In the context of Harvard admissions and whether they should be free, there are always muted references to “Asian students” and unspecified problems they are causing. For those who don’t know, I want to explain what the main issue here is.
“Asian students” is a way of saying “Chinese students.” Students from China often arrive with perfect SAT, TOEFL and GRE scores that turn out to be completely fake. I know of quite a few cases (including in Ivy League schools) where students from China arrive at a grad program in English lit with a perfect GRE score, and it turns out that the students literally don’t speak a word of English.
There is an even greater problem with letters of reference and transcripts from China. There is a lot of corruption going on in the country, and since China is so enormous, there’s no way of controlling what’s happening. That’s the reason colleges balk at admitting students from China.
There is some really idiotic myth that Chinese students are discriminated against because they are too smart and will outshine American students but it’s just a silly story. In reality, there is hardly a program in this country that hasn’t had any experience with falsified documents from China.
It totally sucks that good, honest Chinese students are suffering as a result of this issue but when you have one situation like this after another, I literally don’t know what else a department is to do.
Clarissa's Blog 
RE Chinese students with falsified scores: Is the number of student applicants from China so large that the programs can’t interview students via Skype to see whether their skills match the numbers? If there are hundreds of students, that would be impractical, but if there are, say, five, it would be one solution. Even if the hundreds could be narrowed down to a half a dozen applicants, that might be a decent solution. What do you think?
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My graduate program had introduced a phone interview precisely after such a mistake with a Chinese student. The problem is, though, that if somebody is so eager to get into the US that they paid for fake test scores, why wouldn’t they pay some more to have somebody else do the interview for them? These are not unresolvable issues but many programs say, “Hey, we have enough applicants as it is, who needs the extra trouble?”
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“it turns out that the students literally don’t speak a word of English. ”
What I remember was students from China (and Korea) who could read English just fine. They could read and understand technical material that I have no hope of understanding unless I devoted a lot of time to some technical field I have no interest in. Their writing was a lot rougher but mostly comprehensible.
But, especially when they arrived having to speak and understand regular spoken American English was a huuuuuuge shock for them, add in some southern regional features (white or black) and they were helpless.
When I worked in an office dealing with them I added the innovation of writing out instructions for where to go and who to ask for and what it was they needed and it was such a hit that everyone else started doing that too. It made the encounters far less stressful for all concerned.
After a few months they gained some coping mechanisms but the first semester or two was a non-stop wall of incomprehensibility for them (and those who had to deal with them).
I think one problem now might be that China is getting rich enough that not only the elite but also the just plain slightly above average students can afford to think about studying in America (and a document falsification industry has sprung into place to ‘help’ them).
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At my university some 80% of academic dishonesty cases involve Chinese students. Probably because they are unequipped for the work because they have fraudulent documentation.
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“There is some really idiotic myth that Chinese students are discriminated against because they are too smart and will outshine American students but it’s just a silly story. In reality, there is hardly a program in this country that hasn’t had any experience with falsified documents from China.”
If you’re going to make this claim, you have to offer specific evidence. Did you not learn this basic part of debate in graduate school?
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First of all, this is a blog post and not a debate. Second of all, drop the pissy tone, it’s annoying.
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Plain Language from Truthful James. Bret Harte.
Yes, the corruption and stupidity of my mom’s peeps is sometimes appalling for a mixed breed like me. I wonder if the Chinese will ever get over their tendency to nepotism and corruption and inability to abide by a rule of law.
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I’m sure Chinese will do it before my people. We are truly hopeless in this sense.
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