Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!pdn!reggie From: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Discrimination against American students??? (LONG) Message-ID: <5144@pdn.UUCP> Date: 15 Dec 88 11:39:30 GMT References: <1131@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1887@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <18121@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1060@l.cc.purdue.edu> <18144@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <842@quintus.UUCP> <2521@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <349@wuibc.UUCP> Reply-To: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach) Organization: Paradyne Corporation, Largo FL Lines: 55 In article <349@wuibc.UUCP> evren@wuibc.UUCP (Evren Senol) writes: > The U.S. has a LOT more to gain from these foreign students than to lose. I agree! If nothing else US universities benefited financially. During times when the number of American students graduating from high school declined, universities were able to make up for the reduced enrollments with foreign students. Remember there was a time period where a drop off in the birth rate (after the baby boom) eventually caused this situation. I'm not sure if we are still in that situation or not? It has been my experience, as a student, teacher and professional that the foreign students, for the most part, are a positive influence. Sure there are exceptions, but my feeling is that the average foreigh student is more likely to be prepared to work towards their eventual goals than their American counterparts. And I agree with Mr. Senol that in order to understand the reason for this, we should not be looking at the foreign students, but at the American students! > If you, the Americans, think that there is something wrong with this > [refering to the proportion of doctoral students who are foreigners], > please look no further. MOST of the fault lies in the American society. How many freshman coming into a university have even considered anything beyond a bachelor degree? I would guess that not many have. Most are lucky if by that time in their life they have figured out waht they want to do. High schools do not do an adequate job of educating our youth on the possibilities in careers. And most parents don't exactly devote much time to this either. Sure we ask our kids when they are little: "what do you want to be when you grow up"? But as they approach the end of their high school days, how much are they aware of what opportunities there are in this world? Ideally, a high school student could become exposed to a wide variety of fields and careers, be able to choose one that interestes them, and then have the ability to select the best university programs to aid in reaching that goal. Unfortunately, it is my impression that this rarely happens. I know in my case that I was fortunate that in 1974 my high school installed an old Teletype with a paper tape punch and offered a course in BASIC. This experience steered me towards Computer Science. However, I never thought of graduate school until I was in industry and working for a few years. And even when I did enroll in a graduate program, I did so for the wrong reasons. Eventually, my attitudes towards education changed. -- George W. Leach Paradyne Corporation ..!uunet!pdn!reggie Mail stop LG-129 Phone: (813) 530-2376 P.O. Box 2826 Largo, FL USA 34649-2826