Fuji Schoolstudent System Zōfuji Student

Hollowing out the family and finding a job, where is the best destination for Ivy League college graduates? The answer is a study abroad agency.

Source|Official account "True Story Project Pro"

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Intermediary Vine League students

"You have such a good education, why did you come to work as an intermediary?"

In May 2023 in Shanghai, Mo Yu, a study abroad consultant who graduated from an Ivy League school, was questioned unreservedly by a parent. Parents want to find the best resources for their children, but due to various stereotypes, they seem to look down on the industry.

Mo Yu maintained a professional smile and replied, "Then will you choose a Harvard-educated consultant for your child, or 50 foreign schools?" ”

The market exists, and there is demand if the supply is not enough. Parents don't speak.

The intermediary agency where Mo Yu works focuses on the top-ranked U.S. applications.

Throughout April, Ibi, a clerical consultant at a leading study abroad institution, was busy processing volunteer registration forms. At about the same time, many international school students began to prepare for the stressful "international test", sighing for another unsatisfactory TOEFL score. Ibi embarked on Cocoxili for a month to volunteer for highland wildlife habitat conservation.

At Yibi's organization, female employees have half a day of aunt leave every month, pets can be brought to work, and customers can be transferred to rest by phone, and actual reimbursement is being made, and a flexible office system is being piloted. At 10:30 a.m., colleagues arrive with coffee, some nowhere to be seen working from home, others enjoying holidays in Japan, South Korea, Europe and other places.

In the institution's recruitment information, American undergraduate graduates with liberal arts backgrounds such as literature and classics will be particularly favored, with the highest annual salary of 600,000 for clerical consultants, and no cap on planning consultants.

Figure | Ibby's desk

More and more young people who have returned from studying in Europe and the United States have found that their classmates have entered the study abroad industry.

Those who have difficulty finding employment in political philosophy, sociology, and art especially lamented, "Everyone has to go around the study abroad industry." A young teacher majoring in liberal arts in East China said that his master's and doctoral friends privately have a side job of studying abroad. In fact, among the top study abroad institutions, there are also graduates of top universities in the mainland such as Tsinghua, Peking University, Tongji, and Fudan.

On the basis of the wealth provided by their fathers, Mo Yu and Yibi walked the one-wood bridge of studying abroad, but after graduation, they gave up the so-called glamorous and legitimate career path. They deeply understand that education and family provide them with privilege and create a short breathing space for themselves in a competitive society.

But this calmness is difficult to pass on to students. Everything became anxious. "I had one page on my resume, and now my child has three pages, which is still number 11." Mo Yu said.

The impact of the epidemic remains, but the undergraduate study abroad market has become white-hot. From 2022 to 2023, among the 1 million freshmen applying for undergraduate studies in the United States, the number of international applicants led by Chinese students exceeded 100,000 for the first time, an increase of 45.32% over the pre-epidemic period and an increase of 14.67% over the previous year.

In the end, the eight Ivy League "Ivy League schools" admitted only 123 Chinese students, nearly 30 fewer than the previous year.

The numerator decreases, the denominator increases, and the pressure increases. Lucky people who are admitted to the top 10 universities in the United States, in addition to having super high TOEFL and SAT (American College Admission Test) scores, wonderful activities, international awards, and scientific research competitions fill their resumes.

At a high-end study abroad agency, a student has a team of three or four advisors who are responsible for paperwork, planning, processes, school selection, and foreign consultants. In addition to creating a vivid and memorable personal statement to impress admissions officers, the team will also provide professional field exploration, GPA management, and recommendation background improvement activities to control the whole process. The service cycle is generally more than two academic years, and the cost starts from 200,000 yuan.

Xu Jin, founder of an institution in a second-tier city in eastern China, found that most Chinese students are not very active, "children don't know what they want, there are too many external assistance, and each item is pushed by others." ”

Xu Jin joined the industry in 2012 and has been a short-term visiting student in the United States without a formal American degree certificate. This is a common model of a group of traditional study abroad institutions earlier, and the consultants have many special eight certificates, graduated from domestic English majors, and have strong stability. Her organization is also mainly based on high-end beauty business, and has won Ivy League schools every year. Most of the students come from ordinary middle-class families, and after receiving compulsory education in junior high school, they are transferred to the local international department.

