China’s College Admission Crisis

In a few weeks, Exeter students across all grades will file into EHS to take the SAT on Nov. 5. It will most likely be an exhausting and mind-numbing experience. Students will forego sleep and free time in preparation. But SWAT teams will not be deployed to guard the tests, retina scans will not be administered, cheating will not result in seven years of jail time. The same cannot be said for the situation in China.

In a society which places such great value on higher education, a Chinese student’s college education—therefore their score on the gaokao—has a huge influence on his or her future. Good results on the test tend to have a profound impact on not only the student’s future career prospects, but their economic and social standing. Additionally, due to China’s former one-child policy, many test takers are only children who will someday be the sole economic provider for their household. All of these factors have fused together to create unreasonably high stakes and a test-obsessed school culture, resulting in an obsessive need for students to succeed on the gaokao. The gaokao has monopolized the academic and social lives of chinese teens. Well-rounded, emotionally healthy lifestyles are forfeited for constant test prep. One Chinese high school sparked international concern a couple years ago when photos leaked of students in class receiving amino acids through IV drips to boost test performance and fight exhaustion. The leading cause of suicide in high school and middle school age children in China is test stress. As if the stakes weren’t high enough already, as of 2014 cheating on the gaokao is a criminal offense that can result in up to seven years in prison.The college admissions process in China is composed entirely of an SAT-like exam. Called the gaokao, it’s administered exclusively to seniors nationwide during the last three days of high school. Students sit for four different exams over the course of three days: Chinese, English, mathematics and an elective of either science or humanities, which essentially forces students to designate their future major and career track even before high school graduation. By the end of the month, the Department of Education will release test results in the form of national and regional rankings. The top-scoring students will be admitted into the top universities, second tier students will be admitted into second tier universities, and so on down the list until each spot has been filled. This year, 9.4 million students nationwide competed for 3 million undergraduate spots.There are no Common Apps, no essays, no extracurriculars or teacher recommendations that are taken into account. Students are reduced to a test score and sorted accordingly.

China’s Department of Education is no longer able to ignore the ramifications of this cultural obsession with the gaokao. However, test’s deep historical and cultural significance has proven it incredibly hard to reform. 15 years or so after its creation in 1952, the gaokao was shut down during the cultural revolution due to the systematic shutdown of Chinese universities. When it was reinstated in 1977, it signified a new era of academic opportunity for Chinese students. A system which was hypothetically devoid of any political or socioeconomic bias, allocating opportunities based entirely on academic merit of the student. It’s an appealing ideology even in America today, where so much of our college application process is dependent on legacy and connections. But the gaokao has its fair share of systematic biases. Due to its method of region-by-region test administration, students in Beijing- often children of political leaders, party members or international businessmen- receive an easier version of the test than their counterparts in more rural and poorer provinces. Wealthier families can expend massive amounts of resources hiring live in tutors and former test takers to help their children prepare. The gaokao is so integral to the bureaucratic and cultural aspects of Chinese education that it is unlikely the test will ever be fully abolished. In fact, international universities have begun accepting gaokao scores or even implementing their own similar system. But China’s Department of Education has encouraged schools to start taking a comprehensive look at students, by awarding “bonus points” on the gaokao for exemplary achievements, extra curriculars, and teacher recommendations. They have worked with universities to expand their student resources and undergraduate intake. But such marginal measures cannot fix such a deeply flawed system. High school students should not be required to choose between their mental, emotional and physical health or their future. China’s college admissions system in a broken one and needs dramatic reform now, for their student’s sake.