That is why 90%+ of Ph.D. students in ANY top US/Canadian STEM program are foreign-born, and usually have undergraduate degrees from abroad. The preparation is much better, plus it is much easier to identify top talent. E.g., in Iran (and in many other countries) all high school students going to college write the same exam and are natio…
That is why 90%+ of Ph.D. students in ANY top US/Canadian STEM program are foreign-born, and usually have undergraduate degrees from abroad. The preparation is much better, plus it is much easier to identify top talent. E.g., in Iran (and in many other countries) all high school students going to college write the same exam and are nationally ranked. So if you get someone in the top 1000 from a good school, you know you are getting someone very smart and well prepared. Much more of a crapshoot with US/Canadian grads given the grade inflation and non-informative effusive letters of recommendation. But open national ranking system would, of course, violate all three components of DEI.
That is why 90%+ of Ph.D. students in ANY top US/Canadian STEM program are foreign-born, and usually have undergraduate degrees from abroad. The preparation is much better, plus it is much easier to identify top talent. E.g., in Iran (and in many other countries) all high school students going to college write the same exam and are nationally ranked. So if you get someone in the top 1000 from a good school, you know you are getting someone very smart and well prepared. Much more of a crapshoot with US/Canadian grads given the grade inflation and non-informative effusive letters of recommendation. But open national ranking system would, of course, violate all three components of DEI.