Zhou, 21, received the admission notice from the Washington D.C.-based Gallaudet University, and was asked to begin her education at the university in six months. Gallaudet is the only four-year liberal arts college for the deaf in the US.
Zhou was enrolled at Liaoning Normal University in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province at the age of 16, majoring in education science, thus making her the first deaf college student in China.
She graduated last year from the college with a paper entitled "The Way Deaf People Adapt Themselves to Mainstream Society", an article she wrote based on her own experiences and feelings.
The paper, which was appraised as excellent by her professor, Zhang Ningsheng, was later published in Popular Psychology, an American magazine.
Zhou was found to be deaf and mute when she was 3 and half years old.
Using his own method, her father Zhou Hong taught her to speak and write. Several years later, she surprised her parents by uttering sounds and talking.
With a hearing aid, she entered one of the best middle schools in Jiangsu Provience. Her father had been hired as a deputy principal of a school for deaf and mute students in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Provience.
After passing a unified English language test. Zhou emailed the American university to promote her application.
Xinhua