The biggest decision 18-year-old Guo Fangliang ever made was skipping China's university entrance exam to instead apply to US schools.

The second biggest was turning down an enrollment offer from conventional public schools to instead study in the women-only liberal arts college Mount Holyoke.

The Shandong Experimental High School graduate says she made the choice after a comprehensive yearlong investigation of several universities and a visit to Mount Holyoke College.

Guo says she enjoys the school's smaller class sizes. While public school classes can have up to 100 students, the less crowded classes enable her to take full advantage of the college's resources and study in a more intimate environment. And she especially likes the women-only culture, in which women hold critical positions on campus and learn leadership skills, enabling them to be completely independent.

"I've taken into consideration my parents' advice to attend public school like everyone else, but I think I should have the final say in my life," Guo says.

Guo is among many women from the jiulinghou, or "post-'90s generation" (people born after 1990), who are increasingly becoming aware of - and pursuing - the best educations available to them.

The number of Chinese applications to the top-notch US women's school Smith College, for instance, has surged from a dozen to about 400 in the past few years, the school's admissions figures show.

This year, 31 Chinese women will enroll in the school - more than double the 2008 figure, the college's senior associate director of admissions Karen Kristof says.

"The Chinese students at Smith are a remarkably bright and resilient group. I admire their ability to make the transition to a vastly different culture," she says.

The situation is similar at Bryn Mawr College, also a prestigious women's college in the US. The number of Chinese students will increase this year to 33, compared to five in 2008, director of international recruitment Jennifer Russell says.

Mount Holyoke sophomore Zhao Aibo says she has devoted much of her spare time to planning experience-sharing activities between elite Chinese and American women classmates.

"I believe the experiences I have here will foster my leadership development and personal growth," she says.

(China Daily 08/25/2010 page18)