<p>The interesting thing about China is that as it grows to appreciate the value of a liberal arts education and holistic evaluation of students, all the greater the drive has become to get into these schools with unpredictable admissions processes. One would think they would expand their notion of success because there are no clear-cut “winners” (because the process is so arbitrary) as one would find in a test system, but this is not the case. They still like their winners, except the winners this time are just much harder to predict. As a result, the college admissions frenzy just gets more and more intense as the competition stiffens. </p>
<p>The desire to get into a top US college does have the effect of making the Chinese value personal qualities and creativity more. The Chinese government is also realizing they need to foster creativity in their people in order to be competitive in a global marketplace that will be ever-increasingly ruled by ideas. NYU, for example, recently managed to establish a partnership with a Chinese university where Chinese students will be admitted through holistic process.</p>