Ambitious and Anxious

Yingyi Ma's 'Ambitious and Anxious' examines a new generation of predominantly self-funded Chinese undergraduates who transformed American campuses in the 2000s and 2010s.

Drawing on interviews, surveys, and fieldwork in Chinese high schools and U.S.

colleges, Ma analyzes students' motivations, pathways (including international divisions and boarding schools), academic and social experiences, and tensions between ambition and anxiety shaped by family expectations and China's changing society.

The book highlights how ranking systems, loss of cultural capital, and immigration policy shape major choices, classroom participation, and post-graduation mobility.

Ma offers practical recommendations for American institutions on recruitment, student support, and partnerships with Chinese schools to better serve these students.

The study situates students' shifting identities and mobility decisions within broader transnational and policy contexts, showing their trajectories are dynamic rather than a simple stay-or-return binary.