Prestige of US schools among Chinese citizens

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Hey I'm a US citizen who dreams of one day moving to China or South East Asia. Ive heard that some colleges, like ucla and michigan are much more prestigeous in asia than they are in the US. Meanwhile, liberal arts schools have 0 prestige regardless of if its williams or podunk. Is this true? what school are most prestigious to Chinese employers?</p>

<p>rank the following schools please:UVA, michigan, UCLA, UCB, Cornell, UNC, ND, northwestern. feel free to throw mention any other schools out there that would wow a Chinese employer, those are just the schools that im currently most interested in. </p>

<p>Also are non-technical degree considered worthless in china? ive heard this is true</p>

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<p>I’m no expert but I find that most US professionals working in China are not usually hired by Chinese employers. Instead, they are hired by their own country’s multinational companies and then relocated to Chinese branches of the company. Based on that, how prestigious your university seems to Chinese is not important but how it seems to your actual US employers (supposing you are from the US).</p>

<p>Having said that,
UC Berkeley, Cornell, and UCLA are the ones I’ve actually heard Chinese mentioning.</p>

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<p>Cornell
UCB
UMich
UCLA
UNC
Northwestern
ND</p>

<p>Actually from UMich to UNC, I think they are equally prestige (just in name) in China</p>

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<p>Non-technical degree is not worthless, but I have to say work is not that easy to find.</p>

<p>But you can still be a journalist, a broadcaster, a teacher (a lot of chinese schools are dying for a foreign teacher) and so on.</p>

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<p>Depends who you ask. Most employers wouldn’t be wowed by anything except tier 1 (ivies + the usual suspects). Schools like Berkeley are relatively more well known but otherwise, its likely people haven’t heard of your school (do consider that they don’t normally hire from abroad).</p>

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<p>Cornell
UCB
Northwestern
UMich
UCLA
UNC
ND</p>

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<p>

Jesus you must be mad! Japan or Singapore may be good for you, but mainland China, gee, **** many Chinese are trying to emigrate while you are trying to do the contrary. Good lord! </p>

<p>Prestige of US schools in China, in my opinion:
1 Harvard (students who made it to Harvard even published books telling their success and saying how gifted they were!) </p>

<p>2 Princeton &Yale&MIT&Stanford (HYPSM is the key. The average Chinese doesn’t know a thing about ‘YPSM’ schools however. He only knows the ‘almighty Harvard’. :stuck_out_tongue: )</p>

<p>3 UC Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, Columbia. </p>

<p>4 Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Wharton, Purdue (so strange that OSU and PSU are well-known in China.)</p>

<p>5 Caltech, CMU, Rice, Duke (My god I’ve met a bunch of guys asking me why I go to Caltech-isn’t it a stupid Community College or what? o.0)</p>

<p>What I’ve said holds water in southern China at least. Hope this helps. :)</p>

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<p>Why do you want to go to a communist regime where facebook and twitter are unavailable?</p>

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<p>I am sorry but I think the last two posters were strongly biased and over-influenced by the American culture.</p>

<p>I was born and raised in Hong Kong, a very different place than China, until I moved to US. In my days in Hong Kong, I frequently went to China, and even studied there during the summer. Therefore, I think I am qualified to give opinions on the issue.</p>

<p>I believe that most Americans, like the last 2, are too concerned with the political side of China. But if you have been to China, or even better, live there, you will understand that people don’t care. You may say there’s no scientific evidences…say whatever you want to, but it’s true, even for Hong Kong people. People don’t understand the cultural difference can extend far beyond what it can superficially have an effect on. I know this single post is probably not going to change your mind, which have been influenced for like 20 years. But by doing my best, I hope more people are going to be aware of this. Americans get biased international news. They are often different from those of other countries.</p>

<p>People in China and Hong Kong and most countries outside US judge a country based on its culture, NOT democratic/communistic. I guarantee you, if you ask 100 Americans the things they can think of about China, communism will be first. However, if Chinese in China are asked what they can associate America to, democracy will not be in top 10. Trust me, they know what’s democracy, unlike some people believe.</p>

