<p>With a mandate that says merit trumps all, the University of California, Berkeley, finds itself looking across the Pacific for its identity. Is this the new face of higher education?
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2007/01/07/education/edlife/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2007/01/07/education/edlife/index.html</a></p>
<p>"No,No!" (LOL). (Is it 35 or 39 pages of the slugfest on the Admissions Forum -- thankfully probably on page 2 now, maybe even page 3). That one might have been "I Wish I Weren't Asian" -- but they resurface with various titles there, & again found its way into discussions of the Princetonian article-- was mostly between students & a few parents. So sure, I guess I'd be interested to see more parental views.</p>
<p>Sorry, epiphany. I was away when that issue of the NYT appeared. I only looked up the website because of today's article about the MCAT debacle.</p>
<p>Oh, no, fine by me.:) I was actually surprised that it didn't get copied earlier into PF & taken up there.</p>
<p>Although I am concerned about Berkeley becoming less representative of the State as a whole, I am perhaps more concerned about the widespread expectations by those also applying to Privates that the U.S. college system should not reflect American values but should reflect Asian priorities, measurements, values.</p>
<p>marite:</p>
<p>the UC mandate is NOT that merit trumps all. Under holistic admissions, big tips are given to low income, first gen to go to college, english language learners, and the like. Indeed, ~33% of the students at each UC campus is a Pell Grantee. If merit was the only basis, the state flagships would be full of mostly rich, suburban kids.</p>
<p>And those rich, suburban kids would be almost all Asian, at least in my area of California.</p>
<p>bluebayou:</p>
<p>I quoted from the NYT article. Sorry, I could not link the whole article. From the little I read, it seems that Berkeley is not just giving tips to low income students, it is actively recruiting in Asia. Presumably, these students can afford the OOS fees. I could be wrong, since I only read that snippet above. I thought someone else would be able to excerpt more of the article.</p>
<p>Like Epiphany, I worry about the adoption of criteria prevailing in Asia for US campuses.</p>
<p>marite:</p>
<p>negative -- no recruiting in asia, altho a common belief particularly in the Los Angeles inner-city schools. In total, Cal's international and OOS population is ~9, but some (many?) of the internationals are state residents after having attended Calif high school (parents working here on visas).</p>
<p>In his investiture address, Jeff Lehman, Cornell's short-lived new-president-before-the-new-one, asked something like, "When we talk about diversity, what should our frame of reference be? Do we want to look more like the United States, or should we want to look more like the world?" At the time, I thought that was a great, simple question.</p>
<p>A number of universities are really stepping up their international programs, campuses, outreach. I expect that this will accelerate a lot over the next few decades, and that we will begin to see the emergence of truly global, multi-national universities. It's also an area where the competition between private universities and public ones, at least at the top of the pyramid, will be increasingly unequal. When they start invading China rather than drawing students here, it is going to be tough to get the California legislature to fund competition with Harvard and its $29 Billion.</p>