At UCSB the number of degree seeking undergraduate Chinese international students increased from 6 to 163 between 2010 and 2012. With such a controversial and much discussed topic of international student enrollment at U.S universities, this was the perfect time for me to interview Chinese international students. With the help of Kathy Charmaz' (2006) descriptive book on how to use grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1965) and a computer based software AntConc 3.2 created by professor Laurence Anthony, I used a quantitative interview method to analyze my interviews with twelve undergraduate and graduate students.

The interviews revealed that these students had highly educated parents with the intentions of sending their students abroad from an early age. This in combination with the collectivist conservative culture and the concept of filial piety (Deutsch, 2004) create hard working students with a drive to attend prestigious universities for academic, cultural, and social reasons. As previous research has shown, Chinese international students focus on academics first and then leisure (Li & Stodolska, 2006) with challenges both academic and social. The UCSB academic and social culture is unique (e.g. acceptance of sports and fitness), thus creating both a unique lifestyle and experience for Chinese students.