<p>"for east asians at least i know, those ppl go to some of the best schools in their home countries, have upper class parents to provide education."
This is so not true in Vietnam. Over there, the best schools are for the smartest and the majority of the intelligent students come from middle class families and poor families. Sorry, but kids from upper class, in my south east asian country, are not that good; of course there are exceptions. Most of the rich kids go to private schools, and in my country, private schools are for those who fail the exams to get into public schools. The education system is so much different from the U.S system. One is proud to tell his/her relatives that he attends a public school because it takes effort to get in while private schools in my country only takes money to get in.</p>
<p>Nathananise, here's the part of my previous post regarding "Oxford, Cambridge, Ecole Polytechnic, ETH Zurich, Imperial College, London School of Economics and other top foreign universities don't accept transfer applications from students abroad. SO BE GLAD U.S. COLLEGES EVEN CONSIDER YOU!" (foxdie!, 2007):
ok, first of, if we take a look at alma mater of current french presidential candidates, including the winner, Science Po lists on its official website's front page this huge thing "International Students apply for our Grad Program Online" and then there's also a list of scholarships available. And NO, Oxbridge doesn't base their decisions on the nationality, neither does it get subsidized by tax payers, nor does Harvard, Yale, Cornell, USC, Rice and other private schools where the majority of foreigners are dreaming to get in." Whatever your friends told you, if you research the subject by yourself, you'll realize that some of them do not accept transfers, bu they accept credit hours from student who attended foreign institutions.</p>
<p>frrrph, </p>
<p>I wouldn't adamantly dispute your claim about the alumni network, except to say that proximity is a big issue. It's better in my opinion to have a closer network of tight-knit alumni. Now you may think "how tight-knit can a cross-country alumni network be ?" But, I think if we were to significantly increase the number of internationals, the domestic network would be weakened. Certainly there's value in having support abroad as well, but keeping a domestic approach I think is better. (especially if you're a university that heckles former students for donations all the time by mail)</p>