Recently, a WeChat group chat record posted by a Duke University professor has been circulating widely on the internet, sparking heated public discussion.
Harvard, Brown, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UC, and others are all listed.
After seeing the list of schools, people couldn't help but fall silent.
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Some netizens lamented: Well, now not only do we have no money, no job, but we're not even worthy of love...
Upon closer inspection, the entry criteria are not simply about school rankings; hidden beneath these "admission standards" are a complex web of hierarchies:
🔸 Ivy League schools and MIT, the big names, need no introduction—they're hot commodities everywhere
🔸 Students from NYU, UChicago, and Umich made the cut by having a foothold on Wall Street as target schools
🔸 Caltech and UCB were included for their shining title as talent pools for tech giants
🔸 Parents of students from "second-tier" science and engineering schools need to invite 10 other parents to level up and join
🔸 Only North American undergraduate and doctoral degrees accepted; master's students are not considered at all
🔸 Medical students can join directly without even needing to graduate
......
Listing them one by one is truly chilling; this level of cruelty almost surpasses the recruitment standards of Fortune 500 companies.
Reflected in Reality, Even Dating Shows Are Involution of Academic Credentials
It's not hard to see that beneath these layers of hierarchy lies the intense involution of our times. Never mind how outrageous the school lists in overseas Chinese parents' matchmaking groups are; just look at the cast of dating reality shows, and you'll get some idea.
Recently, the cast list for "Heart Signal 6" was announced, and among 11 participants, four are returnees from abroad, plus two from Tsinghua and Peking University.
Such a lineup has long become the standard for dating shows.
— Wang Kaizhi
24, management trainee at an accounting firm
Master's: Johns Hopkins University, Finance
— Fan Yilan
24, management trainee at a bank headquarters
Undergraduate: University of California, San Diego, Mathematics and Economics
Master's: University College London, Computational Finance
— Zeng Zhaoying
27, financial analyst
Undergraduate: Shanghai International Studies University, Portuguese; Fudan University, Minor in Finance
Master's: ESADE Business School, International Management
— Lu Ke
26, business manager at an institution
Master's: Monash University, Accounting
— Hou Zhuocheng
24, recent graduate (sports specialty student, 5-year program)
Undergraduate: Peking University, International Politics
— Sun Jingjun
24, master's student
Master's: Tsinghua University, Electrical Engineering
Similar educational backgrounds and levels of attainment, to some extent, increase the likelihood of two people getting along harmoniously.
Especially in this era of "tiger parenting," without a decent academic credential, one is easily placed at the bottom of the hierarchy in the marriage market.
In fact, it's not just this one variety show that suffers from severe academic involution; amateur dating shows glorify master's degrees from top schools, talent shows compete on educational backgrounds, let alone overseas Chinese matchmaking groups. Reality, it must be said, is only crueler.
Remember when the matchmaking corner in People's Park in Shanghai went viral online, sparking many controversies and discussions?
Among the many matchmaking criteria, the most talked-about was undoubtedly a hierarchy of academic credentials:
Returnees from abroad > Graduates from Tsinghua and Peking University > 985/211 universities > Other key universities > Ordinary undergraduate institutions
Of course, such hierarchies are just the tip of the iceberg in study-abroad circles.
When It Comes to Hierarchies, No One Knows Better Than International Students
In study-abroad circles, there have always been some hierarchies that everyone tacitly understands, for example:
· Those studying in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore look down on those who have never been abroad
· Those studying in Oceania look down on those studying in Asia
· North American and UK study abroad are at the top of the hierarchy, but they still look down on each other
...
This hierarchy has evolved to become the entry threshold for elite children's matchmaking.
Of course, this hierarchy, laden with stereotypes, has long gone beyond just regions and schools. The hierarchies in study-abroad circles are layered and ever-evolving:
· Those in elite programs at top schools scorn those in "watered-down" programs at top schools
· Those in "watered-down" programs at top schools look down on those in regular school programs
· Those with low overall rankings but high specialized rankings look down on those with low overall and low specialized rankings
· Those in good locations look down on those in poor locations
· Daytime class students despise night class students
.......
There is also a default hierarchy for fields of study, generally:
Business > Medicine > Law > Engineering > Science > Social Sciences > Humanities > Arts
When these fields are further subdivided, hierarchies continue to emerge endlessly:
Business: Finance > Economics > Management > Accounting > Marketing > Others
Science: Math/Physics > Statistics/Psychology > Biology/Chemistry
Engineering: Computer Science/EE > Other Engineering
Social Sciences: Economics > Public Administration/Politics > Sociology > Others
Humanities: Philosophy > Journalism > History > Languages > Literature
Additionally, study-abroad circles have a hierarchy of English accents:
Posh and aloof British RP > Cool North American rhotic accent > To-die-for Aussie accent > Incomprehensible Hinglish > Not-even-close Chinglish > Unrecognizable Japanish
Language hierarchy:
TOEFL looks down on IELTS, IELTS looks down on TOEIC, TOEIC looks down on TEM-8, and CET-4/6 are crushed at the very bottom
There's even an offer hierarchy:
Full Scholarship > Tuition-waived > Offer > Waitlist > Reject
Full-scholarship offers sit at the top, with no financial worries—tuition, living expenses, accommodation all covered! Rejection is inevitably at the bottom, with not even an offer.
Apart from these hierarchies, not to mention the various post-graduation industry and department hierarchies—truly endless...
Don't Take It Too Seriously, or You'll Lose
In fact, we've seen countless stories about "educational gaps," involution will not stop, and hierarchies will keep emerging.
But life is like a marathon; starting points differ, journeys differ, yet everyone's goal is the same—to live their own life well.
Setting aside all stereotypes, on our study-abroad journeys, different regions, different schools, different majors each have their unique advantages. Ultimately, it's about choosing a path that suits you.
Don't belittle yourself, don't wallow in self-pity, don't willingly sink into degradation. Find a goal and direction to strive for and forge ahead bravely—that is the best attitude in the current environment.
With the 24Fall application season approaching, I hope everyone will set aside distractions, give it their all, and receive offers from their dream schools in this application season!
