Chinese Students Flood American Colleges

If your school hasn't seen an influx of Chinese students, it's about to: A booming economy has made more Chinese families able to afford the dream of pursuing an American education. Applications to U.S. schools by Chinese students are up 30 percent from last year. At Grinnell College in rural Iowa, one out of every 10 applicants is from China, a result of the school's heavy marketing there. But the new rush of Asian students poses a problem for admissions departments, which have to determine how to judge their international students' applications. Chinese high schools grade on a far less generous curve than most in the U.S., meaning their grades don't correlate with those of American applicants. And a huge number of Chinese applicants have perfect 800s on the math section of their SATs, making them virtually indistinguishable to American schools.