college

We Still Suck at Getting Poor Kids Into College

Hamilton Nolan · 04/20/16 09:15AM

American colleges and universities are constantly working to diversify their student bodies (or at least appear to diversify on the cover of brochures). A new study finds that we have failed to do much at all to get poor people college educations, though.

The SAT Has Been Hacked

J.K. Trotter · 03/28/16 05:19PM

The SAT, the standardized test taken by high school seniors to burnish their college applications, was administered nearly 1.7 million times last year. The test’s popularity within college admissions is based, in part, on the perception of fairness: As any recent test-taker is well aware, it is extremely difficult to cheat the SAT. According to a deeply reported investigative series by Reuters, however, a large number of SAT test-takers in Asia have benefitted from an illicit advantage when taking the exam:

Class War: Yale Edition

Hamilton Nolan · 03/25/16 09:13AM

Yale University is sitting on an endowment worth $25.6 billion. The state of Connecticut, on the other hand, is pretty broke. Now, Connecticut wants to tax Yale’s endowment. This could be more revolutionary than it sounds.

Do Not Get a Degree From an Online For-Profit College

Hamilton Nolan · 03/24/16 11:00AM

If you want to go to college, try community college. Try public college. Try the school of hard knocks. Do not, however, pay money for a degree from an online, for-profit school. Studies say: no!!!

The Federal Government Did Not Spend $412K to Study Gender and Glaciers

Andy Cush · 03/08/16 09:45AM

Here is a story that is perfectly calibrated to rile up the staffers of right-leaning publications. It has federal overspending to the tune of six figures on seemingly trivial causes. It has concern for the environment and climate change. Most importantly, it’s got a big ol’ dollop of campus feminism, holding it all together. It’s too bad it isn’t really true.

Either College Kids Are Sexist OR Women Aren't Smart 

Hamilton Nolan · 03/04/16 10:30AM

A new study that examines millions of online reviews of college professors finds that either there are fewer brilliant women and black professors, or college kids are dumb. Will we ever know which is the case?