Since 2014, Xu Jin has found that outstanding scores can no longer reflect the competitiveness of students, and they must be taken to activities and competitions. Domestic Olympiad is difficult to get results, on the digging of overseas projects, the introduction of AMC (American Mathematics Competition) and other competitions, but also to do activity planning and background planning for students, and then in the future, the competition can no longer bring their own, to find a more professional third-party background improvement organization, special tutoring or theme scientific research, "standard scientific research is about 40,000, modeling team head 20,000, if the hill into the mathematics competition, the water is deeper, may be 200,000." ”

"Curve salvation" is more common. Students first apply to enter liberal arts majors such as sociology and anthropology, or art majors such as fashion design, and then transfer to "STEM" majors such as data science, computer science, economics, and business.

Xu Jin remembers that a student in high school cooperated with an art collection agency to design the image of a major, entered a fabric science major in a prestigious school, and finally transferred to a college with a STEM major. Art collection tutoring, often from 100,000 yuan.

In the second-tier city where Xujin is located, the application for studying abroad has become a "foreign college entrance examination" conducted by some middle school students in English. Since junior high school, children have been focused on competitions, and they are very unfamiliar with general concepts, and only students who target the top ten or Ivy League schools will impact AP (Advanced Placement Courses) in the advanced liberal arts courses of American history, comparative government and politics, and often just to improve the application advantage, not out of interest.

Especially in the past few years, many students have come to the United States, but they do not particularly agree with the educational concepts and social concepts of the United States, and they still stay in the small circle of Chinese. I haven't even gone abroad yet, my family has paved the way for some connections, and I just need a reasonable diploma. Under the expectation of the system of 50% elimination rate in the middle school entrance examination, going abroad is always more controllable than a line, if the requirements for the country or ranking are not high, as long as it can be solved with money, "you can definitely record the top 100".

"Children don't know what they want, and parents often ask for a prestigious school diploma." Xu Jin said.

Xu Jin summed up this as a pragmatic tendency in the face of a weak economy. When everything receded and people turned to conservatism and survival instincts, especially in the past three years, many students lost the opportunity for international exchange. Today, in her city, students are more desperately preparing to go abroad, but their horizons are limited, and talking about topics like "critical thinking" has become a luxury.

Winning a scholarship from a prestigious university is almost like winning the lottery, and going to the United States for undergraduate studies means a family investment of more than 4 million yuan. After students enroll, more institutions provide more elaborate services: help students log in to their mailboxes, check the assignments assigned by professors, and urge students to complete assignments before deadlines; According to the course tasks, arrange teachers to do extracurricular tutoring, even help select courses, recommend paid internships, and carry out thesis tutoring.

Growing up with the help of too many external resources, many children lack internal drive and begin to doubt themselves. Some students entered top universities such as Carnegie Mellon and the University of Chicago, but due to various psychological problems such as depression, they eventually suspended school and returned to China.

Ibi knows very well that it is a different scene in her own years of study. At that time, the shadow of the 2008 economic crisis had passed, real estate appreciated, the old city renovation began, China's economy took off, liquidity was excellent, and European and American expectations for China were good. In a steaming field, in a bubble-like and simple and happy liberal arts college, young people feel that whether they study art, literature, engineering, or economics, everyone will have a promising (something to look forward to). And after graduation, the world has turned upside down.

"I think a lot of people now realize that reading a good book doesn't mean you're going to get a good job, that's not an equation."

Some study abroad agency practitioners began to ridicule themselves. Mo Yu and his colleagues asked on the organization's website: Are we losers?

She received such a message from a parent: "It is probably a middle-class anxiety, afraid that I will spend so much money to send my children abroad to study, and I will be a study abroad agent when I come back." ”

Utilitarian and unhurried collision

Ibby chose to go abroad purely out of a whim.

