Li Taibo's huge picture is placed at a school as a way of celebration. Photo: CFP

By Li Yang

A high school student became a city idol overnight for scoring the highest marks on the National College Entrance Examination (gaokao) in Beijing. But his applications to 11 of the top 20 universities in the US, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, had already been rejected.

When the scores were announced Tuesday night, Li Taibo, from the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, became zhuangyuan, the No.1 scholar for the gaokao's science subject, which was taken by 48,364 students in Beijing on June 7 and 8. Another 25,644 students took the arts subject.

"The rejection letters from those American universities were similar, saying something like 'we got so many applications from a great many excellent students that we can't admit them all,'" Li told the Global Times Thursday.

He said he didn't know the exact reason he was turned down. "I really did many things in high school. Perhaps I didn't highlight what those universities were interested in on my applications. The things I thought were important may have failed to attract them."

Besides getting a score of 2,240 out of a possible 2,400 on the SAT and 112 out of 120 on the TOEFL, Li was chairman of his school's student union and even lead some students in volunteering at migrant children's schools. He plays piano, paints, and twice won the first prize in the national mathematics competition.

But even top scorers on American achievement tests can be refused, said Hu Min, headmaster of the New Channel International Education Group, in his blog at sina.com. cn. Among the students who get full marks on the SAT and apply to Harvard University, 61 percent will be refused.

"Harvard prefers to see candidate students' overall quality and personality," a member of the Harvard Club of Beijing, surnamed Xu told the Global Times, adding that test scores were only a small part.