Asian Students Pressured to Cheat on US College Applications

Competition for Asian students trying to get into US colleges is so fierce that many have resorted to cheating, using fake transcripts, essays and SAT scores.

As American colleges remain the premier destination for the academic elite in Asia, many students are feeling pressured into resorting into drastic cheating measures to get their highly sought after places, writes Patrick Winn at the Global Post.

Depending on the degree of assistance, students and their families can expect to pay between $5,000 and $15,000 for ghostwritten essays in ﬂawless English, fake awards, manipulated transcripts and even imposters to sit as the applicant for SAT exams, all arranged by college prep agencies.

According to a recent survey by Zinch China, as many as 90 percent of recommendation letters to foreign colleges are faked, 70 percent of college essays are ghostwritten and 50 percent of high school transcripts are falsiﬁed.

Tom Melcher, chairman of Zinch China says:

“For the right price, the agent will either fabricate it or work with the school to get a different transcript issued.”

And it’s a lucrative business. For every admission into a top 10 or top 30 school, these agencies are set to receive bonuses between $3,000 and $10,000.

To put that into context, there are currently nearly 158,000 Chinese students are enrolled in US colleges at any given time, making up more than one in ﬁve foreign students studying in the country.

“International students are seen as a source of revenue … and the trend has exploded in the past two years,” said Dale Gough, international education director for AACRAO, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

While America has ceded manufacturing power and foreign inﬂuence to China, an American degree remains the gold standard of educational prestige, writes Winn.

“The allure of America’s universities, and the pressure-cooker drive to succeed among Asia’s expanding upper class, will continue to propel Asian students into American schools.”

How can it be stopped? Many believe interviewing all Chinese students via online video chats, conducting spot tests in English, and hiring a mainland Chinese staffer in the college’s home office will help slow the trend down.

But Melcher believes that as long as the risks are low and the rewards are so high this culture of cheating will continue.

“Frankly, I feel really bad for Chinese families who are trying to be honest,” he said.

“They’re driving 55 while everyone’s zooming past them. After a while, they throw up their hands and say, ‘Fine, I’ll speed up.’”

Comments

Joe

January 10, 2012 at 2:37 pm

Chinese may put on airs about the superiority of their education system, but apparently not as far as not actually stooping to cheating to get into one of our universities.

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CIEE

January 19, 2012 at 11:09 am

CIEE (U.S.-based non-profit) is interviewing students in China who are applying to U.S. schools and providing video-taped reports to schools as supplemental application material.

Very popular thus far. Schools are describing as “indespensible information for admissions offices”

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Peter

January 24, 2012 at 9:25 am

I honestly think this is ridiculous. Its not fair to American students who work hard and study hard to actually get these grades and write these essays.

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JL

January 30, 2012 at 1:21 pm

I understand that China is in Asia but why is the article titled “ASIAN Students Pressured to Cheat on US College Applications” when the article itself is talking only about China?

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Katy Challenger

February 2, 2012 at 1:49 pm

Two things about this posting surprised me. First, the unbelievable lengths and money spent to gain entrance to American colleges and universities. It would seem to me that this money could be spent on private tutors to ensure the student was actually prepared to not just be accepted to college, but to excel once they got there. The other aspect that struck me is that fact that the American educational system has been ranking lower and lower when compared to other countries, yet these students are still cheating to get into this supposed broken system. The question ultimately becomes what are colleges and universities willing to do in order to vet their applicants.

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hi_der

February 7, 2012 at 9:24 pm

Because with American university acceptance comes America visas. Most don’t leave.

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Chinese Cheating

April 28, 2012 at 11:04 am

Chinese Cheat, and they cheat well. Copying HW, Copying during exams, Old Solution Manuals & Exams. Cheating is like breathing to the Chinese.

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