在自费出国留学渐趋大众化的背景下，媒介塑造了中国留学生大量负面的学业形象。已有研究针对中国留学生学业的关注，多基于跨文化相关理论视角，探讨该群体在学业适应过程中遭遇的困境，但缺乏对象群体内部的进一步区分并对其能动性关注不足。有鉴于此，本研究以美国一所排名中等的普通公立大学K校为个案，运用质性研究方法，借助综合取样方式选取12名中国留美本科生作为研究对象，将栖居制度主义与欧文·戈夫曼的自我呈现结合作为理论框架，关注他们在学业适应过程中的行动与意义建构，旨在探究他们如何认识学业适应面临的环境与要求，采取了何种行动，以及如何理解并参与这一过程中的人际互动。

研究结果表明：（1）美国本科教育有助于中国留美本科生规避国内升学选拔造成的异化与学历风险，从标准化的人生走向选择性的人生，同时对国际化未来的渴望与西方教育价值理念的崇尚使他们对出国留学形成模糊的想象。（2）在学业适应的过程中，他们从组织支持、课程设置等方面为面临的环境与要求赋予意义，认为自己能够在其中获得更多的发展机会。（3）围绕学业适应的社会化过程，他们在同辈群体中建立关系网络，与指导教师、助教和教授形成亲疏有别的关系，学校场域内的微观互动使其获得了与不同对象群体交往的社会技能并建立了稳定的互动秩序。（4）文凭贬值的背景与对自身的社会定位，尽管存在应对学业要求采取行动的暗面，却仍坚持自己适应美国本科教育的学习经历获得了多个方面能力的发展。

出国留学成为“中等生”们替代性的教育选择，为此类学生获得不同类型的高等教育提供了可能性，中国留美本科生经由学业适应过程中的行动与意义建构实现了对留学神话的二重强化。一方面，他们在学业适应的过程中认为美国大学提供了重新定义、探索与发展自身的平台；并将大学视为小社会，重视在学业适应中习得与不同群体交往技能的社会化过程。另一方面，他们认为即使在维持学业成绩的过程中采取了相应策略，自身多重能力也得以提升，有利于进入排名更好的研究生院从而应对国内劳动力市场文凭贬值的现实。进一步分析发现，留学神话得以构建和强化均以获得个人发展和抵御学历风险两重制度逻辑为主导，学业适应中的行动与意义建构亦是制度逻辑作用的结果。

因此，针对中国留美本科生的学业适应，需要充分关注他们在过程中的意义建构与行动策略。出国留学这一教育选择的合法性与主体的利益相关；在出国留学大众化的背景下，留学生不再是历史中的精英角色，表现出“去精英化”的特点；是否能够继续秉承“中心-边缘”的分层视角评价世界高等教育市场值得商榷；大力发展本科留学教育并不必然指向我国在跨国教育流动中承担着人才流失的风险。

Self-financed studying abroad is becoming more and more popular, and the media has shaped the negative academic image of Chinese international students. Research on the academic adjustment of Chinese international students mostly takes cross-cultural related theories as the perspective to explore the problems encountered by this group in academic adjustment. Although existing studies have revealed the difficulties faced by Chinese international students in their academic adjustments, they lack the distinction between the academic stages of the group and pay insufficient attention to their agency. Thus, this research takes a middle-ranked general public university K in the United States as a case, uses qualitative research methods and comprehensive sampling way to select 12 Chinese undergraduates studying in university K as research objects. Inhabited institutionalism and Goffman’s self-presentation are combined as a theoretical framework to explore their actions and meaning construction in the process of academic aadjustment, aiming to make a thorough inquiry about how they understand the environment and requirements, what action strategies they have adopted, and how they understand and participate interpersonal interaction.

The research results show that: (1) American undergraduate education helps Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States to avoid the alienation caused by domestic advancement selection and the academic risk caused by the “flow of tournaments”, so as to move from a standardized life to a selective life, and at the same time internationalize The combination of future imagination and advocacy of Western educational values makes studying abroad an alternative education choice. (2) In the process of academic adjustment, they give meaning to the environment and requirements they face from the organizational environment and curriculum settings, and they believe that they can get more development opportunities in it. (3) Around the socialization process of academic adjustment, they established a network of relationships among peer groups, formed distancing relationships with advisors and teaching assistants, but close relationship with professors. The micro-interactions in the school field allowed them to gain the ability to communicate with different groups and established a stable interaction order. (4) Under the background of the depreciation of diplomas and the social positioning of themselves, despite the dark side of taking action in response to academic requirements, they still insist on adapting to American undergraduate education to obtain the development of many aspects.

Further analysis indicates that the action and meaning construction of Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States during the process of academic adjustment has achieved a double strengthening of the myth of studying abroad. Studying abroad has become an alternative educational choice for "secondary students", providing the possibility for such students to obtain different types of higher education. In the process of academic adjustment, they believe that American universities provide a platform for redefining, exploring, and developing themselves; they regard universities as a small society and value the socialization process of acquiring skills to interact with different groups. They believe that even if they have adopted strategies in the process of maintaining GPA, their multiple capabilities have been improved, which is conducive to entering a better-ranked graduate school. The myth of studying abroad can be constructed and strengthened to obtain the dual institutional logics of personal development and resistance to academic risks. The action and meaning construction are also the result of the institutional logics.

Therefore, in view of the academic adjustment of Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States, it is necessary to pay full attention to their meaning construction and action strategies in the process. The legitimacy of the educational choice of studying abroad is related to the interests of the subject; in the context of the popularization of studying abroad, international students are no longer the elite role in history, showing the characteristics of "de-elitism"; whether we can continue to evaluate the world higher education market from a "center-periphery" perspective is debatable ; vigorously developing undergraduate study abroad education does not necessarily point to the risk of brain drain in the flow of transnational education.