US: 'The Chinese are coming'

Carleton College has 18 new students from China this year, and they are paying about half of their own expenses. A handful of them don't need any financial aid at all. While Chinese graduate students are no shock on university campuses, significant cohorts of undergraduate applications from China are a new phenomenon at most colleges, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.

Just a few years ago, Carleton had only three or four students enrolling from China, and it never enrolled students who could afford to pay their own way. In the past few years, the number of annual applications from China has grown to 300 from 50 or 60 most years. "It's remarkable how the tide has shifted," said Paul Thiboutot, dean of admissions at Carleton. He described the growth - and related issues - at a session at the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counselling.

Carleton isn't alone in seeing this increase. At Duke University, the number of undergraduate applications from China hit 500 this year, up from 175 three years ago. The number of matriculants is up to 30, from 8.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site