Midwestern hosts winter camp for prospective students

From touring Midwestern’s campus to sightseeing at the Wichita Mountains, Chinese high school students finished their North Texas visited Monday with a farewell party and celebration, hosted by the university.

Over the past two weeks, more than 40 Chinese students received the opportunity to experience college life.

Sheldon Wang, McCoy school of engineering chair, said every student in the winter camp enjoyed campus and the programs they set up for them.

“They marveled the university facilities and caring MSU staff,” Wang said. “They also enjoyed good companies with student aids. They seemed to enjoy the Clark Student Center and what it offers to students.”

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In the two weeks they were in the area, the students went to a Dallas Mavericks game, visited area high schools and toured Sheppard Air Force Base.

Sixteen-year-old Chinese high school student Ciel said he enjoyed his time in America.

“People are kind and friendly,” Ciel said. “The schools are [also] a lot different.”

Joyce, 16, also said the school system was very different than her country.

“I enjoyed the American food and culture,” Joyce said. “The schools were quite different. We stay in the same classroom in China, but here [students] walk to different classrooms.”

Many of the students like sixteen-year-old Jeffrey said he would definitely consider enrolling at Midwestern

“The environment and people were all friendly and kind to us,” he said. “[In American schools], we have enough time to talk to teachers.”

Last semester, Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, took a trip to China for recruiting purposes to increase Midwestern’s Chinese population.

“We visited a number of institutions of higher education in evaluations of possible partnerships,” Lamb said.

International students comprise nine percent of Midwestern’s student body, Lamb said.

“Having a robust international student program is an important element of introducing students to the world,” Lamb said. “The great opportunity to expand and refine our view of the world, outside of traveling, is on college campuses.”

Lamb said the interest in students from China is an attempt to further diversify the university’s international student population to meet this objective.

“China is the world’s largest county, with some 20 percent of the world’s population,” Lamb said. “If we want to truly expose our students to the world on our campus, we must include China.”

Wang said with the economic development of China and other nations, more and more Chinese middle class citizens are able to afford the tuition and living cost in the states.

“They also realize that it is essential for China to continue its economic and political development to be on a par with the rest of the developing nations,” he said.

Wang said Chinese education systems have a very good emphasize too much academic accomplishment of individuals.

“The American education systems have a very good emphasize on teamwork, communications and other soft skills,” Wang said.

Lamb said the potential partnerships he made in China revolve around the Chinese institutions sending students to the United States after two years of study in hopes that they will enroll to MSU afterwards.