At Grinnell Lei studied political science and economics. Although he was neither a Nankai nor Tsing Hua alumnus, because PKU sits next to Tsing Hua in Beijing, Lei often participated in Chinese students’ activities on campus. For instance, he played guard on the basketball quintet organized by Kuang Chao Lee and co-hosted the Chinese educators’ visit in November 1918. However, he transferred to Beloit College in 1919 and graduated from Wooster College with a bachelor’s degree in 1920. He went on to receive a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1922. 

We do not know when Lei returned to China. He was appointed Secretary of the Education Department in the Nationalist government in February 1924 and Secretary of the Justice Department in September of the same year, though he resigned from the former in October and the latter in November 1924. He taught at Great China University 大夏大學 in Shanghai in 1933. His name also appeared in the membership list of the Association of Shanghai Lawyers 上海律師公會 in 1936, having joined in 1931. In 1936 when teaching at China Public University 中國公學 in Shanghai, he was elected to participate in the national congress. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, when institutions of higher education were evacuated from Japanese-occupied major Chinese cities, he taught at various institutions in Chongqing, Sichuan from 1944-1949, and acted as the Dean of Shanghai Law School in Wan Xian, Sichuan from 1945-1952. We do not know when he passed away.