NEW YORK, June 3 (Xinhua) -- As senior year comes to its end, Chinese Americans keep their momentum as one of the top groups on college campus in collecting more bachelor's degrees and over.
A case in point, among the 4,300 students bidding farewell to Queens College (QC) in New York prior to this weekend, nine percent were first-generation Chinese Americans and 21 percent American-born Chinese.
This year's figure of Chinese American graduates and undergraduates nationwide in higher education has not been calculated yet, but other latest statistics are telling their upward trend.
Around 26.7 percent of U.S. Asians were Chinese American undergraduates, and up to 28.5 percent postgraduates and above, the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB) said in May, adding that 23 percent of the Asian Americans had won single or both degrees.
Asian Americans were the best-educated ethnics compared with all the others in the United States, with 53.2 percent of them over 25 years old harvesting bachelor's degrees and above, far exceeding the national level of 31.2 percent, according to USCB.
The 26-year-old Wang Xiaochen just graduated from QC after a four-year study of computer sciences. She told local newspaper World Journal that through the experience in QC and New York, she had overcome linguistic hurdles and honed her independence.
Zhao Jiayi secured a degree in accounting. Her family immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong, China, over 40 years ago. Her mother was happy to see her daughter fulfill her dream of higher education and find a job she loves immediately after graduation.
The 33-year-old Li Jianqiang transferred from community college to QC for computer sciences. Upon graduation he got employed and his parents were coming here soon to share his success.
QC is one of the four-year colleges in the City University of New York system, with a motto of "We Learn So That We May Serve." It usually hosts up to 18,500 students, including 14,400 undergraduates and 4,100 postgraduates.
Queens has been widely seen as the most demographically diversified boroughs of New York City, almost half its population being immigrants.
The total number of Asian Americans has surpassed 21.4 million. Chinese Americans top this demographic spectrum with 5.08 million in all, according to USCB.
