Interpreting the Choice Logic Surrounding High-Scoring Students’ Enrollment in China’s Vocational Secondary–Undergraduate Articulation Program: A Theoretical Thematic Analysis of Public Discourse

In China’s increasingly stratified education system, a growing number of high-scoring junior secondary students are choosing the Vocational Secondary–Undergraduate Articulation Program over key academic senior high schools, challenging conventional assumptions about merit, school choice, and vocational education. Existing studies have mainly examined this pathway from institutional and policy perspectives, with limited attention to the micro-level decision-making logic of students and families. Drawing on rational choice theory and a theoretical thematic analysis of online public discourse, this study explores how high-scoring students and their families interpret, evaluate, and justify this educational choice. The findings show that participation in the articulation program is organized around four interrelated mechanisms: action foundations based on academic strengths and family evaluation; action purposes aimed at securing a relatively stable route to a bachelor’s degree while gaining vocational advantages; action consequences involving the weighing of risks and expected returns; and institutional and cultural impacts produced by the interaction between policy incentives and persistent academic hierarchies. The study argues that choosing this pathway is not a deviant decision, but a rational response to educational competition and structural constraints, and it sheds light on the changing legitimacy of vocational pathways in contemporary China.