Joanne Jacobs
Ivy crazy: Should colleges make merit broader -- and fuzzier?
" The meritocracy isn't working ," writes David Brooks in The Atlantic . Ambitious parents "ferry their kids from one supervised...
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
Aug 182 min read
The trauma of the non-traumatized student
It's the start of the college application season, and 12th-graders are searching their lives for subject matter for essays, writes Robert...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 61 min read
Tests may be 'optional,' but not if you want to get in to an elite college
Yale is not “being honest about the reality of our admissions process” because the university is “denying 98 percent of the students who...
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
Jun 81 min read
Young and gay
The Ivy League is not very heterosexual, notes Rod Dreher. You'll see that the percentages of LGBTQ+ students nearly tripled at Brown...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 192 min read
Drop the admissions essay, and bring back the SAT
It's time to dump college admissions essays, writes Matthew Levey on The 74. Test scores and good grades in challenging courses are...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 62 min read
Ivy crazy
Getting Aidan or Abigail into a bumper-sticker-worthy college doesn't come cheaply. In addition to $800,000 or so for 13 years at a top...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 62 min read
Dartmouth will require SAT/ACT scores to help low-income students
Dartmouth will require applicants to submit standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT, ending a long "pandemic pause," reports...
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 92 min read
Why Americans don't trust higher ed: It's the lying and the whining
Only 36 percent of Americans expressed "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of trust in higher education in a 2023 Gallup survey, down from 57...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 82 min read
SAT/ACT scores predict success, open doors for 'diverse' students
Want equity? Require college applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores, writes David Leonhardt in the New York Times. The progressives' "war...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 14, 20232 min read
College fail: Are the Covid kids ready to learn?
"(Are you ready?) Yes, I'm ready . . . I don't even know how to hold your hand Just to make you understand But I'm ready (ready) to learn...
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
Nov 16, 20232 min read
Disarming grades
"Handwringing" about grade inflation is "inflated," suggests Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. She offers a piece by Jack Schneider...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 27, 20231 min read
SAT scores fall, as the number of test takers rebounds
Despite the surge in colleges going "test optional," the number of students taking the SAT "is growing back to pre-pandemic figures,"...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 26, 20232 min read
America needs strivers
Rewarding mediocrity is a losing strategy for America, writes Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion 3.0, on Education Next. U.S....
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 25, 20232 min read
'A' is for 'awesome,' 'awful' and 'average'
"The most popular high school grade in America" is "A," writes Tim Donahue, who teaches high school English at Greenwich Country Day...
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...
bottom of page