harvard expands financial aid program

if your family makes less than $60k a year, you attend for free. last year, the ceiling was $40k.

this is definitely a step in the right direction. if you get into a top college, you should be able to attend. period.

actually, if i had i my way, going to the top colleges should be free for everyone. and there should be no legacy admissions, no affirmative action, and no athletic recruitment. then we'll have a true (academic) meritocracy.

i don't know if i remember correctly, and maybe my parents just made it up, but my dad said the taiwanese educational system is a system based on merit. if you get the top scores, you get into the top colleges, and you get to go for free - regardless of your background. he came from a humble background, and he got into the best university in taiwan. he went for free like everyone else. my mother didn't do so well on the entrance exams, so she ended up having to pay tuition at an okay university. (these facts might be slightly wrong, but it's what i recall from a conversation i had with them when i was seven or eight or so.) and i guess if you did crappy on your exam and you're faced with going to a crappy university with a high tuition, it might make you think twice about investing so much time and money. like a gentle, "hey, maybe academics isn't for you."

even if academics isn't your strong suit, you can still be as cool as ang lee.

In high school, the stakes were higher for Lee. He was studying both for academic success and family honor. His father was also the school's headmaster.

Lee applied himself in school, but he kept up his interest in the arts. He drew comics and sang soprano in the choir, said his younger brother, Lee Kang, who works in TV production and film distribution.

But Lee flunked his college entrance exams twice -- a colossal disgrace for his family and a failure that dooms many young Taiwanese to mediocre careers.

"The only purpose of life was to get into college. Because our father was the principal, the other people in his social circle were principals, teachers. There was indirect pressure. They would ask, 'What colleges did Ang and Kang get into?"' the younger Lee recounted.

Lee recovered by passing an easier exam that got him into the theater and film program at the National Arts School -- a vocational school, not a full-fledged university.

see, now, academics isn't everything. getting an A in applied physics won't get you an oscar. :)