3 ms·

Slightly off topic, but in the early 90's I had to help rewrite the resume of the Chinese friend of a Chinese friend and she was very proud of the fact he gradu

Slightly off topic, but in the early 90's I had to help rewrite the resume of the Chinese friend of a Chinese friend and she was very proud of the fact he graduated from the number one university in China. He had very poor English writing skills so I just unmangled it, did not have difficulty conversing with him, but I was not aware of the admissions difficulty being so high there compared to the Stanford/elite US universities as the writer says, this was about the time the WWW came online so was not so easy to google the answers back then.

vostok 9y ago
> I was not aware of the admissions difficulty being so high there compared to the Stanford/elite US universities China has a population of 1.4 billion. Peking University has 33k students and Tsinghua has 45k. Obviously this isn't a great comparison because lots of foreigners come to study in the US, but I think it does give a sense of scale.
- mlevental 9y ago
  us has a population of about 300 million and Harvard has a student body of size 6,700. looks almost exactly proportional
bagacrap 9y ago
When he asked himself if British people were just way stupider than Chinese, it made me realize that whatever the Chinese education system is measuring is probably way off base compared to actual aptitude or practical ability. Just because it's highly selective doesn't mean their education is relevant.
- erikb 9y ago
  Well in his case it brought him jobs around $500k. I would say that's something.
  - bb611 9y ago
    It seems to me that author's point is that he was considered a failure in the Chinese system. He gained the 1/2 million dollar compensation based on his success in the UK & US systems.
    - erikb 9y ago
      Because the system is full of people who talk about their passion, emotions and slogans instead of working hard and getting to the point, which he learned back at home. Why should an article criticise just one side, right?
floriferous 9y ago
I always wonder what the average and median proficiency level of the applicants is, when looking at admissions rates. In the US and europe, I always felt like people were more self selective than in Asia (India is the place I’m familiar with), meaning that more young people would not apply to top schools because they convince themselves (rightfully or not) that they’ll never get in. (Application fees are obviously inportant to consider: 100$ in the US vs free or very cheap (comparatively) in asia) In India, I met lots of people applying to an unreasonable amount of jobs and colleges, because demand is so small compared to supply. This means that admissions rates are likely skewed between different countries. Based on my anecdotical evidence, I’d say the average Harvard applicant is more skilled than the average IIT applicant, though the admitted students are probably as skilled. EDIT: spelling

vostok 9y ago

> I was not aware of the admissions difficulty being so high there compared to the Stanford/elite US universities China has a population of 1.4 billion. Peking University has 33k students and Tsinghua has 45k. Obviously this isn't a great comparison because lots of foreigners come to study in the US, but I think it does give a sense of scale.

mlevental 9y ago
us has a population of about 300 million and Harvard has a student body of size 6,700. looks almost exactly proportional

bagacrap 9y ago

When he asked himself if British people were just way stupider than Chinese, it made me realize that whatever the Chinese education system is measuring is probably way off base compared to actual aptitude or practical ability. Just because it's highly selective doesn't mean their education is relevant.

erikb 9y ago
Well in his case it brought him jobs around $500k. I would say that's something.
- bb611 9y ago
  It seems to me that author's point is that he was considered a failure in the Chinese system. He gained the 1/2 million dollar compensation based on his success in the UK & US systems.
  - erikb 9y ago
    Because the system is full of people who talk about their passion, emotions and slogans instead of working hard and getting to the point, which he learned back at home. Why should an article criticise just one side, right?

floriferous 9y ago

I always wonder what the average and median proficiency level of the applicants is, when looking at admissions rates. In the US and europe, I always felt like people were more self selective than in Asia (India is the place I’m familiar with), meaning that more young people would not apply to top schools because they convince themselves (rightfully or not) that they’ll never get in. (Application fees are obviously inportant to consider: 100$ in the US vs free or very cheap (comparatively) in asia) In India, I met lots of people applying to an unreasonable amount of jobs and colleges, because demand is so small compared to supply. This means that admissions rates are likely skewed between different countries. Based on my anecdotical evidence, I’d say the average Harvard applicant is more skilled than the average IIT applicant, though the admitted students are probably as skilled. EDIT: spelling