However, most likely this is just a way for the school to make money from stupid rich kids who would not be admitted under ordinary circumstances. There diploma’s will most likely have asterisks stamped on them.

Where I criticize them, it is for “legacy” type admissions policies and high fees that screen out poor kids with no access to financial aid (the latter being a government policy issue as well).

I agree that this Jiaotong program is very blatantly discriminatory by design and cost, what with it specifically targeting the kids expected to inherit/take-over their family’s businesses. I just find it hard to admonish China for this tendency of wealth polarization and social stratification with a straight face when the same problem seems about as obvious in the West. I feel like we’re wobbling on the edge of a deep philosophical social policy hole and just one question away from falling in: What is the West doing to successfully combat this to serve as a good example to China? Once this question gets asked, then we’re back to the age-old debate between equality and meritocracy (aka pro or anti affirmative action).

But I don’t think I am. I have no problem with elite universities in general (and Jiaotong is a great school), as long as they allow equal access based on merit. Where I criticize them, it is for “legacy” type admissions policies and high fees that screen out poor kids with no access to financial aid (the latter being a government policy issue as well). For the same reasons, I think diversity programs in admissions are good things.

Elitism is a problem for all top programs in law, business, etc. You run the risk of creating a class of grads that have a tenuous grasp of what the real world is like. It doesn’t serve society, and it ultimately doesn’t serve the grads either. I went to college with a bunch of rich, privileged kids who frankly had their heads up their asses and needed some lessons in life.

Instead of trying to avoid these problems, this specific program at Jiaotong seems to run toward them. It is definitely emblematic of human social stratification, which is one huge problem with current economic growth patterns in this country. Universities should not be making the problems associated with the income gap worse.

How is this any different from what already exists in, particularly, the Western World? Rich kids having access by connections or wealth to more exclusive education and organizations?

Granted, Jiaotong is capitalizing on this and yes, the Confucian camo isn’t very convincing, but it’s kinda hard to comment on how this will “exacerbate the social disconnections brought about by the ever-widening income gap in this country” especially with West Point, Cambridge, “as well as business schools around Europe” involved in this program. Specifically, how is this actually and uniquely “emblematic of the worst tendencies of modern China and the problems associated with breakneck economic growth?

I don’t think this is emblematic of modern China or breakneck economic growth at all. This is emblematic of human social stratification.

BTW, as my first time commenting here, I do want to say I generally enjoy your posts and perspectives.