The Boston Globe reports:
Eager to cultivate generations of students in this new frontier, admissions officers from premier American universities are scouring China to recruit top high school students who may dismiss such colleges as out of reach and unaffordable. In last month’s campaign during the contest, Harvard, Brown, and Stanford representatives touted liberal arts education, research opportunities, and American dorm life to students and their parents – even promising full scholarships.
“There are no quotas, no limits on the number of Chinese students we might take,” Fitzsimmons told a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 students during a visit to Beijing No. 4 High School. “We know there are very good students from China not applying now. I hope to get them into the pool to compete.”
That message is disconcerting for American students toiling to land a coveted spot in Harvard’s 1,660-student freshman class – and controversial among some educators. But Fitzsimmons and others say they had better get used to the idea. Applications from China have exploded in recent years as the Communist country opens up to the world, and they’re only going to increase.
