This higher education thing is seeming more and more a money grubbing exercise where people pay high application fees and still have to pay high ‘entrance exam’ fees.
There was one reason I never wanted to do my masters in the US, well … one main reason anyway. I didn't want to do the Graduate Record Exam(GRE). I thought it was a dumb high school level exam that people with their undergrad degrees should not have to subject themselves to, not because we are special but it is just proving the point that last minute swatting can outdo real smarts.
I therefore applied to schools in Canada, but lo and behold, the worlds fascination with US standards has proven itself to be true once again, and ‘international students are “ highly recommended” to submit GRE scores’. *sigh*.
So I did the darn exam, and because I had to sign a confidentially agreement, I can only say it was just like the practice exam, High School level stuff. I had to prove I went to high school and paid almost US$200 to boot – and that was just the exam fee. I passed -others were not that lucky.
In the hallway I had met a lady, who when I enquired about the exam said it was ‘ok’ with tear filled eyes. When her friends came out of the exam beaming, she burst into tears after explaining that she had a 4.0 GPA and graduated Summa Cum Laude, yet this ‘dumb exam’ was telling her that she was ‘stupid’ just because she didn't take exams well.. *sigh*
I am sure the exam providers don't care, no matter how ungrateful I may be at their genius at designing a test that Universities all over the world would want to judge their graduates by.
My truth.