Joanne Jacobs
Disadvantaged? Really???
Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of two university professors, was admitted to Hastings law school via a program for applicants...
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 182 min read
Why did black enrollment fall at Wellesley, but not at Yale?
"Holistic" admissions to selective colleges is a "black box," writes Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. Nobody knows...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 101 min read
It's possible to get into Harvard without basic algebra skills
Harvard has added an introductory math course for students who are weak on basic algebra.
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 232 min read
MIT's new class is 47% Asian as black, Hispanic admissions fall
MIT ended racial preferences and admitted more Asians, slightly fewer whites and significantly fewer Hispanics and blacks.
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 52 min read
The college pitch: How students write personal essays
Minority students are only slightly less likely to write about their racial or ethnic identity in college admissions essays, according to...
Joanne Jacobs
May 282 min read
UCLA med school puts 'diversity' first, sees failure rates soar
UCLA has become a"failed medical school" because it "cut corners" to achieve racial diversity, a former admissions staffer says. Failure...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 282 min read
More than ever, college applicants are writing about race
Writing about race is more popular than ever for black, Hispanic and indigenous college applicants, writes Bernard Mokam in the New York...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 91 min read
To gain public trust, make college admissions less 'murky'
College admissions are "murky," and getting murkier, writes Peter Arcidiacono, a Duke economics professor, on Persuasion. "Test-optional"...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 32 min read
'Identity doesn't learn algebra and history'
"You can't lift up people based on identity," Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, says in a conversation...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 22 min read
Gay's gone: Is diversity hiring dead?
Claudine Gay has resigned as president of Harvard University after new charges of plagiarism. "Confronting hate and . . . upholding...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 17, 20232 min read
Gen Z: Whites are 'oppressors' -- especially Jews
"White people are oppressors," say 79 percent of young Americans 18 to 24 years old in a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll. "Nonwhite...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 22, 20232 min read
Ivy dreams, but what's realistic?
"Safe to say Harvard is out," Demar Goodman, who's black, told a friend when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected race-based college...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 11, 20231 min read
Rejected by 16 colleges, 18-year-old takes Google job: Yes, he's Asian
Stanley Zhong earned nearly perfect grades (3.97 unweighted, 4.42 weighted) and SAT scores (1590 out of 1600). He founded his own...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 16, 20231 min read
Yale changes admissions, avoids bias lawsuit
Elite colleges have "rolled out new application questions this fall to provide students with opportunities to discuss their racial...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 30, 20232 min read
Low-SES Asians are top students: Can 'excellence gap' be closed?
A middle school in a working-class, mostly Hispanic neighborhood in San Jose started teaching algebra after a wave of Vietnamese refugee...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 19, 20232 min read
Colleges ask students to write about identity -- in a constitutional-ish way
Asked by his first-choice college about a challenge he'd overcome, "Frank" wrote about struggling with algebra in ninth grade. He'd...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 25, 20232 min read
Focus on who gets out of poverty, not who gets into Harvard
Obsessing over who gets into elite colleges and universities is an odd preoccupation for progressives, argues Francisco Toro on...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 6, 20231 min read
Prep disadvantaged kids for Ivy futures
Elite colleges should create and fund middle and high schools to educate disadvantaged students, writes Roland Fryer, a Harvard economics...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 5, 20233 min read
Biden opposes 'privilege,' except when his granddaughter applied to Penn
Harvard's admissions break for children of alumni and donors "discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair boost" to...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 5, 20232 min read
Educate the 99%, who got no help from affirmative action
"Affirmative action," a euphemism for racial preferences, "is a misguided, discriminatory policy whose end is long overdue," writes...
bottom of page