Colleges are currently offering admission notices to freshmen, but Ni Shuyi, a graduate from an elite high school, is not interested, since she received an offer from the University of California, San Diego, in March.

Ni is by no means alone in securing a place at a university abroad. She said classrooms at her school in Shanghai were nearly empty in the months leading to June 7 and 8, when the gaokao, the college entrance exam, takes place.

Education Ministry figures show that about 10 percent of, or more than 1 million, high school graduates did not take the gaokao in each of the past five years. About 20 percent of high school graduates in some top schools in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have chosen to study overseas, according to the ministry.