What Students in China Have Taught Me About U.S. College Admissions

By Terry Crawford. The policies of American universities often encourage extreme test-preparation strategies and distort the high school experience of many Chinese applicants.
I talk to more Chinese high school students than anyone else in the world.
At least I think I do: I operate — along with my wife — a company in China that interviews students on behalf of selective U.S. colleges and boarding schools. Instead of taking a standardized language test, a prospective student can participate in an unscripted conversation with one of our interviewers. We videotape the interview and then provide it “as-is” to admission officers. Admission officers like our interviews because they provide a trustworthy and unfiltered look at an applicant’s communication skills. More...