<p>Back to the topic, I think the prestige of US schools in HK is similar to that in China. To be honest with you, most people don’t know much about US universities, except the famous ones. Therefore, they probably haven’t heard of even the most famous liberal art schools.</p>

<p>UCLA and UCB are really famous. Cornell is OK. The rest are significantly less famous.</p>

<p>HOWEVER, I will doubt your interviewer (assuming he/she is from a big company) will not know the all of those universities. Normal citizens may not even know some of them, but professionals know. They know UPenn is good for business. So don’t stress too much.</p>

<p>Good Luck! I am sure you will like the Chinese culture. Sorry to digress. I just have a strong feeling towards the issue and want to express it. I am really afraid that you will listen to the 2 posters and not consider going to China anymore. It is one of the best countries in the world (best is not necessarily in terms of materialistic, which is important to Americans). By the way Hong Kong is really amazing. I have never really heard anybody disappointed after going there (actually 1, who went there for just 2-3 days and did not go anywhere to explore). Again, the culture is amazing; people are friendly to visitors/foreigners like you. It is not just simply a blend of Western and Chinese culture, but a unique one.</p>

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<p>agree with kenny. the political system is just a name. it’s a great place to live. most people heard of ivy league and most state schools. no one knows about no-name small private colleges.</p>

<p>but here’s some brutal truth:</p>

<p>a bachelors in any social science is worthless. a BS in physical sciences like chemistry or biology is close to worthless. only a BS in engineering is worthy of consideration for technical jobs. if you do not have a working knowledge of chinese you will not be hired, as overseas US companies can hire PhDs fluent in english for about 1500-2000 USD per month, and chinese companies will not even look at you for obvious reasons.</p>

<p>even my biology degree from a top 50 US university is almost worthless and i am a chinese citizen. without at least a masters you will never get a technical job. for foreigners that means the only thing to do is teach english. if that’s what you want to do for the rest of your life, then the degree doesn’t matter.</p>

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<p>Soundwave, as a former international applicant that went to one of the better schools in Hong Kong, I can attest that students that got into and went to Northwestern were of higher caliber than those that went to UNC/UMich. As far as those in the knows (including the college applicants), the order is not really that different from that in the US. If you don’t believe me, look at Northwestern’s TOEFL average below (source: collegeboard.com): </p>

<p>Cornell
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: 600</p>

<p>UCB
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: 550</p>

<p>UMich
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: 570</p>

<p>UCLA
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: N/A</p>

<p>UNC
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: 600
TOEFL (paper) average score: 620</p>

<p>Northwestern
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: 600
TOEFL (paper) average score: 637</p>

<p>ND
TOEFL (paper) minimum score: 560</p>

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<p>

True, you don’t care. But that doesn’t mean others don’t care either. So many people are excluded from pursuing a political career. If Obama lives in China, he would never ever be a president-without strong family backgrounds and connections, being a president is only a stupid day-dream.
and I have to take a guess that you don’t quite understand the current situation of Chinese as you supposed you do.

take this one for example. It seems to imply that Hong Kong and China are two different countries! If anyone in MAINLAND China dares to say “Hong Kong and China” in public, the consequence could be severe on a few occasions. the Government is allergic about things related to politics.
Hong Kong and Mainland China are of different Caliber. Sometimes one still don’t understand China even if he has been living there for 20 years. </p>

<p>It is indeed a good thing to recommend China to outsiders. But trying to evade weak points and talking about advantages only is an inappropriate approach. Oh, by the way, I am not American.</p>

