他们的美国梦:中国学生蜂拥美国名校

Jay Lin is the embodiment of the American dream -- and what is increasingly a Chinese dream.
林杰代表的不仅仅是美国梦，更是一个不断壮大的中国梦。

Originally from Wenzhou in eastern China, he moved to New York City as a teenager. After earning degrees from Ivy League universities -- Cornell and Columbia -- he secured a comfortable job in a bucolic town in Connecticut.
林杰来自中国东部的温州市，少年时期移居纽约。从常春藤名校康奈尔大学和哥伦比亚大学毕业后，在康乃迪克州一个乡村小镇找了份工作，过上了舒服的日子。

Now he is helping others in China follow his path, where the desire for elite U.S. education is alive and well.
现在他致力于帮助怀揣着同样梦想，渴望美国精英教育的其他中国人。

In the last decade, mainland Chinese have reshaped the international student body at U.S. colleges and universities, notably at Ivy League institutions. In the 2009-2010 academic year, China surpassed traditional "study abroad" heavyweights like Canada, India and South Korea, to lead international enrollment across U.S. higher education, according to the Institute of International Education. The U.S.-based institute's most recent figures reveal that mainland Chinese students increased 23% to more than 723,000 in the 2010-11 academic year.
过去的十年，大陆学生重塑了美国大学机构的学生比例，尤其是常青藤名校联盟。美国国际教育研究所指出，2009-2010学年，中国留学生数量超过了传统的对美学生输出大国，如加拿大、印度和韩国，在全美高等教育国际学生中遥遥领先。该研究所最新数据显示，大陆学生在2010-2011学年数量已涨至723,000人，增幅高达23%。

A rising generation of affluent students
崛起的新一代富学生

While Chinese students traditionally went abroad when they failed to secure a place at a top-tier local university, the best students are now forgoing elite Chinese universities to study in the United States, according to Lin, now academic director of Ivy Labs Education, an admissions consultancy in Beijing.
林说，曾经中国学生出国是因为没能够考上清华北大，现在最好的学生也不留恋北大清华了，他们更想去美国读书。林现在是北京一家出国咨询公司常青藤实验教育的学术总监。

Many Chinese are seeking a higher quality of education that will train them to become independent and creative, he said, and they see the world's top-ranked universities are in the United States.
他说，很多的中国人希望能够接受到帮助他们变得更独立、更有创造力的、高品质的教育。在他们眼中，世界顶尖的大学都在美国。

China's economic reforms and "opening-up" that began in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping gave rise to the first major generation of students, who were generally reliant on scholarships to study in the United States, according to Chen Shuangye, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Department of Educational Administration and Policy.
香港中文大学教育行政与政策学系助理教授陈霜叶老师指出，1978年的改革开放政策缔造了新一代的学生，那一代的赴美留学生主要依靠的是奖学金。

Coinciding with China's rapid economic growth, a distinctive second generation emerged in the mid-1990s comprising much more affluent students, Chen said. "There is a great increase in the phenomenon because (mainland Chinese) don't rely on scholarships anymore."
随着中国经济的快速发展，90年代中叶出现了第二代学生，他们要比前一代富有得多。陈说：“中国赴美留学生的增多主要是因为（大陆的）学生不再需要依靠奖学金出国了。”

Starting early at boarding schools
寄宿学校早起的鸟

The factors driving mainland Chinese to study in the United States come into play much earlier, Lin said, noting an influx of foreign Chinese students into private U.S. secondary schools, starting around 2005.
“影响中国学生赴美的因素在大学之前就起作用了，”林说，“从2005年起，中国赴美国私立高中留学的学生出现大幅增加。”

Chinese parents send their children to private U.S. high schools as a "strategic decision" to strengthen their candidacy for elite U.S. universities, Lin said. A growing number also want their children to lead happier lives rather than have them consumed by preparing for the "gaokao" in China -- the one-time, high-stakes national university entrance examination that is the sole determinant of admission.
“中国家长将就读美国私立高中当做是敲开美国顶尖大学的叩门砖。“他说，”同时越来越多的人希望自己的孩子能够过上更快乐的生活，而不是被那一次性高风险的高考蹉跎时光，是否通过高考是决定中国学生是否能进入大学的唯一因素。”

"The goal of education in mainland China is to prepare you to take the gaokao. Everything else is secondary. In China, you would put the gaokao in the center...whereas...in American education, you put the student in the center, and everything else serves the best interests of the student. It's not exclusively about (getting into) college."
“大陆教育的目标就是应试。其他都是次要的。在中国高考就是一切的中心。但是美国的教育是以学生为中心的，一切都是以学生的利益为重的，而不仅仅只是为了考上大学。”

While U.S. boarding schools desire Chinese students both for their dollars and diversity, they walk a "very fine line...when it comes to recruiting Chinese students," said Lin, who assisted with admissions during his tenure teaching at Connecticut's Cheshire Academy.
林表示：“美国寄宿学校因利润和多样性的需要，很欢迎中国学生，但是于此同时在录取的时候，分寸还是相当难以把握。 ”林在康乃迪克的柴郡学院教书的时候，曾做过招生助手。

Boarding schools typically admit four to five students of any foreign nationality per grade level, with international students comprising up to 20% of the overall student body, Lin said. With about 100 students for each of the four grade levels, this means admitting a maximum of 20 mainland Chinese, or five percent of the student body.
“一般来说，寄宿学校每个年级会录取4-5名任何外国国籍的学生，国际学生占学生总数的最多达20%。” 林说：“ 4个年级每个年级学生100人，也就是说，其中最多可录取20个大陆学生，等于学生总数的5%。”

China similarly dominates international enrollment at other Ivy League schools, including Yale and Princeton.
同样的，中国学生在其他常春藤学校国际学生中也占据了主要地位，包括耶鲁和普林斯顿。

"International students are seen very favorably as whole, as a way to diversify and really become a global institution," said Rachel Rubin, a lecturer at Boston's Emmanuel College and a specialist in higher education admissions policy.
波斯顿伊曼纽尔学院讲师、高等教育招生政策专家瑞秋-鲁宾表示：“国际学生被看做是个整体，他们让学校更加的多元，学校因而真正地成为一个国际学府。”

"Also economically -- it's very advantageous for elite schools to admit international students because the bulk of them can pay full tuition," she added. As such, there is "a lot of favoritism" toward such students, as financial aid budgets have been cut over the last decade, she said.
“此外经济上来讲，录取国际学生对顶尖高校很有利，因为他们大多数可以全额支付学费。”她补充道。“因此，随着过去十年财政资助不断的削减，这样的学生也越来越得到偏爱。”