Archive for the ‘ Ivy League ’ Category

Did Any 2007 Best Actor Nominees Attend College?

Many actors grow up on stage – spending their childhoods in a spotlight of some sort – why would they stop their careers to go to university? Very few actors actually attend college and if they do, a high percentage drop out. Famous college dropouts include: Jake Gyllenhaal – Columbia University, Woody Allen – New [ READ MORE ]

Rank My Professor

Are online professor rating sites even useful? I’ve been reading about these new “grade your professor” web sites (Pick-A-Prof and Rate my Professors) and, while I think the basic idea is good, I have mixed feelings about their ultimate usefulness. When I was an undergrad at Harvard we had a nifty little (actually, it was [ READ MORE ]

Private College Counselors

Are colleges today more selective than ever? According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling , over the last 20 years the college admissions selectivity rate hasn’t changed; 4-year colleges on average still accept 75% of their applicants. But Harvard and Princeton are just as selective as they’ve always been with acceptance rates under [ READ MORE ]

Backdoor Admissions to Selective Universities

The NY Times today published a piece about an interesting college admissions strategy: To get into a selective school, apply to a less popular program and then once you’re accepted, transfer into your desired program. Transfering within a university is easier than entering it. How to choose which major to apply to? Some programs are [ READ MORE ]

Elite College Grads + Their Future Earnings

Estimating the Payoff to Attending A More Selective College If you’re middle class, it won’t make a difference whether or not you attend a state university or Princeton income-wise. In 2002, the Quarterly Journal of Economics from MIT Press found that a middle class kid who graduates from an elite college doesn’t make any more [ READ MORE ]