Us College Admission Scandal: Is India's Meritocracy Based Approach Better?

I too have seen the same kind of students

 

I have faced it many times. My close friend got very bad ranking in engineering entrance exams, but we both ended up in same class. Why?? No she is not poor infact richer than me but her caste certificate fetched her the seat!

 

GB,
Reservation is still required in India for a few groups to encourage and bring them on par with others. Even after 70 years of independence, we have people living under inhuman conditions; they definitely deserve this. But this assistance should be available for only 2 generations and not more. Now there is a growing demand for reservations in private sectors too for employment. God, help India!

As others have suggested, economy based model is more relevant. Indiscriminate caste based reservations are breeding a lot of ill will among peers. Why and how the landlord communities in India are enjoying reservations? My friend, daughter of an industrialist enjoyed this perk and today my son's best friend who wears expensive clothes and roams around on an expensive bike enjoys reservation. This is unfair.

To ensure a seat in a premier institute middle class children belonging to upper castes are working insanely hard. After all the reservation, only a minuscule percentage of seats are available for general merit! Frustration led suicide rates are shooting up among students.

Rich parents can have their way anywhere.

 

American college admission scandal is about the wealthy people getting a fluff-degree with a brand-logo for their kids. The children were not planning to engage in some licensed trade or career to use the "education" from that degree.

The wealthy indian parents paying huge sums of money and thrusting their disinterested kids into difficult courses end up depriving someone else who'd better use that opportunity, as well as ruin the life of their own child, who would flunk in many exams, and with so many arrears to clear for a degree, would have to stay a student for twice or longer number of years. The sub-plot of outsourcing all this college attending rigamarole just to get a degree was in the movie "3 Idiots", a rich man hires someone to attend college in his son's name and get a degree for his son. Sort of what Mr. William Singer had arranged in California -- in getting substitutes to take the entrance tests -- in the US college admissions scandal.

The indian situation is the age old problem of having or creating a shortage, and then having an auction-market for access to the commodity in shortage. This applies to a lot of things -- including college seats.

 

India’s , apparently meritocracy based system, is not always better for all deserving students. A few points from my perspective :

1. The amount of slogging and effort one has to put in India to get through top notch institutes is much higher, given the ratio of number of applicants to actual seats.

2. Dearth of premium institutes makes it even tougher. Recently many new IIT’s/IIMs have been opened in tier 2/3 towns but not everyone aspires to get in there and faculties are also not up to the same standard everywhere.

3. Add to the mix, the system of reservation, the competition is even higher.( I agree with reservation issues posted in responses above).

4. Anecdotal evidence of poor students getting through on merit can be compared with many Indian students getting admissions to internationally ranked universities with scholarship etc. ( considering the debate here is about the donation based systems of US , which presumably have existed historically)

5. the rich vs poor debate stands in all geographies with varied proportions

6.I perceive, that simply, the number of internationally well ranked institutes in western geographies as compared to even the top rung institutes in India, gives the debate a skewed orientation.

7. Also, interesting to see is that in India, now the major cities, offer many expensive schools for the well heeled with IB curriculum, which one may note are not recognised within the Indian university /education system and the students clearly have not many avenues for higher studies in India , in the current circumstances.

8.Well to do parents are sending their kids to these schools, understanding of the severe competition in India for higher education. The speed with which IB schools are opening up, stands testimony to this fact.

I agree not all of the above ,is based on the meritocracy argument, but , anywhere what parents want is growth for their children and that seems to be restricted as against increasing competition in both the nations debated here. But , the degree varies considerably with India taking the beating in that regard.

 

Yes the whole thing of reservation started from this. Earlier if you saw occupation was based on caste. Certain castes had certain profession through which they didn't make much money. So such castes were given reservation. Intelligent people then should have thought instead of choosing caste a criteria they should have chosen income. Unfortunately that system still continues and true many get fake certificate even now for reservation sake and no those who are getting those reservations are not at all poor. So unfortunate

 

A new 10 percent EWS (economically weaker section) quota over and above has been announced, pre poll. do read about it

 

Increasing the supply of the whatever is the only way to reduce or eliminate the corruption that would come with reservations and/or quotas.

I recall that AP made it easier to create and operate engineering colleges. "Donations" fell to lowest levels, and just about anyone who wanted to be an engineer got to be one. Never mind the quality of the graduating output. In the marriage market for the middle classes, having a good job always counted for more than just having a degree. For the wealthy, the grubby notion of an "engineering job" is a demerit in that market. They sent their kids to do "masters" in America. I have met a few of these children in amreeki potluck parties. These will have a good time in life with or without their master's degrees. Parents had businesses -- of the generic buy-wholesale, sell-retail kind.

Isn't India the fastest growing economy now ?

 

It is definitely, but if you follow the jobs debate currently, you may know it has no one to one correspondence there.
Also , with the fastest growing economy it also is soon to become the no 1 population wise (2021 i think)

 

Hehehe.... my pointed reference to "Parents had businesses -- of the generic buy-wholesale, sell-retail kind." is about the opportunities in the informal economy of India. Sell something that the multitudes want to buy.