Liberal Arts usually means "a complete spectrum education"
Arts in this phrase roots from the ancient english meaning of "skill" -not really humanity arts....though I also agree that LACs are particularly strong at humanities as well.</p>

<p>In this sense, Liberal Arts education is the education that is not "pre-professional", "vocational" or completely "major" concentrated. And most American Universities' undergraduate departments are Liberal Arts let it be the Ivies, Berkeley, or Swarthmore. You don't have to declare your major until the end of sophomore year. The noticable exceptions to this "liberal arts" education includes tech schools like MIT, CalTech, and business school like Wharton.</p>

<p>Liberal Arts Colleges only further exemplifies the emphasis on the "liberal arts" education. They usually don't have or have a very small graduate school---this is due to the belief that graduate schools take away the resource from the undergraduate school and fill the undergrad teaching with Teaching Assistants etc. Since LACs don't have graduate schools, the professors are usually lso more teaching-oriented than researching-oriented and thus give a better overall academic experience. And one of the other distinguish feature of Liberal Arts Colleges is that they're usually very small with usually about 1000-2500 people. They intentinally make the student body small thus they can offer small classes and more seminars. A student in LAC rarely has any 50+ ppl class while comparing to the 400+ classes often offered at some of the public universities.</p>

<p>Both LACs and Doctoral Universities have graduates working in all fields. Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd are two LACs offer very strong undergraduate engineering department. Williams graduates tons of future M.B.A.s Even Dartmouth admits it's more LAC-ish than anything else....</p>

<p>Just my 2 cents...:D</p>

<p>yeah LACs are the colleges where you would get a balanced, well-rounded education particularily in humanities and sciences.</p>

<p>I see. I'm more of a math/science person and am definitely not very Knowledgeable in this area :)
Thanks for the info.</p>

<p>Hehe, no problem yy0712... I like your comparison of LACs as the opposites of MIT/CalTech ... very true in many ways...</p>

<p>The major problem of LACs to the chinese students is prestige. We all care a lot about the feelings from our families and almost no one in China has ever heard of the elite LACs in U.S. ....sigh....</p>

<p>It's also kind of sad that all chinese universities require students to declare their majors when applying...... Albeit many students are very clear about what they want to do, still many are not........</p>

<p>yeah but at least nowadays Chinese students get to choose their majors. Back then, the college would select your major for you and it all depended on luck. </p>

<p>LACs are pretty good for math and science but not engineering. They usually focus on the theoretical side rather than applied. It really depends on what you want to study. If you like pure math and science then go to LACs but if you like applied science and engineering then go to tech schools like MIT.</p>

<p>Yeah prestigious is a big factor for Chinese parents. In China, only HYPMSC seems to be popular. Most people there don't know many beyond that.</p>

<p>Yeah,this is actually the case.When I applied,I didn't apply a single LAC,because I didn't know what kind of education they offer.All the schools I applied to are tier 1 universities.Now it seems that LACs are not too bad an option for somebody like me.I was accepted at Zhongshan(Sun-Yat-Sen)University,Hong Kong University,Emory University,UIUC,Tulane University and MSU.After comparing the advantages and disadvantages,I chose Tulane.I would definitely have gone Emory if they offered me like even $10000.Unfortunately,they didn't.So I ended up at Tulane,a school which is prestigious for both its academics and partying animals.I am still trying to fit in here.I speak perfect American English without accent,however,that still doesn't help me to extend my social network too much.This school is predominantly white,is that the reason?Freshmen tend to be superficial and silly.Getting themselves wasted is their true instinct.Hard to fit in!</p>