《经济学家》读译参考1-133.doc

Jan 19th 2006 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition Rebuilding the American dream machine FOR America's colleges, January isa month of reckoning. Most applications for the next academic year beginning in the autumn have to be made by the end of December, soa university's popularity is put to an objective standard: how many people want to attend. One of the more unlikely offices to have been flooded with mail is that of the City University of New York (CUNY), a public college that lacks, among other things, a famous sports team, bucolic campuses and raucous parties (it doesn't even have dorms), and, until recently, academic credibility. A primary draw at CUNY isa programme for particularly clever students, launched in 2001. Some 1,100 of the 60,000 students at CUNY's five top schools receive a rare thing in the costly world of American colleges: free education. Those accepted by CUNY's honours programme pay no tuition fees; instead they receive a stipend of $7,500 (to help with general expenses) and a puter. Applications for early admissions into next year's programme are up 70%. Admission has nothing to do with being an athlete, ora child of an alumnus, or having an influential sponsor, or being a member ofa particularly aggrieved ethnic group — criteria that are increasingly important at America's elite colleges. Most of the students who apply to the honours e from relat