CHINA: More students opting for overseas study

While her classmates are toiling away in preparation for the cut-throat college entrance exam, Chen Ruqian is sitting idly at home. Bored. The 18-year-old from the famous Shanghai Foreign Language School was offered a full scholarship from Amherst College in the US, thanks to her outstanding academic performance and community work, writes Tan Yingzi for China Daily. "All the best students in our school go for American universities," she said.

Last year, among the nearly 300 graduates at the school, 80 were accepted by American universities and 40 others are headed to the countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Japan, Chen said. About 180,000 Chinese students went to overseas universities last year, nearly half of them high school students.

In big cities across the country, famous local high schools have seen an increasing number of students head abroad, either for a better education or simply to avoid the make-or-break entrance exam. Because of limited admissions to the country's universities, the competition has been described as "an army of soldiers trying to cross a thin log over a river".
Full report on the China Daily site