<p>Sucharita, I don’t beleive that it is worse than ours. Let me explain, in Bulgaria you can buy the exams to universities two or three weeks before the actual exams if you are willing to pay $ 1000-1500, so there is absolutely no need to study. And if you don’t want to bother yourself with memorizing the answers/solutions you can still get in if your father/mother is a minister, diplomat, or other public figure. About half of the student body at each university is compromised of kids who got in just because daddy pulled some strings for them. Then you can spend your whole college career without opening a book if you can pay for the exams. And the profs are more than willing to sell to you the answers/solutions to some test. This should not surprise you because they have very miserable salaries. This also explains their lack of interest in their students. My cousin is a student at Bulgaria’s most elite university. He took one of his exams with a passing grade, but his prof refused to verify it (profs have to verify the marks from the exams, so that they can be considered “passed”) because my cousin could not afford to pay the $ 100 the prof wanted…
And then of course there is the possibility to graduate from an university without having to attend one. You can just buy a LEGITIMATE diploma if you have the money…
And this is not the complete picture. I just wanted to help you get a feel of how BAD the educational system really is. BTW, good luck with Princeton!!!</p>
<p>Beechbum, you’re right about the history… to be exact it is 1324 years.</p>