DOZENS of new students crowded into a lobby of the University of Delaware’s student center at the start of the school year. Many were stylishly attired in distressed jeans and bright-colored sneakers; half tapped away silently on smartphones while the rest engaged in boisterous conversations. Eavesdropping on those conversations, however, would have been difficult for an observer not fluent in Mandarin. That’s because, with the exception of one lost-looking soul from Colombia, all the students were from China.

新學(xué)年剛開始的時候，特拉華大學(xué)學(xué)生中心的一個大廳里涌進(jìn)了幾十位新同學(xué)。其中許多人打扮時髦，穿著打磨發(fā)舊的牛仔褲和色彩鮮艷的旅游鞋；一半人在默默玩著手機(jī)，其他人在熱烈地交談。但是，對于一個普通話不熟練的旁觀者來說，想要偷聽他們的談話會很困難。因?yàn)?，除了一個神情迷惘的哥倫比亞人之外，其它學(xué)生都來自中國。

Among them was Yisu Fan, whose flight from Shanghai had arrived six hours earlier. Too excited to sleep, he had stayed up all night waiting for orientation at the English Language Institute to begin. Like nearly all the Chinese students at Delaware, Mr. Fan was conditionally admitted — that is, he can begin taking university classes once he successfully completes an English program. He plans to major in finance and, after graduation, to return home and work for his father’s construction company. He was wearing hip, dark-framed glasses and a dog tag around his neck with a Chinese dragon on it. He chose to attend college more than 7,000 miles from home, Mr. Fan said, because “the Americans, their education is very good.”

范逸蘇（Yisu Fan，音譯）就是其中之一，在6個小時之前剛從上海飛來。他興奮地整夜睡不著覺，一直在等著參加英語語言學(xué)院的新生指導(dǎo)會。和特拉華大學(xué)的幾乎所有中國學(xué)生一樣，范逸蘇是被有條件錄取的——就是說，他得順利念完一個英語項(xiàng)目，才可以開始修讀大學(xué)課程。他打算念金融專業(yè)，畢業(yè)后回國，到他父親的建筑公司工作。他戴著新潮的黑框眼鏡，脖子上掛著印有一條中國龍的軍牌（俗稱“狗牌”）項(xiàng)鏈。他說，自己選擇到離家7000英里的地方上大學(xué)，是因?yàn)椤懊绹说慕逃馨簟薄?/div>

That opinion is widely shared in China, which is part of the reason the number of Chinese undergraduates in the United States has tripled in just three years, to 40,000, making them the largest group of foreign students at American colleges. While other countries, like South Korea and India, have for many years sent high numbers of undergraduates to the United States, it’s the sudden and startling uptick in applicants from China that has caused a stir at universities — many of them big, public institutions with special English-language programs — that are particularly welcoming toward international students. Universities like Delaware, where the number of Chinese students has leapt to 517 this year, from 8 in 2007.

在中國，這個觀點(diǎn)很普遍，這是赴美留學(xué)的中國本科生數(shù)量在僅僅3年中翻了3倍的原因之一。他們的人數(shù)已經(jīng)達(dá)到4萬，是美國最大的留學(xué)生群體。雖然南韓和印度等國家多年來也向美國輸送了大量本科生，但中國申請人數(shù)突然出現(xiàn)驚人的增長，已經(jīng)在那些尤其歡迎國際學(xué)生的高校中激起波瀾。這些大學(xué)中很多是設(shè)有特別英語項(xiàng)目的大型公立學(xué)校。比如，特拉華大學(xué)的中國學(xué)生人數(shù)就從2007年的8人猛增到了2011年的517人。

The students are mostly from China’s rapidly expanding middle class and can afford to pay full tuition, a godsend for universities that have faced sharp budget cuts in recent years. But what seems at first glance a boon for colleges and students alike is, on closer inspection, a tricky fit for both.

這些學(xué)生絕大多數(shù)來自中國迅速壯大的中產(chǎn)階級，有能力支付全額學(xué)費(fèi)，對于近年來面臨預(yù)算削減的高校來說，這真是從天而降的禮物。不過，雖然乍看之下這對高校和學(xué)生都有好處，仔細(xì)觀察起來，卻是對雙方都復(fù)雜和棘手的事。

Colleges, eager to bolster their diversity and expand their international appeal, have rushed to recruit in China, where fierce competition for seats at Chinese universities and an aggressive admissions-agent industry feed a frenzy to land spots on American campuses. College officials and consultants say they are seeing widespread fabrication on applications, whether that means a personal essay written by an agent or an English proficiency score that doesn’t jibe with a student’s speaking ability. American colleges, new to the Chinese market, struggle to distinguish between good applicants and those who are too good to be true.

高校們渴望增加學(xué)生群體的多樣化并提高國際吸引力，因此急急忙忙地涌入中國招生。中國的高考競爭非常激烈，而留學(xué)中介行業(yè)更是火上澆油，積極為美國校園招徠生源。高校官員和招生顧問們說，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)申請材料廣泛造假，有的是中介幫著寫個人陳述，有的是英語考試分?jǐn)?shù)和學(xué)生的口語能力不相匹配。剛剛進(jìn)入中國市場的美國高校正在費(fèi)勁地鑒別哪些是優(yōu)秀的申請人，哪些則好得不真實(shí)。

Once in the classroom, students with limited English labor to keep up with discussions. And though they’re excelling, struggling and failing at the same rate as their American counterparts, some professors say they have had to alter how they teach.

而一旦入學(xué)之后，那些英語水平有限的學(xué)生要跟上課堂討論就非常吃力。盡管他們當(dāng)中成績出眾、學(xué)習(xí)費(fèi)勁或者通不過考試的人的比例和美國同學(xué)差不多，但有些教授說，他們不得不改變了教學(xué)方法。

Colleges have been slow to adjust to the challenges they’ve encountered, but are beginning to try new strategies, both to better acclimate students and to deal with the application problems. The onus is on them, says Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal of Peking University High School, one of Beijing’s top schools, and director of its international division. “Are American universities unhappy? Because Chinese students and parents aren’t.”

面對這些挑戰(zhàn)，高校調(diào)整得很遲緩，但已經(jīng)開始嘗試新的策略，以便讓學(xué)生更好地適應(yīng)新環(huán)境，同時處理好申請方面的問題。北大附中校長助理兼國際部主任江學(xué)勤說，這是美國高校的責(zé)任?！懊绹拇髮W(xué)不高興嗎？因?yàn)橹袊鴮W(xué)生和家長并沒有不高興?！?/div>

“Nothing will change,” Mr. Jiang says, “unless American colleges make it clear to students and parents that it has to.”

他說：“除非美國大學(xué)向?qū)W生和家長表明必須改變，否則還是會一切照舊。”

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