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Ivy League

It was interesting, although not a surprise, to read that some Chinese students fake their applications in order to get into USA Universities.  I expect that the second half of this story is that many Universities turn a blind eye to the practice (or, to be fair, don't have strong ways to identify cheaters) because foreign students pay premiums to attend, and this makes up an increasing amount of University revenue.  The following was reported in September:

California has reduced funding for the university system by $650 million this year .....most dramatic shifts have taken place at some of the UC system’s more popular campuses, such as UC-Berkeley, where out-of-state residents and international students make up 30 percent of this year’s freshman class, up from 23 percent last year.


The negatives (beyond the moral aspects of cheating) are:
1) The overall quality of students decreases, as a higher percentage of unqualified students are accepted.
2) The education level in the US decreases, as some qualified students do not get accepted at top schools.

I don't actually believe (1) as I don't believe the SAT / AP / GPA tests accurately reflect potential.  In fact, being creative enough to cheat well to get into school may imply a better aptitude.  In which case, I am wrong about (2) as well.

The positives are:
1)  The US is still seen as a preeminent location to get an education
2)  The Universities are fostering multiculturalism

I thought that I would find that spending on education, as a percent of GDP, had decreased over the last fifty years, but that is actually not the case (of course, this is overall spending, but I imagine the University portion of this has also grown proportionally).

So, one (not so scientific) conclusion is that the education system has become inefficient.  They have the same, or more, funding than 50 years ago, but are resorting to artificially pushing foreign student ratios to cover expenses.





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