Admissions officers scour the globe for Elis
During the months of September and October, Yale College’s Co-Directors of International Admissions Jean Lee and Rebekah Westphal hit the road — or, more accurately, the airport.
Criss-crossing entire continents may appear to be a glamorous and exciting job, but there is hardly time for sightseeing, the two said. Most of their tourism is done while staring out of taxi windows.
Westphal and Lee are responsible for reaching out to hundreds of high school students on five continents and delivering presentations about Yale and the U.S. college application process at locals schools...
Yes, perhaps inaccurate, but "Continental Europe" often refers to Spain, France, Italy, Germany, in contrast to Great Britain.
This sounds like an unbelievably ideal job--lots of sightseeing (not on a bus but in a taxi!), lots of dinners and receptions, and best of all the chance to brag about the best school in America (with 300 acapella groups).
Honestly, I'd take the job even without pay!
And, of course, Tweed WASN'T the airport where her journey started. I guess I should be surprised...but I'm not.
I have had the good fortune to found a program to help students earn full four year college scholarships from Ukraine. We have had two Yale undergraduates. Others have attended every Ivy except Columbia plus, Stanford, and MIT.
Today, Internet, Google, Skype and other modalities provide information about high school education in every corner of the globe even in those areas without access to Internet.
We attract students from provincial centers and small towns. We bypass the capital Kyiv, Odesa, and Lviv with some exceptions.
Our target is talented and eager students not elite schools.
Students from poorer countries and peripheral cities need more preparation for entry into American colleges. But it can be done economically and even without school visits.
We have managed to create a level playing field for students from ordinary families with extraordinary abilities.
Bohdan A. Oryshkevich
www.ukrainianscholarships.org
Scandinavia
Especially, in Germanic studies, "Continental" refers to the European continent excluding the Scandinavian peninsula, Britain, Ireland and Iceland. The reason for this is that although the Scandinavian peninsula is technically attached to Continental Europe by Karelia, it is in practice reached by sea, not by land (which would imply travelling north as far as Tornio at the 66th parallel north), and has in the past been mis-identified as an island (Scandia). Kontinenten - "the Continent" - is a vernacular Swedish expression excluding Sweden, Norway and Finland, but including Denmark (even the Danish archipelago) and the rest of continental Europe.
It's great that Yale seeks a diverse, international student body. It enriches the educational experience of the US-based students as well as spreading the benefits of a Yale education internationally. But why so much focus on ever-increasing geographical diversity? Yale, like most top tier schools, has gotten so selective that it is virtually impossible to get in. At the same time, there are more highly qualified US applicants than ever before. Many of them hail from the NY - Connecticut - Northeast area. Why should they be denied a place just so that Yale can brag about how many countries and states are represented in the student body? It's the new elitism.
To #7:
The primary reason why Yale would want geographically diverse students is that they do bring a much different perspective to the Yale community. A US-born student whose grandparents come from Sweden, as an example, would probably have a much different cultural upbringing than a student from Sweden.
Yes, Yale does "brag" about how it is being well represented. But from a student's perspective, it should not matter. Instead, he should be thankful that there is this richness of cultural diversity on campus.
Right, because self-segregation isn't the name of the game by week 2 of freshman year... Yale's "richness of cultural diversity" is a joke.
Maybe it's a joke if you also self-segregate. I talked to people (even those different from myself), and I learned a lot, especially from the international students. So, no, Yale's richness of cultural diversity is not a joke.
So Yale got over 4000 international applications last year and yet we are paying two admissions officers to jet-set around the world looking for potential Elis? Does this really make sense at a time of layoffs, budgetary crises and billions lost in the endowment?
With all this effort to recruit better students, many long-time faculty are left wondering why students in recent years have been handing in so much third-rate work.
This part of your story quite baffles me: "(...) Then, she heads back to the bus, hops on the ferry and takes a plane ride back to the European continent," in regards to the mention of Bergen, Norway.
Norway is a European country. Bergen is the 2nd largest Norwegian city and Flekkefjord, where the aforementioned Red Cross United World College is situated, is also in Norway. Which continent did you think is was in?