此文是近日登在上海日报的文章，采访对象是上海新东方SAT学员方琳，毕业于市三女中。

IN June, while 9.5 million Chinese students were preparing for the national college entrance examination, Fang Lin, 18, received her admission notice to Yale University.

And a full scholarship of US$48,000 for each year.

The graduate of the Shanghai No 3 Girls School will enroll this fall.

"Each encounter with Yale was quite a learning experience for me," said Fang in an interview with Shanghai Daily.

Her preparations for the required tests, her training at the New Oriental School that grooms students for higher education abroad - and her Yale admissions interview itself all confirmed key differences between Chinese and US educational systems.

The interviewing officer asked her questions about China's role in the world, discrimination against migrant workers in China, protests by French students - to find out whether she had a broad vision of the world. She said most Chinese admissions officers focus on test scores.

In the summer of 2004, Fang was chosen by her school to visit the United States as an exchange student.

During her stay, she visited Yale and felt attached to it ever since.

In 2005, she took TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and SAT in Hong Kong. She scored 643 for TOFEL and 2030 for SAT, both high scores.

The SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) examination is not required for international students who have attended high school or college outside the United States.

"For me, the SAT score was not a must," said Fang. "But with more and more Chinese high school student scoring more than 600 on TOEFL, I hoped my SAT score could give me a leg up."

"The SAT training changed my view of exams," said Fang. "It is not an exam that you could study for it or prepare for it through years of learning from textbooks, like the way we prepared for our national college entrance exam."

She was one of 400 students at Shanghai's New Oriental School that emphasizes English language and Wester test-taking skills.

A number of students have been admitted to Ivy League colleges.

"To me, the SAT is the more difficult, demanding a much bigger vocabulary, critical thinking and a better understanding of the world. To prepare for it, besides the subjects I studied hard at school, I did a lot more learning from the newspapers, economic magazines and TV documentary programs. They really helped me when I got the interview with Yale."

Her meeting with an admissions officer from Yale in Shanghai was an experience. As said above, the officer asked Fang's opinions on many hot issues.

Not everything about US colleges is good. But at least, Fang says, they are better than many Chinese colleges beccause they focus more on a candidate's sense of social justice and overall character.

Just wait until she gets into the classroom - the differences in teaching culture and dynamics will be even sharper.