Editing Soong Mei-ling (section)

==Education==
[[File:Soong May ling Wesleyan student photo.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Mei-ling as a student at [[Wesleyan College]] c. 1910]]
In Shanghai, Mei-ling attended the [[McTyeire School]] for Girls with her sister, Ching-ling. Their father, who had studied in the United States, arranged to have them continue their education in the US in 1907. Mei-ling and Ching-ling attended a private school in [[Summit, New Jersey]]. In 1908, Ching-ling was accepted by her sister Ai-ling's alma mater, [[Wesleyan College]], at age 15 and both sisters moved to [[Macon, Georgia]], to join Ai-ling. Mei-ling insisted she have her way and be allowed to accompany her older sister though she was only ten, which she did.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Soong sisters|url=https://www.wesleyancollege.edu/about/history/soongsisters.cfm|access-date=December 14, 2021|website=[[Wesleyan College]]|language=en}}</ref> Mei-ling spent the year in [[Demorest, Georgia]], with Ai-ling's Wesleyan friend, Blanche Moss, who enrolled Mei-ling as an 8th grader at [[Piedmont College]]. In 1909, Wesleyan's newly appointed president, William Newman Ainsworth, gave her permission to stay at Wesleyan and assigned her tutors. She briefly attended [[Fairmount College]] in [[Monteagle, Tennessee]] in 1910.<ref>{{cite web|title=Southeast Tennessee Tourist Association|url=http://www.southeasttennessee.com/www/docs/665.2722/church-training-school-in-monteagle-tennessee.htm|publisher=Southeast Tourist Tourist Association|access-date=July 9, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003123646/http://www.southeasttennessee.com/www/docs/665.2722/church-training-school-in-monteagle-tennessee.htm|archive-date=October 3, 2011}}</ref><ref>Chitty, Arther and Elizabeth, ''Sewanee Sampler'', 1978, p. 106; {{ISBN|0-9627687-7-4}}</ref>

Mei-ling was officially registered as a freshman at Wesleyan in 1912 at the age of 15. She then transferred to [[Wellesley College]] two years later to be closer to her older brother, T. V., who, at the time, was studying at Harvard.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Coble |first=Parks M. |title=The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek Lost China's Civil War |date=2023 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-29761-5 |location=Cambridge New York, NY |author-link=Parks M. Coble}}</ref>{{Rp|page=47}} By then, both her sisters had graduated and returned to Shanghai. She graduated from Wellesley as one of the 33 "Durant Scholars" on June 19, 1917, with a major in English literature and minor in philosophy. She was also a member of Tau Zeta Epsilon, Wellesley's Arts and Music Society. As a result of her American education, she spoke excellent English, with a southern accent which helped her connect with American audiences.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/chiang.html |title=Madame Chiang Kai-shek |publisher=wellesley.edu |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430193024/http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/chiang.html |archive-date=April 30, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>