“I’ve just dropped off my son at debate class,” says Colin, a Shanghai-based entrepreneur. He is calling from his car on a Sunday afternoon, the sound of the city’s bustling streets transported over the crackly phone line. Colin, who asked not to be identified by his real name, is stuck in traffic, one of the millions of parents in China ferrying children between a procession of mind-enhancing and physically challenging weekend activities.

After his 14-year-old son finishes class at a prestigious Shanghai private international day school, he is thrown into a weekly routine of online Spanish tutoring, debate training and football competitions. Colin wants to give his son a shot at gaining entry to a top-tier Ivy League university in the US.

The annual price tag for all this schooling? $100,000 and rising.