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Why Go To Harvard When You Can Opt For An Asian Ivy League?

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Under the rigorous and competitive Asian education systems, only the best of the brightest manage to get into the region’s top universities. In the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) survey of half of a million 15-year-olds across 65 countries, students from Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei and South Korea earned top scores in math and science. In the annual International Mathematic Olympiad, mainland China has won the first place eight times in the past decade, and South Korea has been one of the top five.

These schools have long been focused on educating nationals, but there is a growing recognition of a more global student body. Many institutions have opened up both admissions and exchange programs with colleges in the U.S., including Columbia, Duke University. However, the number of American students studying abroad for academic credit in 2012 is less than 300,000. Fifty-three percent of them chose European programs. Only 12% went to Asia.

The tides are changing.

Not only are Asian colleges under-explored, they have distinct advantages for American students: cheap tuition, deep cultural immersion and the opportunity to take classes at a world-class university. Here, a list of six along with a fitting comparison to their U.S. counterpart.

National University of Singapore

National University of Singapore is ranked as No.1 in Asia for 2014 by QS University Rankings. Founded in 1905 as a medical school, NUS is the oldest and largest comprehensive university in the country.

The admission process is highly internationalized. The school accepts students under European, Indian, Hong Kong and mainland education systems. NUS also has overseas campuses in Silicon Valley, Philadelphia, Shanghai, Beijing, Stockholm, India and Israel. The school opened Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in 2005 and co-established a Yale-NUS college campus in August 2013. NUS also accepts the British tutorial system and the American course credit system.

Similar to Stanford’s pervasive start-up culture, campus environment of NUS is super entrepreneurial. Since the 1980s, NUS has established its Entrepreneurship Center and organized the Innovation and Enterprise Award, providing experiential education, entrepreneurship research and awards to significant accomplishments in entrepreneurship and innovation. The 2014 winner includes the NUS spin-off company AyoxxA Biosystems.

University of Hong Kong

Located in Asia’s melting pot Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong is the Columbia of Hong Kong. Founded in 1911 during the British colonial era, HKU maintains strong international presence and it is known for its popularity with international students. As of 2012, around 6,800 non-local students were enrolled on campus. The university is also a founding member of Universitas 21, an international consortium of research-led universities. HKU benefits from a large operating budget supplied by high levels of government funding. In 2012-13, the Research Grants Council (RGC) granted the University of Hong Kong a total research funding of HK$1,088 million.

In 2008, HKU was ranked in the Top 50 worldwide by the Human Resources & Labor Review. In the past decade, HKU has attracted Chinese mainlanders who scored highest in their provincial college entrance exams. With the benefit of full-scholarship, cosmopolitan environment and freedom in academic research, HKU is a strong competitor for soliciting applicants from China and other parts of Asia.

Seoul National University

The pre-establishment of Seoul National University was marked by the government initiative to modernize higher education institutions during the late 19th century, and it was founded in 1946. Admissions to the University are extremely competitive:  its freshmen belong to the top 2.5% of all Korean students who take the National University Entrance Examination.

Seoul National University holds Korea’s first ever general academic exchange program with the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, the University maintains an undergraduate exchange program with the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Stanford University and Yale University. Like UPenn, Seoul National University features strong business programs: it operates dual master’s degrees in business with Duke and double-degrees with schools of management at M.I.T. and Yale. The school’s notable alumnus, BAN Ki-moon, is the current UN Secretary-General.

Peking University

Founded as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898, Peking University is often seen in the top ranks of elite universities in Asia. As China’s Yale, Peking’s social sciences, humanities and sciences programs  are among the top in the country, and PKU is often the dream school of China’s politically conscious and socially active students. Admissions to PKU are highly competitive; last year, in Zhejiang Province alone, only 120 out of 313,000 high school graduates were accepted through the annual national college examinations (Gaokao).

In recent years, PKU has been expanding its international studies programs to attract foreign students from America and Europe. Last month, the university launched Yenching Academy, which will accept the first class of 65 overseas students to study a one-year Master of Chinese Studies program on full scholarship in 2015. However, this program has generated criticism among students and faculty members for selling out its name with a lack of focus.

University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo was chartered by the Meiji government in 1877 by merging older government schools for medicine and Western learning. As the top national university in Japan, UTokyo is the top choice for Japanese high school students. As Japan’s Cornell, UTokyo is specialized in STEM-related subjects, medicines and agriculture sciences. Six Japanese Prime Ministers and seven Nobel Prize laureates graduated from UTokyo.

In the fall of 2012, UTokyo started two undergraduate programs entirely taught in English and geared toward international students — Programs in English at Komaba (PEAK) — the International Program on Japan in East Asia and the International Program on Environmental Sciences. Around 60 students were admitted to PEAK this year.

Tsinghua University

Asia’s leading STEM institute, Tsinghua University, is often named China’s MIT. Tsinghua was established as Tsinghua College by the Qing Dynasty post-war payment  to the U.S. in 1911. After the establishment of People’s Republic of China, Tsinghua followed the national strategy of “invigorating China through science and education (Kejiao Xingguo)” and became specialized in natural sciences and engineering. Every year, around 3,300 high school graduates are accepted to Tsinghua from a pool of over 8 million. Over 90% of enrollees study STEM-related fields.

Still under the influence of Kejiao Xingguo, many Chinese politicians come from STEM education background. Therefore, Tsinghua is not just the home to the best STEM majors in the country, but is also the alma mater of many prominent political figures. President Xi Jinping and former President Hu Jintao are both Tsinghua graduates.

Like MIT, Tsinghua is looking to develop non-STEM departments. Since the 1990s, Tsinghua incorporated disciplines of law, economics and management, journalism and communication. The school is also focusing on its international studies program. In 2013, the Schwarzman Scholarship was launched, designed to select 160 foreign scholars annually to work towards a Master’s Degree in public policy, international relations, engineering, and economics. The program recruited its advisory board members from Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Duke, and it claims to build a Chinese equivalent of Rhodes Scholarship.

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