Reply to upenn M&T and Huntsman program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why are most of the students in these programs Chinese and Indian? It makes the programs very isolating if you are not a part of their cliques.[/quote]

This kind of remark gets made over and over again.  I think the premise needs to be challenged even though I don't know the demographics of these programs.

I'm a white woman who has Chinese work friends because my company does business with China.  My white dad was a university employee and he has two immigrant Chinese former grad student families that he's been regularly in touch with.  One of these families made him a godfather of their oldest daughter (Stanford grad now) and named their son after him.

I'm going to make a few points here.

1) People know when others are wary or not very accepting of them.  That's basic body language.

2) Kids who have been pushed by their parents and also have high skill levels tend to have some issues with less serious students or students with skill gaps.  I have a white on white example of this in my own background where I got roasted by a Ukrainian friend with a better knowledge of statistics and probability.  Kids who make it to America from other countries often have been drilled very thoroughly.  Know your stuff.

3) You need to be open-minded about food.  I am willing to go to whatever restaurants and try things that may not be to my taste.  I do a lot of international work and had international grad student friends.  People notice when you won't try their food or obviously have issues with it (smell, etc.).

4) You need to understand/be comfortable with people shifting in and out of their native language in front of you.  That's a dynamic where you just need to trust that people have reasons for doing that that are neutral or they need to do it for their own comfort.  It's not rude unless they are intentionally concealing something from you.  A lot of Americans lack multicultural/multilingual environment experience that gives them trust and comfort in these situations.  It's necessary at times to "assume goodness" or simply politely ask to be included in the conversation.

Cliques form in programs because people aren't trying to be friendly and open-minded and interested in others who are different from them.  It's basic human nature.  It's not race-specific.[/quote]

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