"My generation" | 23 comments (23 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: "My generation" (none / 0)

People from all over the world like to come to the U.S. to study. Partly because our streets are paved with gold and we are the Land Of The Free, but mostly because a degree from Harvard or MIT or Stanford or whatever is like a medal of honor.

They miss the point, of course. The whole thing about Harvard and the other Ivy League schools (and I assume similarly prestigious schools in other countries) is that you make contacts that will be valuable in later life. You might not learn much economics, but having a room-mate who is destined to be the Secretary of the Treasury in 30 years' time is a huge advantage.

And the problem for the foreign students is that they are, well, foreign. To fit in at Harvard/Yale/Princeton/etc. you need to have gone to the right prep school first. And have gone to the right church, and been in the right yacht club as a young tyke. The Chatham Yacht Club on Cape Cod is not a bad place to start... You will have of course arranged to have a grandfather on the nomination committee...

by asdf on Fri Sep 2nd, 2011 at 12:10:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: "My generation" (none / 0)

Yeah...but I am not talking about children of the rich people that were and will find their way to Harvard and the other Ivy League schools anyway. I am talking about a bit better then average Chinese and Indian families capable to pay for their child education abroad. They used to come to Australia in masses. Australia has quite a few very good public, state Universities and not that many of private ones.

The whole thing about Harvard and the other Ivy League schools (and I assume similarly prestigious schools in other countries) is that you make contacts that will be valuable in later life.

That's right...same with high schools here. Actually people here spend a fortune to put their kids trough private secondary schools for that reason. Once they start university parents feel massive relief.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

by vbo on Fri Sep 2nd, 2011 at 01:11:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: "My generation" (none / 0)

They have come and still do come to the U.S. in masses, across the entire range of regular colleges. (Not so much the two year schools.)

The University of Colorado, for example, gets the bulk of its funding from out of state tuition which is almost as expensive as an Ivy. They are gradually turning the big state colleges into private schools.

http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=23006

by asdf on Fri Sep 2nd, 2011 at 02:38:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

"My generation" | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

The problems with formal education

Speaking right: What an Taoiseach should say in Washington

Ambushing an Taoiseach

Net Zero Energy - March 2025

We do have the cards

Manipulating Irishness

Thomas Paine's Age of Reason

Recent Diaries

America Should Know Better

Crossroads, Ukraine Loses Either Way

Like a tsunami rolling ashore ...

Breaking: A Christian In the Kremlin

Going Down!

The Inside Job to Murder JFK [Update]

Ukraine Victory In Retreat

Ceasefire Negotiations Step by Step

17th of March

Ukraine Violated Human Rights in Odessa - 2014

Rutte In the Apprentice Theatre

Rearming Europe Peace Through More War

Keith Kellogg Is Out

Nordic States Join Baltics Again WWII Redux

Goodbye NATO/USA, Welcome Europe's E5

Zelensky and the Terror State Ukraine

EU Commissioner VDL In Full Panic Mode

The problems with formal education

The Battle for Kiev/Kyiv

VDL At the Crossroads of Europe - Part 1

Occasional Series