Jesse Singal

Gene C. Fant, dean of arts and sciences at Jackson, Tennessee’s Union University, writes in The Chronicle about his experience racing through college in the 1980s. It’s a good read and a nice followup to Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-Tenn.) recent column on the subject in Newsweek.

Inside Higher Ed notes that it’s become more or less the conventional wisdom that one of the reasons the United States’ economy is at such risk is because other parts of the world are doing much better in the higher education department, whether you measure graduation rates, those who graduate with degrees in engineering, or […]

The Washington Post helps embarrass the younger generation: One night inside a George Washington University fraternity, a sky-diving, weight-lifting, energy-drink-swilling group of brothers gathers around the pool table, boasting about how, no matter what their college, government and parents might say, they don’t need any swine flu vaccine, thanks very much. The men of Sigma […]

The Washington Post took on rising tuition costs in one of today’s editorials, acknowledging that the recession is, as everyone acknowledges, a factor. But it would be foolish to shovel too much of the blame onto the current economic situation: This problem didn’t start with the recession — and it won’t end with it, either. […]

Inside Higher Ed sums up some of the key findings in No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life, a new book on (as the title would suggest) how race and class impact the college experience, from start to finish: * Significant advantages and disadvantages exist for […]

The blog for CNN’s American Morning has up a helpful post on applying for financial aid for college. The key is for students to begin the application process early. If they don’t, an already bad situation can get worse, and some good opportunities can be missed: Additionally, many schools have created “adverse economic circumstances funds” […]

An Inside Higher Ed article suggests that the recession-catalyzed increase in college enrollment may not mean what we think it means for private colleges: Private colleges bolstered financial aid and decreased selectivity to help sustain enrollment in a downward economy, but a significant number still expect tuition and fee revenues to decline this year, according […]

Inside Higher Ed has up a piece on some of the negative reactions to the Center for American Progress white paper I blogged about yesterday, which called for the Department of Education to create a consumer protection office for the nation’s higher education system. The article is worth a read, but the rebuttal is best […]

The New York Post reports: “The Wire,” HBO’s gritty series about life in the Baltimore ghetto, is about to become a course at Harvard. The announcement came at a panel discussion at the school featuring several of the show’s stars, according to the Harvard student newspaper, The Crimson. The class will be taught by sociology […]

The Center for American Progress has up a good white paper (when I first posted this I incorrectly referred to it as a column) about one of the foundational shortcomings in the United States’ higher education system: Students make customer choices based on available information, interests, abilities and life circumstances that will mostly determine whether […]