Chinese parents with kids in US schools struggle with costs that put some under huge financial strain

Education and living costs in the US can eat up nearly 80pc of parents’ income; even a high-earning executive bridles at paying for 150km (93-mile) taxi rides

Long before their children reach the US, many families will have spent tens of thousands of US dollars on consultants, test fees and preparatory tutoring

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Jerry Liu, a Chinese senior at a private boarding high school in Pennsylvania, is draining about 80 per cent of his parents’ income for his US education. Costs are increasing and so is the financial burden for many Chinese parents.

Published: 1:00am, 11 Oct 2019Updated: 5:58am, 11 Oct 2019

Like most Chinese students in the United States, Jerry Liu, a final-year student at a private boarding high school in the eastern state of Pennsylvania, is charged full tuition fees of US$59,050 a year. He also flies from New York to Beijing three times a year for holidays, which can cost more than US$1,300 per trip.

Few people, including Liu’s close friends, realise that paying his fees and related costs takes almost 80 per cent of his parents’ income.

“Before he left, we made it clear to him that his tuition was all that we could provide him with,” says Liu’s mother, Lian Qiu, who works as an office assistant; her husband works in advertising. “It’s like [the situation] in rural China – parents buy their child a house when he or she gets married, but that’s about all they can [afford to] give the child.”

In the 2017-18 academic year, China was the biggest source of overseas students in the US, with 363,341 studying there. Although that number continues to rise, growth slowed from 6.8 per cent in 2017 to 3.6 per cent in 2018, according to the Institute of International Education.

Jerry Liu, Chinese national and a senior at a private boarding high school in Pennsylvania, United States. Photo: Handout

For Chinese families, overseas education costs are not limited to tuition fees – which, in the US, are 15 times the fees at top Chinese universities. It also means spending big sums on test tutors and college consultants.

A 2017 report by LendEDU, which surveyed more than 1,400 college graduates, shows that Asian students receive the most financial help from their parents for college fees.