The only people applying to those from the UK are the wealthy.
If by "very top" you mean "richest", then maybe. But I'm not sure we care about that?
If you can't get the grades, you don't have merit.
Debase the currency, surprised when it has less value? Lol.
Of course! So easy! What percentage of foreign students applying get aid or scholarships?
> Again, this is really the best of the best, those with the highest merit.
You're assuming that "the best of the best" are applying. This is not true. "The best of the best who are encouraged to apply and/or have the means", apply. This is not the same population.
> All they had to do was convince a bureaucrat their life was hard
I don't know who this "bureaucrat" is. When I interviewed at Cambridge I was seen by 3 fellows, all members of the relevant departments.
> If you can't get the grades, you don't have merit.
Nobody's this naive, surely?
Collage loans seem like a great solution when you’re entering a highly lucrative career, but that’s not true for every top student.
> Debase the currency, surprised when it has less value?
This bizarre comment is not related to the issue at all.
Higher education is a strange purchase that is engineered to extract the maximum amount of money (up to full-cost tuition, fees, etc.), based on financial records which you are forced to provide.
Any asset except for a residence is typically considered something that could be tendered to the university, and is accordingly deducted from financial need.
This means that external scholarships are limited as to how much they can reduce the expected parental or student contribution. Anything beyond this limit is deducted from need and pocketed by the university.
For this they measured the gap between what graduates made, and what they would be expected to make based on high school record, test scores, and choice of major. In other words, "How much do you earn because of the university you went to, rather than your own virtues?"
That university won because it has a network rich people who could help people's careers get a good launch.
However... some of the best business contacts I have came from teaching at a trade school in Texas. But I'm just selling solutions into SMEs, I'm not baby-sitting kids with VC funds.
Not to say I'm (nor was) 'the very top' either - I just liked the idea of MIT for the same reason Imperial appealed I suppose.