In the second year of Yibi High School in 2017, the planning and activities were blank. She followed the mother of a classmate who was good at chicken dolls to a lecture by an admissions officer in the United States, and when enthusiastic parents surrounded Stanford admissions officers three layers inside and outside, she found that "Hayepps" was not attractive to her. Of course, I can't pass the exam.

In another quiet booth, an admissions officer set up three stools across the table, asked passing students to sit down, and asked them what books, movies, and what they wanted to do in the future.

"This admissions officer really cares about what students want." Ibby memorized the name of the liberal arts college and was successfully accepted.

Hoping to have a decent job even as a liberal arts student, Ibby chose political science, the school's ace major, which she both liked and excelled at, to ensure a beautiful GPA. The major itself is very helpful for applying to law school after undergraduate graduation.

What do you want, but not all high school students can answer. Since arriving in Houston in junior high school and applying for American boarding high schools, the cornerstone of Mo Yu's life is utilitarianism.

On days when the goal is clear, Mo Yu rarely cares about what he likes, but more about how to make himself more perfect and popular. In addition to getting outstanding TOEFL and SAT scores, she also worked hard to be a dormitory manager, build good relationships with club stars, break through the fear of public speaking, and be the editor-in-chief of the public account. In the end, Mo Yu successfully enrolled in an Imperial League school with a strong professional atmosphere, and at the same time won a scholarship offer from a top business school program.

In private boarding schools in the United States, tuition starts at $50,000 a year, and the study abroad agency she signed up for has also charged 200,000 yuan in 2016. Mo Yu, who traveled by bus since he was a child and spent a few dollars a week in pocket, did not think much about the meaning of full tuition at Ivy League schools at that time. The family's situation improved, and after she went to college in the United States, her father's car had changed from a Honda to a Mercedes.

Finances, however, have always been a burden on the project. Growing up in a small city in eastern China with a mercantilist atmosphere, Xiang Qian's mother was special: she was a people's teacher in the examination-oriented education system, an intellectual, but she resolutely fell in love and married Xiang Qian's father, who came from a peasant family, and offered to let her children study abroad for a more ideal educational environment.

In order to prepare for the application, Xiang Qian went through the most volatile stage of his life: TOEFL increased from a score of more than 20 to 108 points in more than a year. Out of love, he found his own textbooks and teaching aids and gnawed on the difficult history of America and Europe. He runs a history club on campus, and during his holidays he conducts readings and fieldwork on migrant worker issues.

Xiang Qian also entered the factory owned by relatives in the small city and felt first-hand the difference between himself and ordinary workers. He was afraid of offending the other party by speaking, and was very nervous, and did not dare to reveal the identity of his boss's relatives.

In the international high schools he attended, Xiang Qian identified himself as "the poorest group." In the early undergraduate application stage, he gave priority to a liberal arts college ranked around 20 and specializing in political science, and successfully obtained a two-thirds scholarship for tuition. Four years later, after giving up his master's degree at Duke University because of too expensive tuition, he chose the University of Chicago, which was a relatively second place, and won another half-prize.

Even if he made all the preparations and entered the top school that seemed to be the most suitable for him so far, Mo Yu did not expect that the campus atmosphere would be like this.

At that famous Ivy League institution, anxiety and competition reflect each other and multiply infinitely. The rich on the global list can be seen everywhere, classmates are escorted to school by bodyguards with guns, private jets are transferred to the country, and "art majors will think about whether to take an accounting class." For her studies, she only sought an A. More than 70% of the school's graduates enter investment banks and consulting companies every year, but Mo Yu is extremely anxious about employment.

Mo Yu is contradictory and changeable. She describes herself as a person whose mind is easily shaped, "like a chameleon." "Her personal statement was so well written that her then application consultant and now boss remembered her. This seems like a metaphor at the moment.

