Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Bummer for Kwanhyun Park. He’s a straight A student who didn’t get into the UC school of his choice although he was plenty qualified. Maybe it wasn’t enough extra curricular activities?Overachieving Asian Americans are getting bumped by the international students. Why? Because schools can charge more to have a spoiled child of wealthy and perhaps corrupt official or landlord in a country filled with savages. (We’re kidding). However, the enrolling rate of Chinese students are increasing and taking spots away from qualified students of all ethnicities. “In 2009, University of California administrators told the San Diego campus to reduce its number of in-state freshmen by 500 to about 3,400 and fill the spots with out-of-state and international stu dents, said Mae Brown, the school’s admissions director. California residents pay $13,234 inannual tuition while nonresidents pay $22,878.” (Bloomberg – China Students)
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Rich South Koreans don’t generally think of themselves as rich, and they don’t like to talk about the fact that they have money. There is a cultural taboo against doing so, you see, and it is considered undignified. Fair enough, since in most western cultures folks don’t like to talk about how poor they are. Still, at the link you’ll read some interesting statistics compiled about wealthy South Koreans surveyed by the research division of KB Financial, the country’s second-largest financial holdings group. What really jumps out from the survey results is that wealthy Koreans (those with $950,000 or more in assets) place the highest value in terms of spending upon education. By South Korean standards, a wealthy household earns an income of just over $200 thousand per year. The KB survey found that nearly a quarter of that income is spent on schools, exam-preparation “cram” schools, and private tutoring for the kids in wealthy households. South Korea has always been justifiably regarded as a brainy country; but it appears that the wealthiest echelon of Korean citizens is doing its best to ensure the country’s smart reputation endures. (Wall Street Journal Korea Realtime –South Korean School Spending)
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