<p>My parents have been pressuring me to go to a Chinese University, like Bei Da or Qing Hua. Why are you guys leaving China?</p>
<p>Chinese universities are nothing like American ones. Even in top schools like Bei da or Qing Hua, cheating, plagiarism and skipping classes are quite normal. People tend to slack off in college after 12 years of studying their ass off~ 
Classes are all huge and professors don’t really care about students. If you originally come from America, you need to speak and write fluently in Chinese to be able to study in Chinese universities. Even so you probably will have a hard time fitting in because of the culture different. You mentioned you are Asian American in another post and this might be another downside as for you to study as an international student. Obvious foreigners are very welcomed in China and most people offer their helps. But if you look Chinese, people will just assume that you are fine on your own and won’t bother to ask.</p>
<p>Hope me comments wont let you down too much~ :)</p>
<p>I dare say he’s a pure Chinese student alright. You may guess by his spelling “Bei Da” “Qing Hua”. most Americans, even Asian Americans, prefer to spell “Beijing/Peking U” and “Tsinghua U”. and Chinese students in America, when they refer to the two schools, also choose the latter spellings. </p>
<p>so my reasons are:
- you can never make sure that you can make it to Tsinghua or Beijing U if you take “Gaokao”.
- Do you want to stay in the third world or go to the best (up to now) nation in the world, where you have the best facilities in science&technology, most opportunities to gain yourself fame&fortune, and most significantly, a world stage which cannot be surpassed by any other from every point of view(a world perspective, that is)?
- reason 2 is valid only if you want to achieve something</p>
<p>Search her threads~ She probably hears about Bei Da, Qing Hua from her parents in a Chinese way~</p>
<p>btw, hi~在这里见到cuus的熟人诶~</p>
<p>…better not to post in Chinese. Your post may be in danger of being deleted! 
</p>
<p>and yes, I’ve dug up her/his previous posts(excuse me HLZ! I am just curious!). It seems that he/she gets his/her education in Shanghai, and probably has emigrated to US recently, or he/she may live overseas but hold a green card. at any rate, I personally think his/her English is not quite native. </p>
<p>again, do excuse me for these unrelated words :)</p>
<p>I know that in America, high school is considered easier than college, and in China it’s the other way around. My parents want to me to stay in China for three reasons: China will apparently be on “top of the world” sometime in the next decade, I can take care of my parents more easily, and I can make many ‘connections’ that will help me later on in life. </p>
<p>Personally, I want to go to America. I like small classes and close relationships with teachers. Also, I suck at speaking and writing Chinese fluently, so I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with the class (this is ironically one argument my parents use against me). </p>
<p>“But if you look Chinese, people will just assume that you are fine on your own and won’t bother to ask.”</p>
<p>… Is this why the guards of my living area keep on looking at me funny when I tell them I can’t understand what they’re saying? </p>
<p>======</p>
<p>“I dare say he’s a pure Chinese student alright. You may guess by his spelling “Bei Da” “Qing Hua”. most Americans, even Asian Americans, prefer to spell “Beijing/Peking U” and “Tsinghua U”. and Chinese students in America, when they refer to the two schools, also choose the latter spellings.”</p>
<p>I’m an ABC. =D Oh, don’t you flatter me by calling me a pure Chinese. Life would be so much easier here… I didn’t know that Chinese students in America use Peking U and Tsinghua U! I feel weird while I’m typing it… </p>
<p>Is China considered to be a third world country? >=( I’m pretty sure only Americans and Western people think that. </p>
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<p>“'I’ve dug up her/his previous posts(excuse me HLZ! I am just curious!). It seems that he/she gets his/her education in Shanghai, and probably has emigrated to US recently, or he/she may live overseas but hold a green card. at any rate, I personally think his/her English is not quite native.”</p>
<p>Nah, I don’t mind. I think cyber investigating is fun. Now, time to score you…</p>
<p>I do get my education in Shanghai, but I was born and raised in America for 7-8 years. I live in China, and I only have an American passport. </p>
<p>“I personally think his/her English is not quite native.” </p>
<p>… Native to America or China? If it’s the first, then freak my life sucks.</p>
<p>
concerning these points, I think I have to touch some dismal political issues. 
