McDonald's 'University' More Exclusive Than Harvard

Chinese young people are desperate to get an education—in McDonald's management techniques. China’s edition of McDonald’s “Hamburger University” has become harder to get into than Harvard, Bloomberg reports, accepting less than 1% of applicants, compared to the Crimson’s record low of 7% last year. Of course, it’s not exactly a fair comparison—Hamburger U isn’t a real university, it’s a corporate training program.

But that sounds just fine to China’s job-hungry population—a whopping 26% of China’s college graduates are unemployed. The university is the chain's stab at tapping that talent pool. “We’ll make sure the people pipeline is ready,” says the head of the 16,846-square-foot facility. And many students see it as a viable career path. “Now my father has stopped trying to persuade me to work in banking,” brags one woman. (More China stories.)