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 )

A lot of asian girls in boston seem to want to look white. I see more and more "blonde/orange" asian girls every day. It just doesn't look right, it's a pathetic attempt at looking more white. And then you have the other majority of AF's that only hang out with other asians, in a specific clique, through HS and college, and won't associate with anyone else. Bostonians can definitely be rude and cold, that's just the way people are here. Racist, yes I think so, I see a lot of incidents on the T every day to confirm this.

But those who are lucky enough to get into Harvard and MIT, the MOST prestigious universities in the entire world, should be glad. Most people would kill to get into them and have the opportunities in life that go along with being a grad of these schools.
bostonian
   Wednesday, May 08, 2002 at 08:22:16 (PDT)
Asian Dominatrix:

Ah, the Oxford memories. I actually studied English Lit. while I was there--I was an exhange student based at Maud-len, but I worked with a lecturer over at St. Cats (Jonathan Wordsworth, if you know him). I did a music composition tutorial while there with Robert Sherlaw-Johnson, but it wasn't until I went to the RCM for post-grad until I studied it full time.

I almost jumped off the Magdalen bridge myself, except that all the poor, drunk students who were climbing out of the water looked miserably cold. I was ready, though--I had my swimsuit on and everything. Not that I'm a drunkard, mind you--just a little bit reckless, and I always hate missing out on all the fun.

Things I miss: Blackwells Music Shop, Harvey's sandwiches, Carfax, the music faculty, taking the Oxford Tube into London, formal dinners at St. Cats, and that one day out of the year that all movies across the country are £1. I still wear my Oxford sweatshirt all the time (not the gray touristy ones that say 'Oxford University', but the blue ones with the college crest on the breast). That's how you know you're dealing with a real Oxford student, as opposed to a poser who visited the gift shops.
Chris (Poet/Warrior)
fearless1976@yahoo.com    Tuesday, May 07, 2002 at 14:12:44 (PDT)
[The following message was moved from the Boston page. --Ed]

This message could belong in several areas in Goldsea. I chose to place it here.

I hate Boston. The weather sucks. The people are rude, standoffish, conservative, and apparently racist. The last one is the hardest to know for sure. Some people say it's just the minorities who misinterpret the "normal" cold Bostonian attitude for prejudice and racism. I'm not one of those people. It seems as if there is a racial hierarchy here. I'm just going to mentioned a *few* aspects of this.

Most of the Asian girls seem to only like white guys and diss on Asian guys. You will see many AF/WM couples per day, but almost never an AM/WF couple. If you're an AM and walk around with a WF, even a friend, you get many stares. Kind of makes it hard to even befriend a WF. It really sucks. Plus, it's obvious how everyone accepts Asian girls way more than Asian guys. Asian girls are much more socialized into the mainstream than Asian guys. Sure, there are other factors involved, but the end result: it's great if you're an AF who only likes WM's and don't mind fully assimilating (and, at the extreme, pretending you're a white girl) even if for the most part your AM brothers are left behind; if you're an AM, especially a shy one, it sucks to be you--get out!

If you're still in high school and deciding on which college to bless with your presence and if you care about AA issues, try to go to Stanford rather than Harvard, Caltech or Harvey Mudd rather than MIT, UCSF rather than Harvard Med, UC schools rather than other state schools, etc. My personal belief is that it's better to concentrate the AA student population where the AA community is already well established, rather than diluting ourselves. Concentrating our numbers in the major metro areas is important, especially given how fragmented our community is. The numbers in California are not yet so high that we should worry about places like Boston more. You're only one person, but every person counts.

Ever been to the universities and colleges here in the Boston area? Being around the 18-22 year old crowd with a mix of many foreign Asian students (mostly grad students) and AA's from around the country (so you are sure to get a lot of "whitewashed" AF's and, to a lesser extent, AM's), the invisible social/racial hierarchy is so heavy in the air. If you can be part of an AA clique or blend in with the white Americans and international crowd, that's great--otherwise, you're going to feel alienated.

AA's who have attended Harvard and MIT have told me how much they dislike it here and how cold the atmosphere is. And they're not talking about the weather!

Beantown's going to make you fart
   Tuesday, May 07, 2002 at 19:07:36 (PDT)

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