Who Applies to U.S. Colleges: Preparation Strategies of Socially Elite Chinese High School Students

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 19. Processes of Privilege and Mobility

Abstract

There have been a rapidly growing number of Chinese high school students choosing to apply to universities in the United States since 2008. These students contribute to the trend that self-funded Chinese international undergraduate students are becoming the largest group of international students at US colleges. Despite this striking phenomenon, less attention has been given to the educational experiences of these high school students. My study attempts to fill in this gap by exploring the sociological meaning of such students’ schooling experiences in the process of preparing to apply for US colleges. It examines how wealthy Chinese families mobilize different forms of capital in an attempt to guarantee that their children can study abroad.

This study draws on data collected through ethnographic methods. The concepts of neoliberalism and globalization map out the macro structural dynamics, which guide me to situate the practices of these students mobility in a global context. Bourdieu’s notion of field and theory of capital inform how I understand the advantages produced by capital conversion strategies in term of gaining access to resources and opportunities, such as international education, for positional competition for power or future life chances.

This paper reveals that class advantages are maintained through their practices of preparing for US college applications. It concludes that globalization and neoliberal polices reconstruct Chinese educational systems in the ways in which an increasing marketization and privatization of education intensifies educational inequalities between privileged groups and disadvantaged groups.

Author

• Shuning Liu, University of Wisconsin-Madison