Privilege is always on my mind when I think about higher education, especially while I’m in China.
In China, the gaokao is the only legal path to university admission, and a high score isn’t easily purchasable with money. As flawed and unfair as the standardized test is, college entrance that’s not directly for sale does seem charming in comparison to the American application system which is really a gatekeeper to the Wall Street aristocracy.
However, my friend Hayden, in true Chicagoan fashion, sees a market inefficiency. Within the Chinese university market, a prestigious degree is a desired good impossible for purchase. This could mean China’s higher education is debatably more fair and equitable, but China’s market is not the only one. The wealthy bypass this inefficiency by gaming US college admissions instead. This is not the perfect comparison as bribery is illegal, and maybe there’s just more market demand for foreign education. Regardless, China’s elite fall into another rat race of sending their kids to foreign colleges, a market more easily influenced by cash, or “more efficient.”