5 things I hate about US universities...

1. US universities are all about making MONEY
I think this happens especially for people who come from countries like India. We have grown up to believe that schools and universities are "temples of learning" and "education is sacred"...pardonnez moi for the cliches but here it is all about making money. Students are charged for every small/big thing and then some more. The biggest scams of all is forced insurance for international students....

2. Does the quality of education matches the costs? NOT AT ALL
If you argue with me on this, then maybe I was lucky to go to a really good university in India. I came to the US not expecting magic, but at least keen to find what the brouhaha about an American degree is all about. I study at what may be called "ranking wise" one of the top ten schools in the US and one of the best in the world in my particular area. Yet, I find the teaching insipid, the exposure probably marginally better to what I had an undergrad in India..Though, I would be willing to concede that this malady could be typical of my area of study...the discipline in itself lacks rigor...

3. I hate the over politeness yet the non-helpfulness of the American bureaucracy
I know what you are thinking. That coming from the land of RED-TAPE itself, how can I criticize the American system? Well, see the thing with India is that you get what you see..If the Indian babus are non-helpful then they are that to my face...They don't go about saying stuff in saccharine sweetness..."Oh, I am sorry that you have to pay this..", "Oh, I am sorry but this is the procedure.." (also see later). I could be dying (hypothetically speaking) and go looking for assistance and all these people will do is shake their heads, give me that mocking smile...which seems to say to me.."We might be a GARGANTUAN university and what you say really makes sense and in general you are a very nice person, but helping you is out of our power.." The most annoying department in the US universities....The International Student Services...Bunch of morons who have been employed to make international students feel that they matter more than the money they bring in...

4. I don't know what my professors really mean
This should actually be an extension of the point before. In India, if I was in trouble in any particular subject, professors wouldn't mince any words in telling you as much...Here, I am treated (again on face) as a frigging Nobel laureate yet get passed over for a coveted scholarship over and over again. I am a BIG GIRL, tell me to my face where I really stand....believe me I won't cry....I too can smile till my jaws hurt...

5. This is the procedure, there is nothing we can do
Procedure seems to be the golden word, which University staffer just can't seem to see beyond...Taking personal initiative or questioning the "procedure" is just bureaucratic harakiri, no one is willing to commit..."We work for the University. Kindly do not ask us to think" is like the unwritten motto plate hanging behind the purple halos surrounding their heads.....

Moral of the rant: I have been here,
and I have been there.
Now that I am here,
I wish I was there.