Surely you are trolling.

I am not. The rates for an upper level school in the US are similar.

As for admission to some Ivy League Universities, there have been allegations where donations have to be made.

Call it corruption, capitalism or communism, still looks like money has to be paid to someone. Official or unofficial the rates are high.

Great. Now try that at a public university and you'll go to jail.

Even if its not downright corruption, there is a price for a good education in western countries, too. Highly educated parents will want a good education for their kids, they will move to where that can be had. Since high education is strongly correlated with high income, gentrification sets in, pushing out lower-income households.

And thats just up to high-school; it's very clear that money can get you into any university, merits or not.

Granted, but the USA still has vastly more social mobility than china. I'm a bit disgusted that someone would even claim they are about the same.

I had no advantages of highly educated parents nor much money, yet I was able to get through high school and into a good state university, then a decent phd program; money was paid but not that much, and definitely nothing to the public per-university schools I went to.

The data really don't give me so much confidence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Great_Gatsby_Curve.png

Yes, the US is better than China, but when you realize the US is much closer to China than say.. Canada, it is a bit disheartening.

Yes, you did succeed with little to start with: congratulations. I could find people with your story in China as well. The sad truth though is that most people in your situation did not do as well as you; what happened to all of your high school classmates?

GP may be exaggerating a bit, but there is an incredibly high correlation to parental wealth and success in the US. For high school, if you don't go to a nice expensive private school, it'll really help to live in a (expensive) neighborhood with great public schools.

I attended a public university, but it was very clear that the kids there disproportionately had high parental income. And.. the kids with the high parental income tended to a) get higher grades and B) get better jobs afterward.

I live in china, I know how bad it is here; I went through school in the states, I know what goes on there. No one is bribing middle or high school teachers in the states, you would go to jail if you even tried! Our only problem is thte push from parents, oppurtinities are still open if you don't have money as long as you work for it. The same is true in Canada actually, we aren't that far off from our northern neighbors; only our unviserities cost more but are also better at the high end.

But whatever problems we have in the states, the problems in china are very different and much more wicked.