Umm…perhaps, your parents are influenced too much by some kind of propaganda. That China will “apparently” be on top of the world in a decade is too fanciful an idea to be true. The whole system is corrupt. I won’t come to details, but, I would suggest, you’d better forget this fanciful idea altogether. You’ll understand better if your parents work in the Chinese government. I also recommend you to read Charter 08, if you haven’t read it. Perhaps, I think, only something like a revolution can enliven us. </p>
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Definitely. Just take the average monthly salary as an example! Shanghai&Beijing&c are exceptions. The best resources are concentrated in these cities. So they are not representative enough. Maybe Kun Ming or Qi Qi Ha Er can be more representative. </p>
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awwww, I feel frightfully embarrassed. I felt you were not a native speaker of English. But I am totally wrong, you see. Your sentences are usually terse compared with writings of some American students that I am acquainted with, and sometimes your word choice seems unfamiliar to me, so I took the bold guess. Don’t worry, it’s just an incorrect guess. 
well, I do hope you could stick to your own plans. After all, it’s you who are going to college, not your parents, isn’t it?</p>
<p>How ironic, most Asian parents would urge you to go to the USA, especially if resources are there. I will take a wild guess and say your parents didn’t like the US when they were there? </p>
<p>Anyways, there’s no doubt that China is seeing great improvements and has great influence in the world, but it’s not a place I would like to live in. I just don’t trust the system. I admire it and like the efficiency, but only as an outsider. Yet, I don’t feel anyone’s in the right place to rightfully criticize China, because the system actually works. We see the US and the Eurozone in all that deep jack because of the recession, and China is taking the blow well.</p>
<p>Anyways, on topic, it all comes down to what your goals in life are. If you have the resources, the connections, and the thirst for it, you could be a politician and hold great power in China (that’s the only thing I would consider worthwhile, if it fits you). If you otherwise prefer the freedom and trust your ability to climb to the top, then the US is quite good. </p>
<p>I personally suggest you go the US way and enjoy the independence, especially because you were born there and probably have citizenship, granting neat benefits. I understand the fact your parents want you closer to take care of them (you don’t have siblings?), but as long as you hold onto those traditional values and take care of them during their elderly years, I see no problem.</p>
<p>It ultimately falls on the fact you want to study in the US though, that’s all that should matter.</p>
<p>I’ll comment as a German-Chinese who graduated from the US and has studied & taken regular classes at a Chinese university (Tsinghua) for a year</p>
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<p>Plagiarism, yes I tend to agree even through US universities aren’t plagiarism free either. In terms of skipping classes, have you ever met a Chinese student from a reasonably ranked university, not to mention Tsinghua or Beida?</p>
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<p>True but students in US are even bigger slackers because classes are much easier. Again, take a class at Tsinghua if you don’t believe me.</p>
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<p>Not anymore, many Chinese universities have programs taught in English.</p>
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<p>Which challenges you to learn more about Chinese language & culture, which you should be doing anyway. If you go to another country then you might want to learn their language & culture. Otherwise, just stay home or better yet in your own state.</p>
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<p>the same applies for SAT / US universities. In fact, Gaokao is a lot more predictable than SAT as Chinese universities pretty much look at Gaokao only. As an international student, you wouldn’t need to take Gaokao anyway.</p>
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<p>lol sorry, I don’t even know where to start at responding to how wrong your statement is. Sorry to say that the US no longer has a competitive edge on every science & technology fields.</p>
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Did I ever write explicitly that USA is the best in every fields of science? You may well know that no individual, no nation, nor any species can be perfect from every point of view. USA, even if we take the bold assumption that it is not prosperous any longer, is still way too strong for China to catch up in just a few decades. </p>
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Initially I presumed she/he was a Chinese holding no American citizenship. And yes, International students belong to different pools; however they still need to take extra tests like HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) Band 6 or above. So if somebody who is not versed in Chinese wants to study here, he cannot just take English courses only. Though some courses are taught in English, the majority of the courses are still in Chinese.</p>
