Many parents hope to give their children Ivy League or Oxbridge educations. For some, such as Karen Leung, nothing else would do. A chartered accountant, Leung was far more upset than her son was when his teachers at Island School said that his academic record didn't look strong enough to get him admitted into the law faculty at Oxford. Her son's grades were just above average, and they had to be top-notch to get him in.
'I lost 5kg,' she says.
However, Leung refused to give up and enrolled her son in Arch Academy, a coaching centre that helps students get into top colleges in the US and Britain. She paid HK$15,000 to enrol him in a 10-session programme covering topics such as how to write a personal statement to go with his university application. It was money well spent: last year her son won a full scholarship to study law at Oxford.
'The interview techniques he learned also helped him win over admission officials,' says Leung, who declined to give her son's name because 'he doesn't want his Oxford teachers to know that he received coaching'.
Besides the swarm of cram schools that teach how to master exam techniques, various consultancies cater to families considering overseas educations for their children. More recently, Arch Academy and Senate House (both set up in 2009) have emerged to offer customised help for those set on getting into prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Cambridge. Arch has gone from 14 students when it opened to more than 500 in three years.
'If they set their sights on top universities, preparation should start early,' says Jennifer Ma Yin-wai, co-founder of Arch Academy, whose youngest student is 10.
Differences in philosophies and schedules of universities in Britain and the US will determine families' course of action. Students in the US could decide on a major at any time, but Britain requires a candidate to select their main discipline before they even start. And while Americans generally prefer students to have all-round development, British universities tend to value academic rigour.