Doctorates

[serenissima]

Today I visited my economics teacher to clarify a couple of ideas in preparation for my exam tomorrow. My economics teacher is a doctoral student and does not have his own office. Instead, he has a cubicle in a room he shares with all the other doctoral students in the business school.^*

A list of the grad students' names and scheduled office hours was posted outside the door to the room. Glancing at it, I noticed that the great majority of the names sounded as if they did not originate from western Europe.

"Looks like most of your colleagues are from other countries," I commented to my teacher, who happens to be a foreign national himself.

"Yes," he answered with a slight smile, "Americans don't like to do PhDs."

Hmm. That's a somewhat worrisome conclusion to draw. Does the United States produce a disproportionately low number of PhD students relative to other countries? Could it be that PhD students from other countries prefer to study in the U.S. rather than in their countries of origin?

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*Note: Lecturers rate an office, but grad students do not. The teacher I had for Priniciples of Accounting was a lecturer last summer. She had her own office. Last fall, while she taught Individual Income Tax, she became a doctoral student. Her office was taken away from her, and she had to share the common room.

Comments

[403.livejournal.com]

Also, c) The proportion of Americans who are of Western European descent is falling.

[zeightyfiv.livejournal.com]

Also, US schools tend to attract students from around the world (and not so much vice versa!), so the competition is fierce. Then, when the foreign students are done, the government usually kicks them out for their trouble, unless they can get help from the magic visa fairy. Nevermind their education came largely at US government expense and they're normally quite capable of integrating socially at that point. c.c

That being said, I think proportional enrollment may still be lower than many other countries.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I don't think it's East and South Asians who are mostly replacing them... though I could be wrong.

Also, your fractal looks like an octopus tentacle. :)