中国学生出国留学是否划算 国情决定文凭不是成功决定因素

Liu Yinwei of Jinzun Investment Consulting was inundated with candidates at a recent job fair in Shanghai, but he was not looking for those with foreign degrees. He has sales jobs to fill and the last time he hired a returnee with a UK master's degree, “he thought he knew a lot and therefore . . . he looked down upon clients”.
在上海最近举办的一次招聘会上，金尊投资咨询(Jinzun Investment Consulting)的刘银伟（音译）收到了大量简历，但他想招的不是那些“海归”。他要招聘的职位是销售。上一次他聘用了一位从英国留学回来的硕士，那个人“认为自己懂的很多，因此……看不起客户”。

For Gao Wei, 25, attending the University of Melbourne was not her first choice, but she did not make the cut for a top Chinese university. Four years in Melbourne cost Rmb1m, she says, and paying it was “no big deal” for her parents, businesspeople in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. Was it worth it? “It wasn’t my money so I have no views on the return on investment, but I have very beautiful memories of those four years.”
对于25岁的高伟(音译，见右图)而言，攻读墨尔本大学(University of Melbourne)并非第一选择，但谁让她没考上中国国内的一流大学呢？她说，在墨尔本学习4年，花了100万元人民币，这对于她（在华东城市南京经商）的父母而言只是“小菜一碟”。那么，这笔钱花得值得吗？“这不是我的钱，所以我对于投资回报率没有看法，但这四年为我留下了非常美好的回忆。”

Sandra Yoo, 28, took a different approach: she knew her family could not afford a foreign undergraduate degree, so she studied in China first and then went to the University of York for a one-year master’s in public economics. That year cost Rmb260,000, and her starting salary at a Chinese equities firm was Rmb220,000. She wants her child to study in China first too: “If they go abroad too early they lose their connection with classmates,” she says. In China, classmates often form an invaluable network for business.
28岁的Sandra Yoo走的是一条不同的道路：她知道，父母负担不起自己的留学费用，因此她先在中国念完本科，然后赴约克大学(University of York)攻读了一个一年期公共经济学硕士学位。这一年的花费为26万元人民币，而她在中国一家股票公司的起薪是22万元人民币。她也希望她自己的孩子先在中国念完本科。她说：“如果太早出国，他们就会失去大学同学这份人脉。”在中国，同学关系往往会为经商提供非常宝贵的人脉资源。

Gu Huini, 26, spent Rmb500,000 of her parents’ money getting a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. “Going to the US, the expense is like living in a four- or five-star hotel every day,” she says. Ms Gu, an elegant, poised young woman who speaks excellent English, says she was ill-prepared for her course of study and found the experience so distressing that she joined an education consultancy to help families avoid similar mistakes. Agents themselves can be a big part of the cost of overseas study, though: they charge between Rmb30,000 and Rmb300,000 to arrange overseas admission.
26岁的谷慧妮(音译，见右图)花了父母50万元人民币，获得了哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)的新闻学硕士学位。她说：“在美国读书的花销就像是天天住四星或五星级酒店。”谷慧妮年轻、优雅、镇定自如，操一口流利的英语。她说，她自己对留学准备不足，那段经历让她非常痛苦，因此她加入了一家教育咨询机构，以帮助其他家庭避免类似的错误。不过，留学中介机构本身收取的费用也可能占到海外留学费用的很大一部分。申请人被国外的大学录取后，留学中介会收取3万元至30万元人民币不等的费用。

One of China’s first overseas students, Xia Yingqi, now works with the Beijing government to help attract high-level returnees. Is foreign study worth it for the new generation of sea turtles? “It’s really not just about jobs and salaries: living in a foreign country, the whole country is your university,” he says. “I think it’s a good choice.”
中国第一批海外留学生之一夏颖奇现在在北京市政府工作，帮助吸引高素质留学人员归国。对于新一代“海归”而言，留学是否值得？“留学的意义其实不仅仅在于工作和薪水——住在外国，整个国家都是你的‘大学’。”他说，“我觉得这是个不错的选择。”