学生们利用暑假出国

Not all students are staying in their home towns during their summertime break from school. In Shanghai, more and more local students of all ages are going abroad for summer camps.

14-year-old junior high school student Zhou Zhenyu spent three weeks in the United States last summer. His camp at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, near Washington DC, focused on academic skills such as writing and science. Zhou says the camp was more helpful for his studies than other camps that spend too much time on traveling.

"For me, I take the mathematical logic, it’s, comparatively to be an easier curriculum to other classes. But still, it’s like kind of a college classes. It’s really challenging and you have to prepare a lot. But luckily enough, we have great tutors and we have great TAs," Zhou said.

Zhou says he hopes summer camps can prepare him for studying abroad in the future. And another student says having overseas study experience could be a big plus when applying to colleges.

"For example, if you were to apply to Yale, and then you attended the Yale summer program, perhaps it would be worthwhile to mention it. If you think that you have a certain summer camp experience that is particularly meaningful, you can add it to your personal statement," Ding Jingwen said.

But not every student wants an academic experience. A local company that says it sends about 300 students a year to overseas camps says most choose programs that mostly involve travel, and notes that different programs have different requirements.

Summer programs focusing on studying set high standards for applicants, and not every student can pass. Students need to submit their language test scores such as TOEFL and their GPA from school.

And a representative from a similar company says travel itself can inspire children.

"See the culture first hand, then you will be able to understand it more, you know, if you can go and look yourself with your own eyes, and you see, you touch and you walk around and you experience it. It will make the whole process of learning more interesting, cause, just sitting down and learning words is really boring," William Vanbergen with Be Education said.

"We learned a lot of things and did a lot of fun activities."

And some parents say they want their kids to learn what overseas education can be like by attending such summer camps, though they’d like more of an academic focus.

"I think even though many summer camp organizers must consider balancing costs and profits, they should design plans that can help children to learn more instead of just touring."

China’s Ministry of Education released new guidelines for overseas study tours last month that says at least half the time should be spent on studying.