For beauty, Mo Yu cut her eyelids, just because the people around her ridiculed her "small eyes". Although she clearly realizes that this ridicule is only society's indoctrination and discipline of women, which makes her criticize the incompleteness of her feminist consciousness, on the other hand, she truly enjoys the confidence after cutting her eyelids.

Mo Yu does not agree with many of the characteristics of the school: boys, whether black, white or Asian, are "toxic" but confident. She gave up the gender studies and sociology major she filled out when she applied to study the popular investment banking preparatory program, spending more than an hour wearing full makeup whenever she went out to meet people, and drinking with alumni in the business district every Thursday. She also attends sororities, job fairs, and makes friends with whoever gets offers from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs.

Follow-up email, VP and MD business cards crowded out the more depressing "Room N" and the problems of women with mental disorders in rural areas—social issues that she has been concerned about day and night since the ninth grade.

Xiang Qian's reading experience is almost the opposite of Mo Yu's. At the deep blue (politically left-leaning) liberal arts college, Xiang Qian's perception of the value of life, especially the value of work, was greatly changed.

In the early days, Xiang Qian wondered if "there was something wrong with my morality." He realized that in his past life, it seemed that "I just wanted to trample people underfoot".

This is related to tutoring, his mother is a strict teacher, and Xiang Qian looks down on students who do not work hard, study slower than himself, and are not as efficient as himself. And once he gets a higher score than some of the top students, he will be happy. After entering college, he vaguely felt that his classmates had an almost infuriating calmness: they were calm, enthusiastic, and also very hard-working, but they knew how to respect and appreciate others, and never engaged in vicious competition.

Xiang Qian's mentor studied postcolonialism. The criticism of the historical winners made Xiang Qian completely deconstruct the contempt for the weak in his heart: "A worker who does not work hard, has a low IQ, and has a low birth class, I could once think that he has nothing to do with me, but now, I can realize that a set of value systems that exist around the other party is inefficient, whether the work is diligent, and is it important?" Man is not supposed to be used like an ox or a horse. ”

Because of her two majors, Ibi attends the year-end dinner of both faculties at the end of each year. The ace professional politics department dinner was very serious, the main course was steak and salmon, and the philosophy department was poor and ate chicken breast every year. But students play fun games with professors sitting at different tables. It's all informative questions and answers: which philosopher said this sentence, and what philosophical point of view does this passage belong to.

For a limited time, the prize is a small Walmart toy for one dollar. One year, Ibby hugged the professor's thigh and got a small rubber octopus. Ibby looked down at the dry chicken breast on her plate, dreaming that when she made money, she would donate money to the philosophy department so that they could eat better at the dinner.

In the remote geographical environment of Maine, trained in the thinking of philosophers, Ibby further pondered the meaning of happiness. Her host family is a couple living nearby, and the cottage is warm wood, in the snow, warmed by the fireplace, people holding cheap red wine, talking heartily, and a golden retriever bouncing around the long table. She spent every winter and holidays here, with her host family confiscating a penny.

After the heavy snowfall, the strong sunlight reflected on the walls and ground, and in the clean and bright cabin of the host family, Ibi began to reflect: Do I need the social values that law school represents? Why do I need to grow, make money, get ahead?

It wasn't until years later that Xiang Qian slowly discovered that calmness was a class-exclusive attribute: this self-confidence enhanced one's happiness in the face of stress and adversity, and provided the ability to feel freedom, which is called "relaxation". In his second year of college, Xiang Qian felt that he had finally fully learned the way to take it in stride—acquire—and he chose this verb, which translates as: (through effort, ability, behavior); Bought; Get.

Figure | Heavy snow covered Maine's wilderness and forests

Mo Yu was supposed to join an elite club with a starting salary of millions after graduation. Until covid changed everything.

During the spring break in March 2020, Mo Yu flew back to China. At that time, she was a sophomore, and the investment banking internship program was already on the agenda. Not long after returning to China, she tested positive and took a full month to fully recover, which left all her homework behind, "very anxious, began to see psychiatry, thought that I would have a panic attack when I left something, I would feel like I was going to die, and I wanted to call an ambulance." ”

She was still preparing for a job. But just the thought of meeting the agent who assisted in the mock interview made her extremely nervous and her voice trembling.