<p>sorry if misunderstood you but you did indicate that
- China is a third world country
- The US is “the best nation in the world”
- The US “cannot be surpassed by any other from every point of view”</p>
<p>Using the “third world” to describe less developed country by itself is totally incorrect. “Third World” was using during Cold War to describe the neutral nations while “First World” were US & Friends and “Second World” the Soviets. “Third World” was never a term designed to describe poorer or developing nations. Check wikipedia or google if you don’t believe me. While it happens to be true that most not all neutral countries during the Cold War were less developed, things have changed a lot during the last ~50 years. China is stronger, more technologically advanced and wealthier than many European countries that fall under the “First World” category.</p>
<p>Statement 2 and statement 3 sounds like the US is the best and beats other countries on everything. I’m not going to waste time commenting on how ignorant this view is … it’s just hopeless. </p>
<p>Also, you might not know but there are programs that do not require HSK and where all classes required for the degree are in English. Such program are few especially at the undergraduate level but they do exist and I personally know people in such type of program who went to China with basically no Chinese knowledge.</p>
<p>dawn’s partially right in 1 aspect: money and funding. Top 50 US universities do indeed have the best equipment in the world. As an undergrad you will never touch that equipment, but it’s nice to look at. personal experience as a chinese student in a top 50 US university that has done research.</p>
<p>there’s more lab classes, more emphasis on real-world skills and more emphasis on getting useful workplace knowledge in a chinese university but less research opportunities. it’s also more structured with set classes like high school.</p>
<p>Though if you don’t know any chinese and just want to take English classes and live in an English environment i can’t imagine why you’d go to China. Taking the HSK is to show not only competence but motivation. same principle, why do US schools want the SAT and GRE when reading novels, primary school math and writing has nothing to do with physics or engineering?</p>
<p>If you really, really want to live in a chinese environment, but also do not want to actually learn chinese, and want to just live speaking English: Hong Kong or Singapore.</p>
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<p>yeah China is quite corrupt … I’ve been involved in part of the Olympics thanks to relatives that have the connection you are talking about … anything from volunteer selection to how contracts are “won” were far from fair. However, I don’t see why this counters the point HLZ tried to make. Yes, you will need to build relationships with the right people if you want to be successful in China or do business with Chinese firms and the best way to build this relationship is meeting Chinese people. Studying in China especially at a top school can do wonder as classmate relationships in China is much closer than in the US. My mom graduated slightly more than 30 years ago from a Chinese university and has been living abroad for over 20 years. Only a few years ago did she visit China again & reconnect with her former classmates. Rather than treating her as a stranger as it would have probably happened in the US, she got an unbelievable welcome and I even received some help while I was studying there.</p>
<p>Yes, the US has less petty corruptions but no one has more experience in the real big value corruptions than US politicians and lobbyist? Just take a look at the BP incidence. Do you seriously think no one in the US government with all the bright scientists ever thought that the blowout preventer could fail and thus did not require a backup plan? The difference between China and the US is that one doesn’t need to hide because people don’t have the tool to threaten them, while the other does it secretly because the people do have the tool to pose a threat. </p>
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<p>Haven’t been to Qiqihaer but Kunming is a very nice city with California like weather… very comparable to an average US city. China does have some less developed areas mainly in the West but that’s not where the population are. I don’t know how average monthly salary relates to living standard or how developed a country is. Japan has a higher salary level so they have a better living standard than the US? Take a trip to Japan and see how frugal most people have to live. Average salary doesn’t equal purchasing power. What I would agree is that China has more people living in relative proverty (farmers, factory workers etc. mostly from rural areas). However, I don’t think any of us considering going to China would fall under that group. Unless you got to have a four bed room house and drive an Audi, you will have a very comparable life than here in the US.</p>
<p>@zerolife:
