After showcasing an intriguing perspective on playing Mahjong through an engaging essay, Zhang Xiaoyue, a high school student from China, has been admitted to Harvard University.
Zhang is from southwest China's Chongqing City and, together with three other high school students, was selected from a pool of 37,000 applicants.
The students have been invited to talk and impart their experience in the application process last Tuesday during the 9th annual Harvard Summit for young leaders in China (HSTLC 2015) Shanghai.
According to them, the crucial factors during the application are the ability to show personality and the effective expression of one's thoughts.
Regarding the interview procedure, Zhang Xiaoyue emphasized the essential skill of communicating her thoughts to admission officers.
Such was an important key to success in the application and aside from that, Xiaoyue shared that one must carefully construct thought-provoking personal stories to add depth and support to one's viewpoints.
Bryce Gilfillian, a Harvard admission officer who attended the summit in Shanghai, stated that besides school achievements, the most competitive students are those who can engage Harvard with their own thoughts, personalities, interests and potential for future careers.
In addition, Gilfillian said that since Harvard has a fair and humanitarian admission system, every student will be selected through admission committees who vote on applicants based on merits gained through examinations administered by the university.
In its report, the Atlantic cites statistics from the Institute of International Education showing that 274,439 students from China went to U.S. schools in 2013-2014, which represents a 16-percent jump from the previous year.
In 2014, Chinese students comprised 31 percent of all international students in the U.S., contributing an estimated $22 billion to the U.S. economy for that year.