Mentorship platform in China
China Paradigm interviewed Greg Nance, an entrepreneur and ultramarathon runner who co-founded Dyad.com. Greg Nance shared how his student path led him to engage in private mentorship in China by creating a platform for students to help them access the world’s best universities and reach their dreams.
Greg Nance, a former scholar, currently engaged in providing private mentorship in China
Thanks to scholarships, Greg Nance graduated from several of the most famous universities in the world and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Chicago and a Master’s degree in management at Cambridge University. Well aware of the chance he had to get both Truman and Gates scholarships that allowed him to study in these prestigious universities, Greg Nance decided to dedicate his career in providing quality private mentorship in China.
Therefore, right after the student career, Greg Nance moved from the United-States and founded Dyad.com, a company offering private mentorship in China. Indeed, by implementing this mentorship platform for Chinese students Greg Nance seeks to give a chance to every motivated student around the world who would love to study abroad.
With the huge development of the Chinese middle-class, more and more Chinese students dream to access the world’s best universities, but they struggle to reach their goal because of financial difficulty or simply because of the process complexity.
“It’s really confusing going from somewhere in China or somewhere in India or Nigeria to you know; the United States of America” … “[…] applying for a university or a scholarship for students or a dream job overseas, it is stressful and it’s really anxiety-inducing.”
Dyad.com, a mentorship platform for Chinese students to reach their goal
As we just mentioned it with Greg’s quote, So, access world’s leading universities can be pretty hard if you don’t know where to start and if you don’t have any backup. The Internet is full of information and young students are not always able to sort out the good offers from the bad ones.
From this standpoint, and aware of the chance he got to study in some of the best universities worldwide, Greg Nance personally made sure that each student could have the same opportunity by using Dyad.com, a mentorship platform for Chinese students.
This fully online platform is looking for motivated and coachable students who are willing to involve themselves in the admission process. Indeed, this mentorship platform for Chinese students connects them with mentors. These experts will assist the student in searching the best universities that fit the student’s wishes, coaching him/her for the admission process, helping to find funding and scholarships, and providing pieces of advice and tips to maximize the chances of each student.
With its proven method, Dyad.com already helped over 1 800 students access the world’s best universities and earn more than $27 million in scholarships. Thanks to such impressive figures, this mentorship platform for Chinese students is now a well-established leader in its sector.
China’s society focus: tackle the issue of accessing the world’s best universities
Although Dyad.com is not just for Chinese students, they currently represent about 80% of Greg Nance’s clients. Indeed, meanwhile, China’s society is slightly changing, especially in connection with the development of an ever-growing middle-class, and now access to the world’s best universities is essential for many Chinese students. However, overseas education is expensive and still inaccessible to most Chinese families.
Firstly, you must be a good student with very good grades and a strong resume to be able to access the world’s best universities because of the tough competition. However, this is not enough to guarantee a great future. Most of the world’s leading universities are very expensive. Hopefully, obtaining a scholarship is a good way to cope with this problem and that’s exactly what Dyad.com does.
“[…] if you do the math, paying $ 50 000 a year for 4 years for a bachelor’s degree, that’s crazy money for these folks. There is no way that their family can reasonably afford that.”
How about new education trends in China in 2020?
Education in China is a very huge topic and it has been evolving a lot during the last decades. In the actual political and economic context, new education trends in China emerge and this might deeply affect the overseas studies landscape for Chinese students.
With the rising tension between the US and China, the growing number of Chinese students going to other countries such as Canada or Australia, it is one of the main education trends in China.
Indeed, due to growing pressure from the US government to place restrictions on foreign students, especially Chinese, the 360 000 Chinese students studying in the US during 2017-2018 could stagnate or even dramatically drop. According to a BBC’s article written in June 2019:
“The rejection rate of students seeking to study in the US this year on Chinese government scholarships was 13.5% in the first quarter of 2019, according to official Chinese statistics. That compares with 3.2% in 2018.”
But while the US economy and leading US institutions leverage a lot from Chinese students, this decline could have an undeniable impact on the US.
Meanwhile, countries like Canada or Australia are making it easier for Chinese students to come, and Chinese universities are also getting better and better. Because of all these factors, the United-States could come out as the big loser of these new education trends in China.
Listen to this episode here:
