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Several people have posed questions on CC or directly to me regarding applying from China. I'm no expert, but I thought I would pass on some useful information I've gleaned; hope it is of some help!

Every year anywhere from 0 and 6 kids get into Harvard from the P.R.C. (I believe this means actual Chinese citizens, however. U.S. citizens living abroad are put in an entirely different "group".). This isn't really a quota, but is mostly due to the fact that the majority of the hundreds of Chinese applicants cannot take the SATs; out of these, the ones accepted usually have other qualities that display excellence to the admissions office, such as International Olympiads and/or outstanding participation in extracurricular activities. Fluency in English as demonstrated by essays and the interview is of course a prerequisite.

My Harvard alumni interviewer was actually telling me about the difficulties of accepting qualified Chinese kids because of their inability to take the SAT. This is due to both ETS and the Chinese government, and is very unfortunate. He told me that if the SATs were available, top schools would likely accept around 40% more kids from China. One alum said Harvard could raise the quality of its incoming class by filling it with just students from Shanghai!

Well, that's about it; good luck you guys!

By Phoenixin (Phoenixin) on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Hi there, thank you for your information. as far as i know, in recent years, they admit one actual Chinese each year on average. They all have SAT or GRE.

By Foreignboy (Foreignboy) on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 07:31 pm: Edit

That's kind of sucky. Why can't you take the SAT in China actually?

By Mrcollegeexpert (Mrcollegeexpert) on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 09:02 pm: Edit

The SAT is in Taiwan - just swim over.

By Emperoriv (Emperoriv) on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 09:05 pm: Edit

I'd like to see you set that swimming world record...

By Phoenixin (Phoenixin) on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 05:46 am: Edit

if i set that world record, i'm afraid i don't have to take SAT to get into harvard or i won't go to harvard at all