Mo Yu's whole person collapsed. The internship program was completely interrupted, she lost 10 pounds, no longer participated in any drinking parties, her dressing style changed suddenly, and then she suspended school.

During his sabbatical, Mo Yu saw freedom for the first time in his internship in a designer studio in Shanghai and working in a buyer shop.

She met all kinds of buyers, designers, fashion editors, ordinary shop assistants, in the scorching sun and night breeze of Shanghai, everyone dressed in bright clothes, eating late-night snacks, drinking beer, laughing loudly at roadside stalls, some people suddenly posed pose, everyone screamed and took pictures; Everyone sincerely reveals their love life, affectionate and open.

Mo Yu clearly found that these people were completely outside the social class she had come into contact with, but she felt cool and new. At that time, her rent was several times her salary, and some of her colleagues lived in real old and dilapidated homes: the toilet opened the door to the toilet, and the toilet was a shower on it, and even if she studied abroad, she had little money on her hands.

"But they live a life that I envy, and I envy them for having freedom." Mo Yu said.

Envy to envy, old and broken is impossible to live. "They will also envy me, in their words, money." Like Xiang Qian, who conducted fieldwork in a relative's factory, wealth and the imagination associated with it only made Mo Yu feel awkward (cramped), which seemed to become the primary label for people to identify her, "I will feel that my posture is very condescending, which cannot be avoided, but try not to be known." ”

Nearly two years later, Mo Yu returned to the United States. At this time, offline teaching has resumed, but she feels very unaccustomed to facing her former American friends again. When she sees someone she knows on the street, she pretends not to see it.

Temporary stash place

Xiang Qian's master's career also turned online after the outbreak of the new crown, and many courses were suspended. He remained alone in the city where Minnesota's undergraduate college is located. This city in the northwestern United States has extremely large temperature differences and snowy winters. One year of master's degree, he quarreled with his mother for a year. "Every time I dialed the phone, it started arguing."

Xiang Qian wanted to stay in the United States to apply for the PhD-D program, but his mother categorically said that she would never pay him even one year more for living expenses. The mother's once "maverick" eventually came to a limit, when she preferred a decent job for her son.

Xiang Qian believes that "decent work" is the moral concept instilled in people in capitalist society, "If only work can make us human, it is the dehumanization of people by society." ”

Xiang Qian's father has always quietly supported his wife, but this time he supports his son's further education. This descendant of a farmer once wanted to be a poet, but with the help or pressure of his wife's family, he was pushed step by step to become a tutor, a manager, and a factory director. His management talent was eventually recognized by all, but he "spent his whole life working hard for things he didn't want to do."

His father's sacrifices for his livelihood made Xiang Qian realize that people must have a certain economic base to have choices, and he once thought that he could obtain this privilege by studying well, but the options were still limited. So, after another big fight with his mother, Xiang Qian dialed the phone to his current boss, a friend who started a business and studied abroad, and immediately got a job as a full-time study abroad consultant, which can continue to use his social science knowledge, 9 to 6, overtime and rest, and a decent income, which is simply ideal.

After completing the philosophy department, Ibi's previously preconceived values have been deconstructed, and she no longer considers law school for her master's degree, but completes a substantial master's study in the social sciences department of another liberal arts school. Then, she chose to return home. While waiting for a position in the public policy evaluation department of a major Internet factory, I chose the study abroad industry without overtime.

Mo Yu also made a choice - after the epidemic, she decided to relax and let herself go. This choice is also rational, she has experienced the price of "starting salary millions", if you do consulting, it is also exhausting, and the hourly salary is even less cost-effective, and you have to do the most basic "work" such as PPT and sorting excel. If you go into PE/VC, you may earn less.

Economic independence separated Xiang Qian from his mother.

