The number of Chinese students pursuing secondary education in America has increased, but their decision to come to the US isn’t always an easy one. Luckily for some Chinese high school students, programs like The University of Chicago’s and Northwestern University’s College and Beyond program allow them to experience life in American college before they apply.
This quarter, UChicago students hosted Chinese prospective students during Week 3 and Week 6. UChicago’s College and Beyond team worked closely with Northwestern’s team to make the program possible, allowing prospective students to also visit Northwestern during their time in Chicago. The 15 students who work as College and Beyond staff members contacted high schools in China as early as last summer, asking them if their students were interested in participating. Detailed preparations for the trips took place throughout the fall quarter.
First year Zhenni Lin, who leads the program, explained, “The goal of our program is to help Chinese high school students explore American universities and American college education, specifically University of Chicago and Northwestern University, before they decide to come here for sure. There are three major components of the program: staying with hosts, workshops, and meetings with admission counselors.”
Since the prospective students stayed with their hosts for a full day, they got to spend time in dorms, dining halls, classes, and RSOs, getting a real taste of UChicago life.
Given that they were accommodating potential first year students, the College and Beyond team worked to emulate the Core Curriculum experience, which proved to be a new experience as discussion-based classes are rarely offered at Chinese schools. Since not all of the prospective students were fluent in English nor did they have a chance to read the material for their hosts’ classes, the team organized workshops in Chinese mimicking HUMA and SOSC at UChicago.
Zhenni explained, “Without the language barrier, the students [could] actually participate in a deep discussion. For example, in one of the workshops, we let the student read parts of Socrates’ Apology Chinese. In another workshop, we talked about The Aims of Education with the students and asked their thoughts on liberal education.”
The prospective students also met with admissions counselors from UChicago’s admissions office to learn more about the application process. They attended a campus tour, an information session, and an interactive panel-style presentation where College and Beyond representatives shared their personal college application experiences and the prospective students could ask questions about the process.
For Zhenni, the program is incredibly important as she was born in China and immigrated to the US at the age of 12. “The things that I remember from going to school in China are memorization, math practice problems, and repeated writing of different Chinese characters,” she explained. “However, my critical thinking skills were not developed much at all. It was not until I came to America when I really understood what it means to have my own opinions about a book and how my opinions can be further supported through analyzing the specific components of a book.”
This different outlook on education motivates Zhenni to make the program a success. “I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to be exposed to [a] more liberal kind of education. Although I understand that not everyone is like me, I hope to [expose] these students to this different [approach to education], so that they can decide for themselves if they want to come to U.S.”
At the end of the day, Zhenni and her fellow College and Beyond team members have one goal in mind: to at least open Chinese students’ eyes and expose them to a different set of educational processes and values. For now, they’re gearing up for the next wave of Chinese prospective students in hopes of giving them a glimpse of university life in America.