<p>I don't know if anyone has posted this, but I believe the new USNWR rankings will be out August 17. Anyone else excited?</p>
<p>haha, Not really....</p>
<p>uhm. no. theyre so trivial</p>
<p>I wont lie - im a lil curious.</p>
<p>lol I used to be really excited about them but now...not really. I'll still probably check them out but I won't be counting down the days or anything...</p>
<p>After JHU sank 3 levels, I don't want to know.</p>
<p>eh who cares</p>
<p>Lives are made and ruined in Korea over this</p>
<p>^ Right, and you know this because Beijing is in... Korea? Duh</p>
<p>Ummm. I don't care, no. But at least it'll ensure CC a nice debating thread!</p>
<p>I lived, worked, and studied in Korea for 2 summers.</p>
<p>It is also part of my major at school.</p>
<p>That's why I know this.</p>
<p>Really? I live in Seoul, Korea for let's see how many summers, 9? That's in "years" actually. And the general population, excluding the privileged 2-3% of the population who actually even consider studying abroad, hardly knows any American universities other than Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT and Berkeley.</p>
<p>They could careless if Duke made the top 3 or if Stanford dropped to 5th; the average person still won't know Duke, and HYPSM will still be the only American universities they know and, hence, worth going to.</p>
<p>Again I've lived here 9 years.</p>
<p>That's why I know this, and it's best not to judge a country after spending 2 summers there.</p>
<p>"and HYPSM will still be the only American universities they know and, hence, worth going to."</p>
<p>I couldn't name 5 Korean colleges if I tried.... :)</p>
<p>^ Koreans have their own HYPS, Seoul Nat'l U, Korea U, and Yonsei U, hence SKY :)
And their MIT, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).</p>
<p>And like it is here on CC, everything else below those four are just dismissed. It isn't much different in Asia. The pursuit of college prestige must be human nature.</p>
<p>But, obviously, no one here is planning on going to Korea for college so let's move on to the topic at hand. So the breaking news is that USNews is actually going post new rankings this year?</p>
<p>No Way.</p>
<p>Wait, there are so many kids from Korea at Duke...seriously. How do they know about it.</p>
<p>Also, Korea has colleges? (jk)</p>
<p>every city usually has a college, so if u've gotta pretend to know, just say "University of (Insert any world city name here)"</p>
<p>university of oogadoogu!! (Burkina Faso capital)</p>
<p>thethoughtprocess,</p>
<p>I said, "for" the general population of Korea. Don't take it personal when I say the average Korean will not know Duke. Quoting from my previous post, the privileged 2-3% of the population who actually consider studying abroad, yes, they'll know Duke because they will have spent time in researching schools and know how great a school it is :)</p>
<p>But grab a person off the streets of Seoul and ask 'em if they know Duke. Not likely, but what does it matter anyway. I'm just responding to this generalized claim:
[quote]
Lives are made and ruined in Korea over this (USNews Rankings)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>But
[quote]
Also, Korea has colleges? (jk)
[/quote]
Now that was uncalled for. Well Koreans do make most of your high-tech cell phones so my guess is some of them must have gone to college unless they learned how to do some mean nanotechnological programing in high school. I just hope your not insulting an entire country in defense of your alma mater.</p>
<p>At any rate, I honestly don't know why anyone would bring up Korea in a thread about the new USNews rankings, seeing as not even the average American gives a crap about American undergrad rankings.</p>
<p>^ And RootBeerCaesar, that's very... smart.</p>
<p>I was just kidding (jk=just kidding)</p>
<p>Also, it doesn't matter to me that much about international recognition, I was just saying I know a bunch of people from Korea. I'm guessing they must be well-off.</p>
<p>Whoa there, easy on the han, champ.</p>
<p>My statement remains accurate, as I said lives are made and ruined in Korea. Not EVERY LIFE IN KOREA HANGS IN THE BALANCE (that's more in the realm of Pyongyang than the US News offices).</p>
<p>I'm well aware that the average Kim in the sheegol doesn't know or care about my school. That was not my point.</p>
<p>To deny that there is a wealthy and influential portion of the Korean population that is obsessed with prestige, status, ranking is silly.</p>
<p>Case in point: E.Land - an entire chain of retail stores that sells licensed Ivy League (mostly Harvard and Yale) apparel. If you can find another retail store like that in any other country, let me know.</p>
<p>I don't even see why you assume I don't like Korea. I wouldn't have gone back there to study Korean or anything about Korea if I didn't like the place.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The general population, excluding the privileged 2-3% of the population who actually even consider studying abroad, hardly knows any American universities other than Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT and Berkeley.
[/quote]
Yes, you see my point is Eland sells Harvard and Yale sweatshirts but not Duke or Penn apparel, and this will not change even if the two schools moved up on the rankings and took over HY's place. There isn't a particular obsession over USNews rankings in Korea; the average Korean (not the ones from the sheegol but seoulites) would be very surprised to learn that there could possibly be an American ranking that ranks Berkeley in the 20s. The name value of HYPSM and Berkeley (particularly due to the fact that the majority of Koreans who went to the US to study in the 80s and 90s went for their PhD) has perpetuated in Korea just as it has in any other country in the world; it's not a unique trend to the "prestige-obsessed" Korean noblesse.</p>
<p>I'm not assuming you don't like Korea. I'm merely correcting a wrong assumption that you seem to have made after spending two summers here. You stated my point yourself:
[quote]
there is a wealthy and influential portion of the Korean population that is obsessed with prestige, status, ranking
[/quote]
This is precisely what I stated, the 2-3% of the population that actually considers studying in the US may actually give a crap about those rankings. But you see, I don't understand why you specifically pointed out Korea as a case in point because, correct me if I'm wrong, there is undoubtedly a wealthy influential portion of the American, Chinese, Canadian or whatnot population that is obsessed with prestige, status and rankings.</p>
<p>Even for the privileged kids who apply to and attend American universities from Korea, people here don't kill themselves over seeing their school dropped a few spots on USNews. Quite a few of my friends go to Northwestern and Brown, but I don't see them stressing over the fact that they've moved down on USNews. Don't give a wrong impression of a country that you could not have possibly figured out in two summers.</p>
<p>I could care less if people bashed on my alma mater like posters here on CC do all the time, but something has to be said when such unsubstantiated claims are made about about a country that already suffer from a lot of stereotypes.</p>