In his spare time, Xiang Qian only buys clothes once a year, takeaway 50 yuan is too expensive, loves to visit street food stalls when traveling, and the biggest expense is only on buying research materials and playing the game "Krypton Gold". Leaving the grueling Chicago Shuzhai, his reading focus shifted to literature, as well as Luo Xiang's speeches and nonfiction interviews.

Sometimes he struggles, "my profession, through my cultural capital, reinforce, educational inequality, to become a driver of class solidification." He became aware of his structural place in the workings of capital: customers paid, he exported services, consolidating his cultural capital for families of the middle class and beyond.

"These are contrary to the anti-capitalist values that I establish." He said.

In Xiang Qian's observation, the more middle-class families whose family conditions are not so superior and insufficient to calmly support their children to go abroad, the more they hold result-oriented application expectations. This is exactly the opposite of the application logic of high-end beauty that emphasizes process over result.

Applicants should also demonstrate critical thinking skills, enthusiasm, ideas and motivation to make a difference, and support for minority rights. Today, these overly shiny qualities are puzzling many applicants, "even if they understand, they don't know how to do it."

Some students are wrapped up in institutions, carry out utilitarian check-in public welfare activities, and are even packaged as public welfare fighters. The issue of ethnic class is a blind spot for some Chinese students. Xiang Qian feels that this is a lack of empathy ability, but how can middle-class children sincerely empathize with underprivileged groups (groups lacking resources)?

Mo Yu also spent at least half a year thinking about whether to enter the study abroad industry. She once asked her boss, "Does our job only help the very few students who can afford our services?" "She didn't get or give a perfect score. In Xiang Qian's words: everyone can only practice the idealism of education at the micro level.

Even if she understands that she takes advantage of the dividend, she is still a failure in the eyes of others in Mo Yu's system: "My classmates may see me this way. Mo Yu said, "The path we chose is different. "Now she doesn't take the initiative to introduce people to the industry she works in, because it's basically the opposite of glamorous.

In fact, many of their peers working in domestic financial institutions are not as well paid as Mo Yu.

Ibby believes that the study abroad industry is a hiding place for many people: being able to work as colleagues with like-minded young people with similar backgrounds, doing competent, lax work, and having a decent income enough for liberal arts students.

Life is minimalist, no cosmetics are bought, meals are rare, and as an effective altruist, Ibi does not reject the role of money itself. She candidly points out that when a person does not have a clear, specific desire to achieve a certain path in life, they tend to make money.

She is also glad that the cost of studying must constitute a huge burden for her family, but the vision and good memories she has gained are enough to make her family feel gratified. "If our family takes the investment in education in the United States too seriously, we hope that our children will get ahead, and they will not let me work in the study abroad industry."

Xiang Qian is still looking forward to applying for a PhD, even as it moves farther and farther away. He laughed at himself: "I think I'm doing well, I'm comfortable, why make a change?" Now, his short-term goal is to buy a small apartment, end renting and owning a habitat. After that, think about doing something idealistic.

Figure | Xiang Qian's materials prepared for the fields of Yiwu

Xiang Qian actually understood the two sides of his mother very well. He once directly commented that his mother was "fake enlightened", but her mother laughed. She recognized that. She says she supports your choice on the surface, but in fact she is also money-based, and there is a chain of contempt in her heart. ”

At work, Xiang Qianhui took the initiative to dissuade parents: in the face of an uncertain future and an incomparably involuted hot major, the expectation of investment is likely to fail. "Employment in Europe and the United States is really not as good as everyone thinks. Moreover, is it necessary for children from ordinary middle-class families to accept so many ideological collisions and challenges? This question was also what Xiang Qian wanted to ask his mother.

Therefore, he is particularly sympathetic to the parents who come to consult. Especially understand their psychology of wanting to roll children into adults, and must have very good results.

"The characteristics of the middle class are obvious, one is that they especially want to climb up, and the other is that they are particularly afraid of falling."

*Some of the information about the narrator of this article is vague

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Written by | Pei Bo delayed

Editor|Yuan Suwen