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Many Chinese students flock to the US for green cards or greener pastures. But they may end up university cash cows in those pastures, ready to be milked as needed to fill the yawning budget gaps at US schools.

More than 157, 000 students from China were enrolled in US colleges in the 2010-11 academic year, maintaining their title as the largest source of overseas students in the US, the Institute of International Education reported in November. They make up nearly one in five of foreign students there. And the US embassy in Beijing recently announced a looser visa policy, making it easier for Chinese students to come to the land of opportunity.
But their booming presence is met with ballooning payments. Chinese students in the US are bracing for financial shock among hefty tuition, exorbitant rents, growing transport costs, and other clustering expenses. The University of Washington (UW), for instance, charges international students three times as much as in-state ones.
At a time when state funding is being trimmed and social donations are plummeting in the throes of an economic contraction, cash-strapped institutes of higher education are happier than ever before to bank on foreigners' deep pockets.
China remains the No.1 holder of US debt, but "This is a way of getting some of that money back" as Philip A. Ballinger, the dean of admissions at UW, was quoted as saying by the New York Times earlier this month.
Another issue is that job openings for foreign students, for all their pecuniary tributes to the local economy, are scare all over the US. Flipping burgers, slinging hash browns and washing endless piles of dirty dishes are how most Chinese students moonlight on US soil, making ends meet.
Ma tried futilely to land a job in his field there. "Workplaces are bad, such as ball mill factory," he said. Things are not much better back in China. Gone are the good old days when a foreign diploma was lauded as a career-boosting tool and haigui (overseas returnees) were highly sought-after in the job market.
Nowadays returned students, with their mystique stripped away, are stuck with starting monthly salaries as low as 3, 000 yuan ($476), tying that of domestic undergraduates. "The cost-benefit ratio is dismally off-balance," sighed Ma.
Many Chinese students flock to the US for green cards or greener pastures. But they may end up university cash cows in those pastures, ready to be milked as needed to fill the yawning budget gaps at US schools.

More than 157, 000 students from China were enrolled in US colleges in the 2010-11 academic year, maintaining their title as the largest source of overseas students in the US, the Institute of International Education reported in November. They make up nearly one in five of foreign students there. And the US embassy in Beijing recently announced a looser visa policy, making it easier for Chinese students to come to the land of opportunity.
But their booming presence is met with ballooning payments. Chinese students in the US are bracing for financial shock among hefty tuition, exorbitant rents, growing transport costs, and other clustering expenses. The University of Washington (UW), for instance, charges international students three times as much as in-state ones.
At a time when state funding is being trimmed and social donations are plummeting in the throes of an economic contraction, cash-strapped institutes of higher education are happier than ever before to bank on foreigners' deep pockets.
China remains the No.1 holder of US debt, but "This is a way of getting some of that money back" as Philip A. Ballinger, the dean of admissions at UW, was quoted as saying by the New York Times earlier this month.
Another issue is that job openings for foreign students, for all their pecuniary tributes to the local economy, are scare all over the US. Flipping burgers, slinging hash browns and washing endless piles of dirty dishes are how most Chinese students moonlight on US soil, making ends meet.
Ma tried futilely to land a job in his field there. "Workplaces are bad, such as ball mill factory," he said. Things are not much better back in China. Gone are the good old days when a foreign diploma was lauded as a career-boosting tool and haigui (overseas returnees) were highly sought-after in the job market.
Nowadays returned students, with their mystique stripped away, are stuck with starting monthly salaries as low as 3, 000 yuan ($476), tying that of domestic undergraduates. "The cost-benefit ratio is dismally off-balance," sighed Ma.