|
|
|
|
|
GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
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?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
CONTACT US
|
ADVERTISING INFO
© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.
|
|
|
|
WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:01:04 PM)
I was graduated from one of the 8 Ivies. To summarize my positions ...
1) you can get solid education from non-prestigious schools. You can learn the same English, history, computer programming, chemistry, whatever to your heart's content.
2) You can get a good job or get into a good graudate school with good grades and/or work experience from a non-prestigious school.
3) You will have better social life and greater interaction with students of all races in non-prestigious schools. The ethnic/class profile of Ivy Leages does not reflect the general U.S. population. Take Harvard, for instance, which is 20% Asian, 30% Jewish, 25% Black/Hispanic/Arab/International, etc., and 25% non-Jewish white, many of them from blue-blood WASP families. The groups self-segregate themselgves with little interaction. You see very few AM/WF couples, or even inter-group friendships.
4) The stressful competition, lousy social life, terrible weather, impersonal instruction ...,
I've mentioned enough negatives already. I would attend a state school, even a non-prestigious one, if I could do it all over again. I would have been a much happier student, and a happier individual years today.
Idiot-savant
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 03:18:41 (PDT)
Hmmm, True Oxonian, methinks I smell someone sore at having been denied admission to the D.Phil program. Well, time for me to tweak your little essay about a bit and correct some "misinformation" on your part.
<>
Really? According to recent faculty sources in 1999 and 2000, you need a first for graduate admission. My friends who were undergraduates at Oxford also knew others who got firsts but were denied admission to the graduate program at Ox and Cam. (Of course, a lot of this depends on the program itself: something as popular as English is going to have more rigorous standards.)
<>
Thanks, I keep forgetting there's a mere pass. But I have pointed out the other ranks in the past. (See my post of Jan. 23--a while back)
<>
How does this explain those with firsts getting booted out of their graduate programs? If the "intellectual calibre" is so low, you're really going to drop out and look like you can't hack it?? Yeah, right.
<>
Oh, so "rigorous" is defined strictly by the number of years? What hogwash. Let me clue you in on a few things. First of all, coursework depends on the department. The M.Phil in English easily packs in about three years of work in two so that it is very comparable to 3 years of graduate work required in American graduate English programs. Secondly, there have been quite a few students from the Ivies who have failed out of the English and history departments at Oxford: some got kicked out within the second term, but others failed their exams their first year, or passed but were denied entry to the D.Phil program. (It's probably the same at Cambridge too.)
<>
Does it really? Lots of the D.Phils I know had no problem snagging jobs in investment banking and management consulting--prestigious firms, too. And I'm talking about people who "read" (or in the U.S., majored in)the humanities--not economics or political science.
<>
This applies to only a minority of dons at Oxbridge, especially those over 60. Nowadays, you need to be armed with a doctorate. BTW, there are also quite a few professors in the US who only have a B.A.
<>
Oh, really? Try telling that to some of the biggest up and coming dons at Oxford who did their B.A. at the redbricks before doing a D.Phil at Oxford. LOL, I knew one guy who got turned down at Oxford at least twice (both undergr. and grad.) before getting admitted to the Ph.D at Cambridge, but was recently the dean of an Oxford college. And there are people with both B.A. and D.Phil/Ph.D degrees from Oxford and Cambridge teaching at unprestigious schools. (This tends to happen to women.)
<>
Well, I'll give you some points there.
Asian Dominatrix
Monday, June 24, 2002 at 16:31:01 (PDT)
NEWEST COMMENTS |
EARLIER COMMENTS
|