In mid-March, fifty parents in the US were charged with conspiracy to secure their children spots in the country’s most elite universities. Up to six and a half million dollars were spent by each family to cheat the convoluted US college application system. Why would parents go to such ridiculous lengths to brute-force their children into a certain life? Where does this obsession with elite colleges stem from? And might some of the answers be here, within the gates of UNIS Hanoi?

In an effort to understand the US college application system and both the obsessiveness and psychological havoc it seems to wreak on our own students, I have spent hours interviewing UNIS’s teachers, counselors, the matriculated, and the yet-to-matriculate. What I have heard has outraged and saddened and humbled me, sometimes all at once. I have been documenting my findings in this Flame special edition podcast, The Common Room.

Cover design by Shane Chung.

Music citations:

Out of the Skies, Under the Earth by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Source: chriszabriskie.com/reappear/
Artist: chriszabriskie.com/

Brethren, Arise by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Source: chriszabriskie.com/darkglow/
Artist: chriszabriskie.com/
Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/C2vSobE2vCg

Cylinder Two by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Source: chriszabriskie.com/cylinders/
Artist: chriszabriskie.com/
Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/5Z0vaEQ46LY

Oxygen Garden by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Source: chriszabriskie.com/divider/
Artist: chriszabriskie.com/
Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/3tRFVyD51pQ

Divider by Chris Zabriskie freemusicarchive.org/music/Chr…
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International— CC BY 4.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b…
Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/VCnmFBjTlX0