“I am a high school student who is also a 5 Duan go player from Shanghai, China,” writes Liwei (David) Xu. “Although I continue my study, I have never given up my hobby. And I am preparing for the application of the US univeristies and I have already achieved my SAT and TOEFL scores. I hope to keep on my hobby in the university. I want to study in a university with the background of go in the US; can you give me some advice?”
“We are always delighted to hear about strong young players who are coming here!” responded EJ Youth Editor Paul Barchilon “To learn more about which colleges have a strong go playing community, visit the ACGA website.” He also suggested the Xu plan to attend the annual US Go Congress, and reach out to some of the strong players here in America, “many of whom are involved in organizing go activities in various schools.” Justin Teng, a strong player and freshman undergraduate at the University of Maryland-College Park (and now Assistant Youth Coordinator for the AGA) adds that “Many of the top universities in the country all have go clubs (Princeton, Yale, Harvard, MIT, etc). I would say University of Toronto has some of the strongest players (although it’s in Canada), along with University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Princeton University. I can’t speak for how active all of the other university go clubs are, but I think maybe it’s best to pick a university that has a strong program for whatever major you are interested in pursuing, and then see if any of them have go clubs. I suspect you will be applying to some of the top universities, and most of them will have a go club.”
