Chinese Applicants Flood U.S. Graduate Schools

This story is a blatant indictment about the middle class U.S. citizens who have the freedom to attend U.S. Graduate Schools and don't.

Sadly, American students are being dumbed down in our public schools to become scholastic underachievers. Our union public educators talk, talk, talk about teacher's tenures, health benefits and retirement programs instead of teaching skills and student welfare. Practically, the U.S. schools should be returned to the local and state governments from the grasp of the Federal Government Programs and Unions. We have to protect our children and take our country back from Washington politics.

"More than ever, Chinese students have their sights set on U.S. graduate schools. Chinese Campus College Recruiter China's expanding middle class has fueled an interest in expensive U.S. schools, as has corporations' interest in hiring local talent with Western exposure. As the quality of undergraduate institutions in China improves, more young people are also finding U.S. programs within reach. And as more Chinese students attend U.S. schools, burgeoning they encourage friends and colleagues to apply in what is called a "multiplier effect."

The outsized rate of growth in China is due in part to a concerted effort by some U.S. schools to attract Chinese students. The thinking, sayCollege Applicant Line school administrators, is that international students who stay in academia will connect U.S. schools with new research partners, while those entering the corporate world may become clients of business schools' lucrative executive education programs.

Application volume from China rose 18% for U.S. master's and doctoral programs starting this fall, according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools that provides a preliminary measure of application trends. Specific programs of interest include engineering, business and earth sciences.

That is on top of a 21% jump in 2011 and a 20% rise in 2010—and is the seventh consecutive year of double-digit gains from China, according to the graduate-school industry group. Applications from China now comprise nearly half of all international applications to U.S. graduate programs."

Good News - Bad News

Heightened competition from other countries are now attracting many foreign students to their higher education institutions. These countries are increasing investments in higher education, specifically in graduate programs, and viable competitors are emerging as they gain internationally recognized accreditation. So, how is the United States measuring up?

According to the Institute for International Education, the U.S. enrolled 20% of all international students—undergraduate and graduate—in higher education in 2010 ...but down from 28% in 2001.  So, projecting this myopic perspective into the near future the results become clearer close up, this hardly is something to be wildly optimistic about going forward as the International student enrollment drops.    

So, does this downturn in Chinese applications now offer openings to our own U.S. citizens a chance to apply in a graduate studies program?   ...Or, can U.S. students really even qualify?