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Tuesday, 28 September 2010

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Amusingly, it appears that "Cain" is the able brother. When he was a yoof, he won an Oxford place on merit, they say. His brother had to be wangled in by some sort of marxist old pals stunt organised by his father. In other words, by treating Oxford as if it were bloody Harvard.

"bloody Harvard"! Do I detect the merest hint of Oxbridge superiority? Surely not, DM!

As I understand it, in the US the academics don't decide on undergraduate admissions; university bureaucrats do. Their criteria are much diluted from any notion of mere academic merit - they tend to have "legacy" admissions (e.g. based on your father's having been a Harvard man), bought-for admissions (your father has just donated a few squillions to the institution), race-privileged admissions (black good, yellow not so good), "athletic" admissions, and, doubtless, other creepy-crawly admissions. (Children of the academics and bureaucrats, perhaps?)

I understand that Oxford does iffy "athletic" admissions, but it seems to be restricted to feeble postgraduate diploma courses suitable for a few rowing men. Undergraduate admissions seem to be about as straight as you'll get with vain and imperfect humans doing the work. Remember, he who admits a fool has to teach him.

I can back up what DM said about US Universities. The Kennedy's, especially Teddy, all got into Harvard through family money. But I don't know what percent of students get in this way, and what percent get in on merit. Of course, even "merit" can mean different things. These days, race is considered a "merit" because, so the weasils say, you bring diversity to the campus.

Well, if it's diversity they're after I'm amazed they didn't invite me!

Now why didn't you advise us there wa a transcript, and a video?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/8025462/Ed-Miliband-my-vision-to-rebuild-trust.html

However I have to admit, I liked the headline on the site where I found it better.

http://stubbornfacts.us/

Good grief, JK, nobody in their right mind wants to read, let alone see, the little greaser all over again! I did you a favour.

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