Foreign Graduates?

Question

At work I see a healthy ammount of people from developing countries who have earned degrees at some nice universities here in the States.

Growing up, my family did not have the money to put me into College nor did I have the perfect grades to get a scholarship. (3.2 GPA).

How are these people able to come from Pakistan and graduate from our Universities? I'm not knocking it... I'm just wonder how it's possible considering it was close to impossible for me....wait...yeah it was impossible.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Different education systems, and systems that countries like America and Canada have to look up to.

I was educated in South Africa, graduated at age 16 (the norm for most of the world) and decided I wanted to be educated outside of South Africa. Wrote the SATs and did extremely well (perfect on the math portion, very good on the verbal portion). I thought that was great, only later did I realize that it was the US system and not me.

Anyway, went to Cambridge University in England and did My Honours and Ph.D in biological chemistry and did my postdoc with Proctor and Gamble here in the US before becoming a professor.

For 30+ years I had to listen to students complain about students from Asia (all parts) and how they were getting an unfair advantage.

Well, they aren't. They are an extremely well educated group of students. Countries like India and Pakistan, as part of the BRitish Commonwealth, long ago adopted the British style of learning (and chose English as a unifying language to do it in). There is also a lot more competitiveness among students.

Currently, there are a lot of issues dealing with American companies offshoring resources to India, China, and Russia. A biotechnology company that I did some advisory work for just offshored work to India because to quote

"They're brighter, faster, and far less expensive............It isn't what I want to do, but we have no choice"

America has to pick up it's bootstraps if it wants to maintain equality with the rest of the world, and it begins at the age of 6, not 16. American Universities at both the undergraduate and graduate level are the envy of the world, however our elementary and secondary systems need a huge overhaul before they get passed by.

The reason I mention Canada as well is that on several trips as a visiting lecturer, I would hear the same comments at every institution.

In Japan, they learn calculus at age 12, Germany age 14, China, age 14, South Africa - age 14, America - age 17.

Don't be surprised when you find out that a teenager from China aced the the SATs, he's had an advantage that needs to be overcome here.

Now, as a previous responder noted, yes, only the rich get to come over, and with burgeoning economies in places like India, you can expect a lot more of them to be here.

And just so you know, Most of my Ph.D students were American born and raised, so I know this country has it in them.

Answer 2

what you saw are the wealthy wealthy foreign students and very few of them are especially if they came from the developing countries. Most of them only have enough to eat. The education system is unfair as it greatly favours the wealthy. Some person will say "but how about the very smart but poor?" well, there are very few of them and these students are fortunate too. With rich people, you can get an average student scoring a very high G.P.A coz they can afford an excellent tutor or cheat their way through (i've seen many instances),

But take heart! there are many jobs out there that don't require a degree and pays well. With that money, you can put yourself through part time studies and work full time. It's a hard life but if you really need that piece of paper then that's how it's gonna work.

Answer 3

confident, those with scientific ranges can prepare for a familiar value in any provider branch, as long as they meet the standards. IE: US Citizen . foreign places degree is evaluated and authorized, etc.

Answer 4

Universities want diversity, and foreign students are diverse. Therefore they get rewarded for coming. Also, a lot of them are from wealthier families who can pay to export their children's education.

Answer 5

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Those foreign graduates are past presidents' and other important peoples "indiscretions" and your tax dollars paid for them to fly over here first class and go to college.