China has surpassed India in the number of students coming to America

From FirstPost:

After trailing China for much of the 1990s, India surpassed China as the international community’s leading exporter of students to America in 2001-2002, but China has surged ahead since. The Open Doors Report said the rise in international students was largely driven by a 23 percent increase in the number of Chinese students to 1,94,409 in 2011-2012.

What else does this report show?

The Open Doors Report shows a record 7,64,495 foreign students studied in the US last year. With ten times more college campuses than any other country in the world, the US is a magnet for the burgeoning international student population, which brought over $22.7 billion to the US economy. For the first time in a dozen years, according to IIE, there were more foreign undergraduates than graduate students.

The Daily Show, American Educational System, and China

More on the Chinese college entrance examination

I've posted about the Gaokao before, and now the scores have been released. This from the New York Times:

The number, in this case, is the score for what is generally considered the single most important test any Chinese citizen can take — the gaokao, or college entrance examination. High school seniors took the test over two to three days in early June. Now, the tests have been graded, the numbers tabulated and the results released, region by region. In the final step, college selections are being made in an opaque process that stretches from late June into July.

“When the result came out on June 23, it happened to be my 18th birthday,” said Yang Taoyuan, who lives with his parents in Kunming, capital of the southwest province of Yunnan. “We had a family get-together on that day, and everybody was there when we called over to a hot line to find out about my scores.”

In a country where education is so highly prized, the score that a student earns after the days of testing at the end of high school is believed to set the course of one’s life.

Some are now questioning the value of such standardized testing, especially with the immense pressure it brings upon students. The NYT article highlights some controversial anecdotes surrounding the test but none is more heartbreaking than this:

Perhaps most shocking to the public was the story of Liu Qing, a student from Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, whose family and teachers hid from her for two months the fact that her father had died so as not to upset her before the exam. Ms. Liu, according to reports in the Chinese news media, did not hear the news about her father until after she had completed the test.

Very sad. 

The 'Gaokao' is complete - A news roundup of this year's National Higher Education Entrance Exam

China Digital Times has a good roundup of news stories about this year's Gaokao, which finished on Thursday. The stories range from interesting (a Wall Street Journal photoseries of test takers) to strange (students receiving IV drips during study sessions to combat exhaustion) to something out of a movie (hormone injections and ear pieces).

Gaokao, whose name is a mix of the Chinese words for high school and test, is slang for the National Higher Education Entrance Exam. It is the examination Chinese high school seniors take in the hopes of being admitted to one of the country's universities. Students are under immense pressure as the number of graduating seniors taking the test (9.5 million) far exceeds the number of open university spots (6.5 million).

The SAT and ACT is child's play in comparions. 

'Sexy Mandarin' - I really should quit my formal Chinese classes and just watch this all day

How have I not found THIS before? I can't even imagine how much better my Chinese would be right now if I have found Sexy Mandarin a year ago. Case in point:

Below is a photo of their homepage. The best quote? "A memorable experience is guaranteed with our qualified Mandarin teachers." How can you say 'no' to that? 

If you're still not convinced, I'll leave you wtih one final video. Just don't try to contact me the next few days. I have a lot of learning to do. 

Update: I just checked out the 'teachers' homepage. I'm definitely switching schools. 

Teaching becoming China's hottest job?

The following quote is pretty amazing:

According to Asian Correspondent, school leaders showed up to a recent job fair in Hebei province looking to fill nearly 9,000 positions. Only 810 applicants showed up, giving prospective teachers plenty of options.

Certainly not like this in every Chinese industry. Wow. 

Sino-American higher education agreements will become the new fad in 2012

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sees the benefits:

Hundreds of Chinese students could be enrolling at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the next few years through a preliminary recruiting agreement UWM Chancellor Michael Lovell is expected to sign in Beijing on Monday.

Officials say the agreement with a Chinese education network would boost the university's international profile and its ability to help Milwaukee companies that do business in China - the city's third-largest trading partner. It also would bring millions of dollars to UWM over the next several years in out-of-state tuition.

Expect to see more of these agreements very soon. American universities are starving for tuition and a great number of Chinese parents want their children educated in the US.