Remember “Harvard Girl”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Girl
One of my favorite memories of Cornell’s graduation was the unabashed pride & joy of the Asian parents when their children made their way into the stadium. There was a group of 20-25 right behind us that stood & unfurled a banner, with what I assumed to be their child’s names and / or hometown, on it. Very touching moment.
“Same of these Asian tourists like to photograph themselves (or their kids) with the students attending prestigious universities they are visiting. Make you feel like a rare antelope in some nature preserve. Nothing beats being asked for a photo op when you just rolled out of bed and are running late to class.”
D1 went to Harvard and she said the tourists are a constant presence on campus. Once when she was a freshman living in The Yard she got up early (or early for a college student) one morning to go running with a friend. She was pretty much the only real Harvard student in sight at that hour. Just as she began stretching and warming up for the run a bus load of Chinese tourists pulled up and they all came pouring out and running over to her, pointing and staring - snapping dozens of pictures of her from only 1-3 feet away.
When I was in Dublin I visited Trinity, but I spent most of my time photographing the library, not the students. In general I like to visit college campuses, but I typically like to quietly stroll around or sit in the student union soaking up the vibe. I make an effort not to be an obnoxious tourist.
@Scipio, Being a Chinese American with a good understanding of Chinese culture. I can assure you these Chinese tourists only have the utmost respect for your daughter, although I cannot agree with their behavior.
I live in between Harvard and MIT. Yes, I particularly see tour busses full of Asians from overseas touring Harvard. In fact, I hosted several different guests from China and from Hong Kong at my place in the past week or two and all went to see these schools, just to see them. Many, if not most, are not going to see them with the idea of applying, but more as a tourist attraction. Likewise, I was recently in Cambridge, UK and went all around the very interesting and magnificent University of Cambridge campus. I guess I was a gawking tourist there too.
Tourists visiting renown universities doesn’t surprise me. My family has stopped, walked and taken pictures of many campuses on our vacations. While in England visiting Windsor Castle, we made the relatively short trek with fellow Americans to Eton College…and yes, people got excited and took pictures of students they saw on their way to class…and no, Prince William was not among them. 
Isn’t every city is part of a county? Is Stanford part of another City?
Cities are parts of counties, but (at least in California) not all parts of a given county have to be within a city. The parts of the county not in any city are called the unincorporated parts of the county. Note that postal address “city” may not necessarily match whether the place actually is in a city of that name, or is actually a city.
Most of the Stanford University campus is in a part of Santa Clara County that is not part of any city, although some parts like the medical center are in the city of Palo Alto.
“people got excited and took pictures of students they saw on their way to class”
Given the uniforms at Eton, this makes some sense. 
Here in Virginia we have a number of cities that are not in any county. They are independent cities.
Taking pictures of children going in to Eton is pretty weird behavior. I imagine if people started randomly taking pictures of kids going into your local high school the police would be called.
I think the county, city, etc thing is hard to grasp if you don’t have it where you live. Many areas have way too many municipal layers of government! So you may live in a village that is part of a town, that is part of no city in the county of X. Or maybe the village is split and is a part of 2 different towns in that same county. Or maybe you just live in the “unincorporated” Town, no village.
We have no end of that nonsense here!!
I think this is odd behavior, but too me it is just different variant of other behaviors I think are odd, but seemingly no one else does.
An example to me is the way that people go nuts over athletes. I feel like the odd person out most of the time who feels that way. Who would be surprised if there were some well known athletes willing to sit at the stadium and sign autographs, and bus full of American teenagers pulled up and wanted to get their pictures taken with their favorite player?
This isn’t because I dislike sports. I loved playing basketball and baseball growing up. I love watching my kids play and enjoy the sport. They are all wonderful games, but to me that’s what they are. Games for kids. The extent to which we idolize and celebrate grown men (and increasingly women now) who play them becomes just as odd to me.
In our culture it is athletes and celebrities. In theirs it is elite institutions and the kids who are talented enough to get into them. It is all the same odd behavior to me. People just seem to need to idolize something.
Thank you for giving me an outlet for my old guy rant of the day. My kids will be very appreciative. I can now return to docility for the remainder of the evening at least.
@", Being a Chinese American with a good understanding of Chinese culture. I can assure you these Chinese tourists only have the utmost respect for your daughter, although I cannot agree with their behavior."
well, thank goodness they have respect for her because she goes to Harvard. Presumably the implication is that they don’t or wouldn’t respect kids who go to Average State U. Gag.
^^^No, he did not say that nor was there any implications.
Don’t put words into his mouth that aren’t there.
I think it’s curiosity. I’m in my swimming pool and the Chinese people also stared at me. I’m no Harvard.
“Curiosity” about people who go to Harvard? Only if you think such people are Exceptional Human Beings.
Curiosity in general. What so big deal about a middle age person swimming, why do I get the stares. I’m not even fat or obese, in case you are wondering.
[QUOTE=""]
why do I get the stares Ah - you have to tell us more. :o)
[/QUOTE]
I have a statuesque blonde friend who studied Chinese in Taiwan in the 80’s.
She really enjoyed the experience but she said the one thing she really hated was the stares when she was at the beach. I would like to think people have better manners these days.
But I think it could be worse. If I go to the beach people would try to help me back to the ocean since I look like a stranded whale.
this is a silly discussion. I’ve been the only white woman in rural Indian villages and been the local object of curiosity.
But that doesn’t describe Harvard students, who look just like any other set of Massachusetts residents. So the fawning and oh-let-me-take-their-picture is obsequious and obnoxious, because it’s not like these foreign tourists haven’t ever seen actual Americans. It speaks to the idealization of Harvard, and that speaks to a pathetic set of values.