affirmative action | Joanne Jacobs

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 242 min read

Disadvantaged? Really???

Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of two university professors, was admitted to Hastings law school via a program for applicants...

4 comments

Why did black enrollment fall at Wellesley, but not at Yale?

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...

1 comment

It's possible to get into Harvard without basic algebra skills

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.

2 comments

MIT's new class is 47% Asian as black, Hispanic admissions fall

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.

6 comments

The college pitch: How students write personal essays

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...

1 comment

UCLA med school puts 'diversity' first, sees failure rates soar

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...

5 comments

More than ever, college applicants are writing about race

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...

4 comments

To gain public trust, make college admissions less 'murky'

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"...

3 comments

'Identity doesn't learn algebra and history'

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...

1 comment

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...

5 comments

Gen Z: Whites are 'oppressors' -- especially Jews

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...

8 comments

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...

6 comments

Rejected by 16 colleges, 18-year-old takes Google job: Yes, he's Asian

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...

23 comments

Yale changes admissions, avoids bias lawsuit

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...

11 comments

Low-SES Asians are top students: Can 'excellence gap' be closed?

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...

12 comments

Colleges ask students to write about identity -- in a constitutional-ish way

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...

5 comments

Focus on who gets out of poverty, not who gets into Harvard

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...

7 comments

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...

3 comments

Biden opposes 'privilege,' except when his granddaughter applied to Penn

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...

3 comments

Educate the 99%, who got no help from affirmative action

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...

6 comments