A Comparison of Undergraduate Personal Aspirations at Selective Chinese and American Universities

This study compares the personal aspirations of undergraduate students at a top university in China (Tsinghua University) with undergraduate students at two top universities in the United States (Harvard and Cornell Universities). Drawing on frameworks of independence-interdependence, self-determination theory, and the pancultural self-primacy hypothesis, the study reanalyzes archived participant-level survey data using available-case samples for the primary aspiration composites (U.S. n = 180, China n = 124) and complete-case N = 301 for exploratory factor analysis. Using a consistent effect-size convention in which positive Cohen's d values indicate higher Chinese means, Chinese students reported higher desire for Power/Influence (d = 1.28, p < .001) and Positive Social Impact (d = 0.59, p < .001), whereas American students reported higher desire for Subjective Happiness (d = -0.26, p = .029). Differences in Vanity/Image and Achievement/Wealth (grades, children's success, becoming wealthy, and being more successful than one's parents) were small and not statistically reliable after direct recomputation from the archived workbook. Chinese students also reported higher overall aspiration desirability and higher anticipated stress across the full scenario set, stronger communal aspiration sourcing, and substantially higher Vertical Individualism (d = 1.20, p < .001). At the same time, both groups rated internal aspiration sourcing above the scale midpoint, consistent with motivational primacy of the individual self. These findings suggest that cultural context shapes aspiration content and social framing while a pancultural core of self-authored motivation persists across both groups.