How far would you go to take your ACT?

I read an interesting brief the other day in this week's issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. Not typical reading for an Independent Educational Consultant, I know. Never know where you're going to stumble on a bit of helpful information.

The story describes the path Chinese students take to reaching acceptance into American colleges and universities. You see, the SAT isn't offered in mainland China. I suspect the ACT isn't either. So, Chinese students need to fly to Hong Kong or South Korea or somewhere it is offered in order to meet the testing requirements for U.S. Colleges and Universities. That made me wonder, how far would a typical American teenager would go to prepare himself for his college applications?

The point of this post is that U. S. students should know who they're competing with during the college admissions season. A student would need to be pretty determined to be willing to hop on a plane to take a college entrance exam. Or they'd need to be pushed pretty hard(can you say Tiger Mom?) and/or they'd have to have the cash to fund the trip.

Fact is, the number of Chinese undergraduates in the U.S. is 400 % higher than it was 5 years ago. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that U.S. college admissions personnel are working hard to recruit China's best-qualified, full-paying applicants. Did you know that Chinese families with high school aged children are limited to only one-child? Thus, middle class families In China might be able to afford tuition that exceed what an average American family can afford.

Colleges and testing companies see students living on mainland China as a huge untapped market. The number of high school graduates in the U. S. is declining. Know your competition!