ARE IVY DEGREES WORTH THE SACRIFICES

ending their kids to ivy league universities is the dream of every Asian American parent. Or so it seems. And there is no shortage of young AA willing to oblige. As of 2000, Asian Americans made up 12-19% of the undergrad enrollments of the top-20 ivies.
     No one questions the prestige associated with ivy degrees. In fact, sneer critics, that's the only thing bought with the extra money. And even that, they add, is wearing thin in a nation in which he cultural center of gravity has shifted to California.
     It's true that investments in high ivy tuitions often don't show up in career earnings when compared with graduates of public universities of comparable student body profiles. But the criticisms run deeper than return on investment. Some Asian Americans who have attended ivy league colleges have come away regretting their decisions for other reasons.
     Foremost is the sense that the ivies are structured for the benefit of legatees, the progeny of blueblooded alumni. Comprising upwards of 40% of some ivies, the legatees are often exempted from stringent admissions standards. The result is that AA students with excellent credentials are the workhorses preserving the institutions' high academic reputations, thereby giving a free ride to undeserving legatees.
     Another common complaint is that the deck is stacked socially against Asian males in a system designed to preserve the princely status quo of the scions of WASP families. A disproportionate number of attractive AA females are admitted by the ivies, some have observed, while far fewer attractive AA males are admitted. This subtle bias, suspect critics, is implemented in the screening interviews used by most ivies.
     Then there's the Eurocentric worldview imposed by the courses. Not to mention the lousy weather, bland food and having to put up with locals hostile toward Asians. Contrast all this against the majority-ease lifestyles enjoyed by the AA in, say, the UC campuses.
     The bragging rights an ivy education affords parents, conclude critics, are far outweighed by the psychic and emotional sacrifices exacted from their kids.
     Does an ivy education provide rewards commensurate with the sacrifices? Or is it a trap for AA with overzealous parents with old-world views?

(Updated )

KM and everyone:

I am perfectly aware that the undergraduate class of Harvard is smaller than that of UCLA or Berkeley, but nevertheless bear in mind that 90 $ of UCLA undergrads come from California and the percentage for Berkeley is 80 -85 %.


Besides, historians tell us that Berkeley has been sending more people to graduate school compared to any university in the country since the 1930's . BTW, I do know that Harvard graduates less engineers than your average state university engineering department or a small engineering school like Cooper Union.


T. Lien:

I did not actually tried to be specific about Philips Exeter or Phillips Andover, but if you want the actual figures from Peterson's publishing company out of 274 graduates for 2001, 25 % scored below 1240 SAT.

In spite of the expensive tuition at the 2 Phillips academies and extensive SAT prep classes, 25 % of the graduating class of Phillips Andover scored lower than that Mexican girl who scored 1260 SAT in what was called " the worst performing high school in LA ( Fremont High )".


The figure I gave you from a previous post was something I remembered
from a previous edition of the Peterson book. Has anyone heard from Ivyprep? Sometimes I feel that this discussion is trivial.


biaknabato
   Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 23:54:32 (PST)
T.H. Lien,

Yup, all the names are grouped under class so you know who and how many people got a 1, 2.1, etc. in any particular discipline. This is why people will stand up by the boards for 10 minutes; they want to know how all their friends and acquaintances did. (For grad students, the experience is not as intense; just a matter of finding out who passed and who got distinctions.)

You can bet that the really serious nerds will not only find out what time the results will be posted but also take a 2-hr trip or more down to Oxford to check out how their pals did.

Asian Dominatrix
   Monday, January 28, 2002 at 18:31:44 (PST)
Akash,

Oops my bad. You're right Ghandi never got one. But you pulled through and named a few Indians that did get one in other fields. So you see the Nobel prize in not too biased.

AC dropout
   Monday, January 28, 2002 at 11:10:44 (PST)

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