Letters
Written off
Thomas Robertson’s op-ed (‘The right stuff’, Page 6, Jan 27) is seriously misleading about what it takes for international students to get accepted into US universities. Of course, US universities require good writing but Nepali students in the US also usually need to come from families with money,Thomas Robertson’s op-ed (‘The right stuff’, Page 6, Jan 27) is seriously misleading about what it takes for international students to get accepted into US universities. Of course, US universities require good writing but Nepali students in the US also usually need to come from families with money,
connections, and knowledge of the US education system including scholarships. They need to be able to afford a decent plus 2 education, they need to find time to apply and go through all the admin, which isn’t possible if you have household duties or full-time jobs, and they need to have supportive parents, a laptop with wifi and a good environment in which to study.
To pretend that it is otherwise and suggest that only the best students (and best writers) get into US universities is nonsense. As Robertson surely knows, even inside America top universities are hardly considered meritocratic.
Paul Jeffries, Lazimpat