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<p>@dawncoming
have you ever lived for an extended period in China in recent years? If not, I would suggest to do an exchange year in China. It seems like you are a freshman (based on your profile) so you’ll have ample opportunities for that.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m not sure where you have heard that. I know a few Chinese (yes, Chinese in China) that openly told me they don’t care whether Taiwan becomes an own state. Yes, the vast majority still claim that China and Taiwan are one but the point is that today, you have the freedom to disagree with the the party or their policies. As kennycheng said, people in China tend to care less about politics than Americans. I guess one reason is that they don’t have a way to influence politics anyway. However, the majority of Chinese have a strong nationalist sense and that’s why the public opinion will always be heavily skewed toward China and Taiwan being one.</p>

<p>The only group of people I would be careful not to get associated to is Falonggong and another group from Xinjiang which China considers as terrorists.</p>

<p>I do agree that someone who has lived in China for 20 years still won’t completely understand China. But this applies to every country in the world. You think Americans don’t discover something new about their country every day (ok not every day but once a while)?</p>

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<p>@zerolife:</p>

<p>

I am kind of amazed that, after reading several of my posts you still took me wrong. Although it’s probable that partial faults lie in my not explicitly revealing my ethnicity. An extended period in China? Yes, I have already. I have been living there for the first 16 years of my life; I have mastered Chinese before I learned to speak any other language. I am not German-Chinese nor American born Chinese, I belong to the very category you mentioned: Chinese in China. You wouldn’t think a foreigner likes to waste time dribbling about China on this forum, would you?
For the Taiwan problem, I’ve known so many Chinese but I don’t know any that says he doesn’t care about the Taiwan problem. If what you said is truth, maybe the reason is that you are German-Chinese (half German, half Chinese?), so your friends didn’t tell you their real thoughts in case of trouble. Besides, most Chinese don’t like talking politics with friends, even intimate friends. I myself, for instance, don’t talk about anything related to politics on Chinese websites; and rarely with Chinese friends.</p>

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<p>nowadays Chinese are more and more familiar with most of the colleges in US. UCs are doubtlessly famous. But Chinese now know that UCs are much less great than northwestern or other schools. Ivies are definitely popular. And also, i noticed that most of the schools on your list are public colleges, public schools are famous in China. So you dont have to worry about these.
BUT, you should consider that, after 4 years, that is when you will gratuate from your college, Chinese will definitely be more familiar with most of the schools you mentioned!!!</p>

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<p>I think the answer sort of depends on your destination. If you plan to work in Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou, then a good amount of employers will know that Cornell, UCB, UCLA, etc. are relatively prestigious schools. They won’t be incredibly impressed, like they would be with Harvard or Yale or Princeton, but graduating from one of those schools will definitely give you a bump. However, the employers will still draw a blank on the liberal arts colleges. Williams/Amherst/Swarthmore most likely won’t mean a thing to them.</p>

<p>If you plan on going to smaller cities like Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, then chances are the employers have only heard of Harvard and Yale, possibly MIT. People will even be completely clueless about Princeton. </p>

<p>Also, make sure that you are making the right choice for yourself. After coming to China, there is a significant chance that you won’t be able to contact your friends by Facebook or Twitter. Also, prepare to see lots of “failed to open page” notices when you search sensitive topics like “freedom of expression” and “china human rights”. And don’t be surprised when you witness spurts of nationalism from the people around you. While there is a downside to living in China, there a an ample upside as well. The culture is amazing, the people are welcoming, and there are plenty of opportunities for growth. :slight_smile: Just make sure you make the right decision for yourself.</p>

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<p>I heard of these saying in long long time. The smarts go to MIT, but only the genius could enter Cal Tech.</p>

<p>I am proud of you if you go to Cal tech.</p>

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<p>I know that in Japan, most people have only heard of Harvard and/or Yale.</p>

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<p>Moving to China is definitely good if you have good language skills,China is a pretty amazing place.</p>

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<p>Relax yourself.Chinese people are not that strict with the prestige of US colleges.
All the universities you mentioned are popular here, but it is true the LACs are not so well-known,except those most highly ranked ones like Willams College and Mount Holyoke College.</p>