US: Chinese agents exploit student influx

Leon Lin was ecstatic when he found out he'd be leaving home in southern China to study at the University of Connecticut. As the Chinese agent whom his parents paid US$5,000 to help him get into the school told him, the university's flagship campus at Storrs was a highly ranked institution, with 25,000 students and ready access to Boston and New York City, writes Daniel Golden for Bloomberg News.

It never crossed his mind that he'd pay $47,000 a year to live in an almost empty country inn and attend classes five miles down the road at a UConn satellite campus comprising two buildings and 250 students. He shares a room and a microwave with his only compatriot on the Torrington campus, Li Rirong, a fellow freshman with similarly dashed dreams.

Lin and Li reflect the most extreme result of an industry burgeoning from the fourfold rise since 2006 in the number of Chinese undergraduates at US colleges. More than 400 agencies licensed by the Chinese government, and many others that aren't, cater to families eager to see their children gain the prestige of a US degree. These agents also often misrepresent or conceal their US affiliations. They receive payments not only from the families, but also from an increasing number of colleges, as well as small operators seeking to profit stateside from the influx of Chinese students.
Full report on the Bloomberg site