In 2008, former Yale professor William Deresiewicz wrote a scathing essay titled “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.” It quickly went viral, gaining more than 100,000 views in a matter of weeks (and many times that since). “The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven,” he noted, “but also anxious, timid and […]

Beginning in 2016, when prospective students to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Ind.) submit their SAT scores and transcripts, they’ll be asked to take a personality quiz to help the school determine who has the right stuff to succeed. “I’ve always felt there’s something missing in admissions, something that we can do better,” says Jim […]

Helen Drinan is nothing if not outspoken. The eighth president of Simmons College (Mass.) is a strong advocate of women’s rights, diversity and equal opportunity. Coming from a corporate background where she often had to stand up for herself in a male-dominated environment, Drinan pulls no punches when pointing out higher education’s shortcomings in these […]

One of the more enduring images from the recent protests in Ferguson, Mo., was that of armored military vehicles rolling down the streets of the city. It was the result of the Department of Defense Excess Property Program, also called the 1033 program, that transferred surplus military equipment to law-enforcement agencies around the country. But […]

When Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa published Academically Adrift in 2011, it exposed the shortcomings of undergraduate learning. In their new book, Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, Arum, a sociology professor at NYU, and Roksa, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, find many recent graduates are ill-prepared to land decent […]

Read just about any editorial page these days and you’ll see a familiar refrain: “Is a college degree still worth it?” Wesleyan University (Conn.) President Michael Roth argues that not only is it worth it, but that it is more important than ever. Higher education admittedly faces many challenges over cost and access. Online instruction, […]

Quick, what business makes more money than the NFL yet pays most of its workers next to nothing? The answer is college sports, which according to a ruling handed down last month by federal judge Claudia Wilken, should indeed be recognized as a business. College sports generate $10.5 billion in revenue, the bulk of it […]

A common notion of college is that it’s a great equalizer—anyone who works hard and applies themselves can achieve a better life. But Elizabeth Armstrong, a sociologist from University of Michigan, and Laura Hamilton, a professor from University of California, Merced present a different reality in Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality (Harvard […]