"Just Get Me into a Decent College" and the Future of Asians in American Colleges
In all societies, there are students who do not give a damn about school. It is nothing surprising that some people, under any environment, would think that school can be worthless or that they can find other ways of success beyond prestigious schooling. And similarly, there are parents who believe in the same thing. They allow their kids to choose their own paths, or simply just do not care where their kids end up without proper schooling. Sometimes, the students and the parents who do not give a damn happen to come from the same household. The result can be a disaster for the kid (in the normal case) or creation of some sort of absurdly unique and widely envied stories of abnormal successes for the kids in question.
Well, not in Korea. Kids might be varied in enthusiasm for school just like kids are in any other country, but parents see absolutely no variance whatsoever. In the financial situation allows them to do so, the Korean parents will gladly pay up (and in my opinion, waste) tens of thousands of dollars to ship their kids off to the best higher level education the world has to offer. If the kids do not want to? Well, too bad, they are going anyways.
So the weird dynamic between eager parents and lazy students creates an interesting situation. The process of choosing the right schools and submitting the college applications somehow becomes a capital-intensive but not at all labor-intensive one when labor is most needed. So, as theories of economics says, capital is expended to outsource the process to a labor-intensive locale. And that is where the "college application consultants" show up, sucking on the cash to produce mass-manufactured college applications for hundreds of lazy students who are unwilling to even think about what schools they want to go.
Most just want to get their overly anxious parents off their backs. As long as the parents heard of the colleges they will be attending and let up their nagging, the kids are satisfied. And thanks to aggressive marketing campaigns by mediocre colleges from the States in Asia, the prospect of kids with below average scores getting into "I-heard-of-it" colleges across the Pacific has gotten so much easier. Its a win-win-win situation: consultants don't need to work as hard to get kids into real brand-name colleges, parents can brag about their kids back in Korea, and kids are free from being scolded by the parents.
The job of the consultant is surely over at this point, but the worries for the kids themselves begin. For those in the know, a mediocre college is a mediocre one anywhere, no matter how "famous" the school seems to be in Korea. With work visa hard to come by for foreign students in any country these days, coming back to Korea with a mediocre degree has become almost a definite for most of these kids a few years later. Evidently, the intelligent managers at the top companies would not look into the kids with much favor. Just another spoiled product of hagwon scheming and piles of cash, incapable of independent thinking and without ambitious dreams....
Consultants would hope the current situation does not change. After all, they made the promise to send the kids to certain schools, and they actually did. They got the cash and the reputation. Unfortunately, they are the only ultimate winners. The kids realize that four years of American education has only gotten them disadvantages in the Korean job market through their half-assed understanding of both American and Korean culture. Parents burned through piles of cash on international schools and colleges to see no solid returns from their investments.
One would think that at some point, the parents would realize just how lacking in merits sending their kids to these mediocre American colleges is becoming. If it is certain that their kids cannot make it to the Ivies, wouldn't (and shouldn't) they start considering alternative ways to dictate the educational and career plans for their kids? Are we looking at Korea following the Japanese model? With more and more kids staying at their home country for fear of losing out in the stiff job competition?
The consultants are confident in the continuing stream of mediocre Korean students abroad. "Korea is too small," they would say, "the parents think they need to force the kids to get out." Well, I suppose the Korean parents is different from Japanese parents in such mentality, but that does not hide the fact that the economic situations of the two countries are remarkably similar. To me, Japan is not much bigger than Korea, and in much worse economic state domestically. Yet, if the grimmer and grimmer situation at home cannot force the Japanese to take it outside their islands, I would hesitate to think that "smallness" can be the ultimate reason to decide whether people go or stay...I guess we will see in the near future...
Well, not in Korea. Kids might be varied in enthusiasm for school just like kids are in any other country, but parents see absolutely no variance whatsoever. In the financial situation allows them to do so, the Korean parents will gladly pay up (and in my opinion, waste) tens of thousands of dollars to ship their kids off to the best higher level education the world has to offer. If the kids do not want to? Well, too bad, they are going anyways.
So the weird dynamic between eager parents and lazy students creates an interesting situation. The process of choosing the right schools and submitting the college applications somehow becomes a capital-intensive but not at all labor-intensive one when labor is most needed. So, as theories of economics says, capital is expended to outsource the process to a labor-intensive locale. And that is where the "college application consultants" show up, sucking on the cash to produce mass-manufactured college applications for hundreds of lazy students who are unwilling to even think about what schools they want to go.
Most just want to get their overly anxious parents off their backs. As long as the parents heard of the colleges they will be attending and let up their nagging, the kids are satisfied. And thanks to aggressive marketing campaigns by mediocre colleges from the States in Asia, the prospect of kids with below average scores getting into "I-heard-of-it" colleges across the Pacific has gotten so much easier. Its a win-win-win situation: consultants don't need to work as hard to get kids into real brand-name colleges, parents can brag about their kids back in Korea, and kids are free from being scolded by the parents.
The job of the consultant is surely over at this point, but the worries for the kids themselves begin. For those in the know, a mediocre college is a mediocre one anywhere, no matter how "famous" the school seems to be in Korea. With work visa hard to come by for foreign students in any country these days, coming back to Korea with a mediocre degree has become almost a definite for most of these kids a few years later. Evidently, the intelligent managers at the top companies would not look into the kids with much favor. Just another spoiled product of hagwon scheming and piles of cash, incapable of independent thinking and without ambitious dreams....
Consultants would hope the current situation does not change. After all, they made the promise to send the kids to certain schools, and they actually did. They got the cash and the reputation. Unfortunately, they are the only ultimate winners. The kids realize that four years of American education has only gotten them disadvantages in the Korean job market through their half-assed understanding of both American and Korean culture. Parents burned through piles of cash on international schools and colleges to see no solid returns from their investments.
One would think that at some point, the parents would realize just how lacking in merits sending their kids to these mediocre American colleges is becoming. If it is certain that their kids cannot make it to the Ivies, wouldn't (and shouldn't) they start considering alternative ways to dictate the educational and career plans for their kids? Are we looking at Korea following the Japanese model? With more and more kids staying at their home country for fear of losing out in the stiff job competition?
The consultants are confident in the continuing stream of mediocre Korean students abroad. "Korea is too small," they would say, "the parents think they need to force the kids to get out." Well, I suppose the Korean parents is different from Japanese parents in such mentality, but that does not hide the fact that the economic situations of the two countries are remarkably similar. To me, Japan is not much bigger than Korea, and in much worse economic state domestically. Yet, if the grimmer and grimmer situation at home cannot force the Japanese to take it outside their islands, I would hesitate to think that "smallness" can be the ultimate reason to decide whether people go or stay...I guess we will see in the near future...
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