thanks for your little etymology story of “third word”. After reading, I am more than ever convinced that my country is a third world country. Indeed, "stronger, more technologically advanced and wealthier ". This, however, is usually the official description of China. “Stronger” perhaps holds a little water, if what you mean is that foreigners no longer look down on Chinese. But “more technologically advanced and wealthier” are very dubious descriptions. One may ask, “where do those new technological advancements come from? are they all ‘Chinese-made’?” or, “Where does the wealth go? to the people or to the government or to certain tycoons?” These somewhat unanswerable questions give many Chinese doubts about the developments of the country. Must I admit that China is getting wealthier, I would choose to say that China is as wealthy as the US of 1920s. </p>
<p>as for (2). I assure you when I wrote this I was only thinking about America’s GDP. America is up to now the wealthiest country in the world. Now, well, you help me to see how easy this short phrase could be misinterpreted. I thank you for pointing this out. Next time when I say America is the best blabla, I’ll write more details. :)</p>
<p>(3) I admit I may be contradicting myself on this point. However you could see that I never write a sentence like “The US cannot be surpassed from every point of view.” The nearest subject of “cannot be surpassed from every point of view” is “world stage”. In my personal opinion a world stage that offers world perspectives is usually great from every point of view. US gives me “a world stage” which I cannot find in China, therefore I praise it with “cannot be surpassed from every point of view.” I don’t think in this case it’s like math a=b, b=c, therefore a=c. Sometimes I really think the current US cannot be surpassed from every point of view. Democracy, the best higher education, scientific facilities, everything. And if we exclude EU, US really beats Britain&France&c(the GDP thing etc). But, as I said before, not every fields to the most teeny-weeny things. For instance, if I want to major in British literature/history, I would definitely choose Oxford over Harvard or Princeton. </p>
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A political system affects every aspect of a country. I always hold the opinion that if the political system is corrupt then the country is downright hopeless. Why China has no great universities like Harvard or MIT? It’s not that Chinese are not smart enough, it’s because of the system. I don’t recommend studying in China unless we have a better ‘system’. </p>
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I am inclined to doubt this idea. Daughters or sons of great tycoons or high officials often study abroad. Forming connections with really influential Chinese need you go out of China. Take the former Chinese president Deng for example. His son has been living in US since late 1990s. </p>
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<p>I’ll be exceedingly happy if corruptions in China are “petty”. I dare say you think me cynical and aggressive, yet what I give here is truly sentiments of an insider. My grandfather, father and two uncles are all politicians working for the Chinese government. And my mother works in the national army. I grew up among tactics of politicians and am wholly disgusted with those things. Besides, Chinese politicians lack the rhetoric skills(eg. my father’s debating skill’s even worse than mine) and debonair appearances that American politicians have. Though these are quite “petty” things. We do show a prosperous picture to you outsiders; but who knows what an inside picture is like?
Besides, if you think so high of PRC, why don’t you yourself come and settle down here? PRC has gained so many praises from foreigners and overseas Chinese, but comparably few from Chinese in China, especially peasants and governmental workers holding no important positions. </p>
<p>In a nutshell after those dribbling and prattling, my suggestion to this post is: Why not America, since you’ve an American passport?</p>
<p>siyao, are you Chinese-Peruvian?</p>
<p>^ umm…nope~ I’m pure Chinese. 
What makes you think that?</p>
<p>Soy sauce in Peru is called sillao (which sounds the same as siyao)</p>
<p>^haha…That’s cool~ nice to know~</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with going from “the best nation in the world” to China.
If anything, it is an advantage. You will gain a new perspective on China and the world.
You will also form connections that allow you to work in China in the future.
Most companies now choose to work with China because of the emerging market and economy.
comingdawn is bias. Corrupt politicians have nothing to do with the school atmosphere and the life style of ordinary Chinese people.
If anything China is correcting its problems. China is now prosecuting and executing corrupt officials.
Having a degree from a top university in China is now just as good as having a degree from a top university in the States. So you don’t necessarily have to stay in China after you graduate.
Anyway I believe the purpose for people migrating is to broaden their horizon and find new opportunities.
China is a good place to be for international students and there’s nothing wrong with studying there.</p>
<p>If you can stand the internet censorship, come here!</p>