Discourse

Across U.S., Women Are Choosing Less Financially Rewarding Majors

Female students are more inclined to select a major with lower earnings prospects than their male counterparts, a new study finds. This is true even in cases when both female and male students prioritize income potential in their choice of a major. Why is this the case? Natasha Quadlin, an assistant professor of sociology at… Read More
Community Colleges Can Pave the Way to Elite Universities, Study Finds

Students know that graduating from a selective college or university will give them a significant leg up in the job market. Getting into such an institution right out of high school, however, is no simple task. More than anything, students need a high GPA and a good score on their ACT or SAT. But a… Read More
Opinion: Free College Proposals Should Include Private Colleges

Students can use federal financial aid to attend any college they want, whether public or private. But the “free college” proposals floated by some 2020 presidential candidates would increase federal funding only for community colleges or state-run universities. Private nonprofit universities would be excluded. The question is: Why? From my vantage point as scholar of… Read More
With College Costs Skyrocketing, Why Still Go?

As graduating seniors unravel their freshly-printed diplomas, it’s hard for most of them to see anything but a huge bill. In recent years, skyrocketing tuition prices have forced 70 percent of college students to take out loans to pay for their education. On average, these borrowers graduate with $37,172 left to pay back. But despite… Read More
Why Both Democrats and Republicans Support Free Community College

Recently, West Virginia became the 24th state to establish a statewide College Promise program to allow students to attend community and technical colleges for free. This news comes at an increasingly partisan time when nearly every political idea is tagged with either a red or blue stamp. However, the concept of free community college has… Read More
How Higher Ed Can Earn the Public’s Trust After the Admissions Scandal

The college admissions scandal is exposing illegal and unethical conduct by dozens of people who paid or took bribes to get students into the University of Southern California and other elite universities. Concerns about social justice, meritocracy, parental overreach, privileges tied to wealth and philanthropy are rampant. It’s also pointing to another widespread concern that… Read More
Subsidized Privilege: The Real Scandal of American Universities

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged 50 people — 38 of them are parents — for allegedly being involved in fraud schemes to secure spots at Yale, Stanford and other big-name schools. Prosecutors accused some parents of paying millions of dollars in bribes to get their children into these prestigious schools. The scandal has thrust the… Read More
College Admission Scandal Grew Out of a System That Was Ripe for Corruption

As part of the “Operation Varsity Blues” case that federal prosecutors announced March 12, dozens of people – including Hollywood actresses and wealthy businessmen – stand accused of having bought their children’s way into elite colleges and universities. As a researcher who has studied how young athletes get admitted to college, I don’t see a… Read More
Why Low-Income Students Should Have the First Shot at Free College

As the United States moves forward with making debt-free college a possibility, policymakers must prioritize making higher education accessible for low-income and historically underrepresented students, according to a recent report by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). Undoubtedly, a degree in higher education, today, is more important than ever before. It is, in… Read More
Some Want To Get Rid of College Majors – Here’s How That Could Go Wrong

Should college majors be a thing of the past? That idea received a fresh airing when author Jeffrey Selingo suggested that it’s “time to end college majors as we know them.” As a researcher who studies higher education, I concede that something about the way colleges and universities educate students in the United States needs… Read More
More Colleges Than Ever Have Test-Optional Admissions Policies — And That’s a Good Thing

Back in the 1980s, Bates College and Bowdoin College were nearly the only liberal arts colleges not to require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores. On Jan. 10, FairTest, a Boston-based organization that has been pushing back against America’s testing regime since 1985, announced that the number of colleges that are test-optional has… Read More
The National Push to Integrate Women Into STEM Fields

Women now make up 45.8 percent of the professional U.S. workforce. Unfortunately, while many strides have been taken to integrate women into a broad range of professional occupations, the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) still hold significant gender gaps. But diversity fosters development in every work environment. “Diversity is at the core… Read More
Matching Students with the Right Colleges Key to Success

Every year, highly-qualified students from around the U.S. forego the opportunity to attend top colleges and universities in favor of less competitive ones. This phenomenon is called undermatching, and it has been a persistent problem for educators and policymakers in recent years. In a recent study, researchers at the University at Buffalo (UB) have found… Read More