Higher education's worldwide quest for minds and money

The Philadephia Inquirer reports:

It was just before 5 p.m. as students - many with families and younger siblings in tow - began trickling into the lobby of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Center on Walnut Street. Waiting to greet them were student volunteers wearing badges that read "International Student Orientation."

A cappella chorus music - the tasteful soundtrack of the Ivy League - was playing in the background, and finger food was arrayed on three tables decorated with Penn's red and blue.

Surveying the scene as they clutched drinks were Robert and Dorothy Lai. The head of an investment firm in Singapore, Robert Lai said his daughter Michelle had badly wanted to go to school in the United States.

"I told her if she got into an Ivy League school, she could go," he said, smiling. "So here we are."

The reception last year opened three days of events for 320 foreign-born freshmen, from "getting to know" Philadelphia primers to a public-safety briefing. The schedule seemed designed for parents discomfited by long-distance separation - a feeling somewhat assuaged by knowing that Penn's prestige inspired envy at home.