Reply to Are We Crazy for Questioning a $250k US Degree and looking abroad?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Are We Crazy for Questioning a $250k US Degree and looking abroad?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid is Swiss. He could not get in ETH, therefore he applied to us schools and is now at Stanford. ETH was his number 1 choice. [/quote]

Let me get this straight...he couldn't get acceptance to a 27% acceptance rate school...and for some reason he was not interested in Cambridge or Oxford or other strong STEM schools...but he was accepted to Stanford.

You do have to speak German.[/quote]

First of all, 27% acceptance rate is an overall acceptance rate. HE applied to Computer Science. And I konw you have little attitude, but let me put this way. ETH gets the top of the top. My Son scored 1600 in the easy SAT in one sitting. Scored 5’s on every AP test he took (he went to a boarding school here in Switzerland without AP courses). He is fluent in 5 languages.  American tests are ridiculously easy for the best Swiss kids.

So please, get off you American high horse. Your HS system is pitiful and a complete disaster. Don’t come in here pretending you know it all. Because you clearly do not.  [/quote]

So...once more...what you are saying makes no sense.  You essentially are admitting one of two things:  (i) that your kid completely f**ked up the application, or (ii) ETH employs an even more nutso holistic admissions process than US schools (even though they claim to not do that).

There is no high horse, but simply poking holes in your fabricated story.

It's interesting though that you decided to attend Stanford considering our HS system is "pitiful and a complete disaster" which doesn't really have anything to do with anything...considering this entire thread is about US kids successfully applying and gaining acceptance to some of the top European universities.[/quote]

Your inability to follow a simple line of reasoning is staggering. Let me, the foreigner in the room, be painfully clear, even if it means descending to a level of simplicity a native English speaker such as yourself can comprehend. If you'd prefer another language for this remedial lesson, German, French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, simply ask.

Yes, your high school system is a disaster. That is not my opinion; it is an objective, globally recognized fact. To place an average American high schooler in a room with a student from a Swiss Gymnasium is not a comparison; it is a cruelty.

You then commit the intellectually lazy error of conflating this with an attack on your elite universities. I can hold two thoughts in my head at once: your high schools are fundamentally broken, AND your top research institutions are excellent. Why can't you? There is no linkage, and my original statement made that perfectly clear.

Your worldview is laughably Americentric. The notion that all the “best of the best” flock to your undergraduate programs is a fantasy you tell yourselves. An institution like ETH Zurich doesn't need your validation. The only fabricated thing here is your pathetic allergy to facts.

You derailed this entire conversation because your ego couldn't handle a simple economic critique. This thread began by questioning the absurd cost, a quarter of a million dollars plus, for a frankly mediocre T100 American university. Your response was a delusional tirade about being the "envy of the world."

Here is one final data point for you. My son graduated 15th in his Swiss boarding school class. He treated your "rigorous" American entrance exams as a trivial exercise. Eight of the top fifteen students from his school are now at ETH. This isn't a coincidence. It's a choice made by those who prioritize substance over marketing. The fact that Stanford was his second choice should tell you everything you need to know.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics