Malcom Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, was released last week. I read it over the weekend, on the theory that I had roughly 60 days–90 at the outside–before I’d heard it referenced at so many conferences that mere mention of the central anecdotes would cause me to reach for a hotel pen and stab myself in [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Elite Colleges'
Fact Check
The New York Times, April 20, 2008:
The number of low-income students at top institutions is still fairly low but is growing. The share of Harvard undergraduates receiving Pell grants rose to 13 percent this year, from 10 percent in 2003-4. At Amherst, over the same span, the number has risen to 18 percent from 15 [...]
Harvard and the Myth of Tightening College Admissions
The New York Times reports today that applications to Harvard are up an amazing 19% over last year, with other elite schools like the University of Chicago, Amherst, and Northwestern seeing double-digit increases. This allows newspapers to get a jump on the annual circulation-goosing college admissions panic story, which usually doesn’t run for another few [...]
What about the little guys?
Top colleges—Harvard, Yale, Davidson, University of Virginia—have all made great headlines in the past year by dramatically expanding the financial aid they offer to students and eliminating or significantly shrinking the debt students will graduate with. Yale announced Monday that it will be spending another $307 million from its endowment for increased financial aid and [...]
Choice for the Chosen Ones
Matt Yglesias responds to the post below, saying:
There probably isn’t a unique best way to handle this. Which is why it’s fortunate that even if you restrict your attention to the relatively small set of elite colleges and universities there are still a whole bunch of ‘em. It seems to me that there’s a set [...]
Panic! Some More
Since the college admission panic story has already been beaten to death by Reuter’s, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, the Washington Post obviously had no choice but to go above the fold with exactly the same story today. This is what happens when there’s a big education story that (A) writes [...]
Rankings Revolt?
Last week’s article in Time about a group of private college presidents trying to foment an anti-U.S. News & World Report rankings revolution has prompted a spate of follow-up, including this piece in the Yale Daily News. Yale President Richard Levin struck a note a note of skepticism:
Levin said that although he disagrees with the [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.