A few weeks ago, Harvard made an announcement that may result in students from more middle and upper-middle-class families to apply and attend the university.

The New York Times reported that, “The move, to go into effect in the next school year, appears to make Harvard’s aid to students with household incomes from $120,000 to $180,000 the most generous of any of the country’s prestigious private universities. Harvard will generally charge such students 10 percent of their family household income per year, substantially subsidizing the annual cost of more than $45,600.”

What Harvard has done is eliminate Early Admission - which critics said targeted students from wealthy families. In lieu of this, Harvard is seeking students from rural America who might not be as well off, as well as others who might help diversify the socio-economic profile of the student body. To learn more about this initiative and how the administration is going after this goal, check out this video on Harvard’s website. It seems that other top schools, like Princeton, are also trying to diversify. The Times article mentions a slew of schools doing the same thing:

“Princeton was among the first universities to alter its financial aid formulas to help low-income and middle-income students. In 2001, Princeton made the shift to grants from loans for all students receiving financial aid. It also removed a family’s home equity from the calculations, said Robin Moscato, Princeton’s director of financial aid.

“We share Harvard’s concern about the pressures on middle-income families,” she said.

Both Williams and Amherst announced recently that they would substitute grants for loans as part of their financial-aid packages to reduce debt. And Stanford added $5 million in financial aid this school year for students with family incomes between $60,000 and $135,000.”

By Sindya Bhanoo

Humanitarian Message From Most Successful College Dropout

Bill Gates told the graduating class of 2007 that “reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.”

I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world — the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.

I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.

I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.

It took me decades to find out.

You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how – in this age of accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?

For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.

During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country. Measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever. One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year – none of them in the United States.

We were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren’t being delivered.

If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to ourselves: “This can’t be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.”

So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked: “How could the world let these children die?”

The answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.

But you and I have both.

We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.

If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world.

This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.

I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: “Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just … don’t … care.”

I completely disagree.

I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.

Read the full speech here:

Last week, TV’s favorite college girl, Lorelai “Rory” Gilmore (did you know that was her full name?) graduated from Yale University (the show couldn’t help but mention “Yale” every other line). This week, the show ends it’s seven year run. The show’s snappy dialogue, loaded with pop culture references and allusions to indie music, politics, class, gender, and academia, garnered the Gilmore Girls status as a critical darling as well as a deeply devoted fan base.

Gilmore Girls has had many rough patches, but it survived the “college years,” a death knell for most shows (The O.C., Veronica Mars, 90210). According to the show, Rory had her mind set on attending Harvard since kindergarten, so she transfered from a public school to an elite prep school in order to achieve her goals. Throughout the show, main plot points revolved around Rory’s academic career, such as Rory’s dilemma over choosing between Yale and Harvard. Poor thing. Still, the show’s kooky heart was the center of Gilmore Girls; its warmth, wit, good humor and amused take on the world radiated out of it.

“I live in two worlds,” Rory said during her valedictorian address when she graduated from high school. “One is a world of books. I’ve been a resident of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, committed absurdities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina and strolled down Swann’s Way.”

“It’s a rewarding world, but my second one is by far superior. My second one is populated with characters slightly less eccentric but supremely real, made of flesh and bone, full of love, who are my ultimate inspiration for everything.”

It’s only fitting that the series conclude with Rory’s graduation from college, still we’ll miss the Gilmore Girls.

gilmore girls | college

Michael Winerip has written an insightful and touching article for the Parenting section of the New York Times this week.

Winerip, a Harvard alum, has volunteered to interview Harvard applicants every year for 10 years. Only one applicant, out of the “40 or so” he says he’s interviewed has actually gotten into Harvard. This is the painful reality of applying to the Ivy Leagues today.

“No matter how glowing my recommendations, in all this time only one kid, a girl, got in, many years back. I do not tell this to the eager, well-groomed seniors who settle onto the couch in our den. They’re under too much pressure already. Better than anyone, they know the odds, particularly for a kid from a New York suburb.”

But Winerip had a realization - that happiness and success do not require an Ivy League degree. His essay encourages parents to help their children “find their own best path.” This is a surer way to excellence than a Harvard degree.

Winerip’s own children are not Harvard-bound. The end of his essay reads, “Pops, hey, Pops!” It was Sammy, one of my twins, who’s probably heading for a good state school. He was in his wetsuit, surfing alone in the 30-degree weather, the only other person on the beach. “What a day!” he yelled, and his joy filled my heart.”

His words echo other wise ones - like those of this NPR series that we wrote about earlier and this story about smart girls looking beyond the Ivy Leagues for schools that are the “right fit” for them.

Posted By Sindya Bhanoo
School | school, college, greek

Across the Country Colleges are Becoming More Selective

On April 3rd, 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported that this year Ivy League, top-tier state schools and smaller liberal arts colleges received more applications trom well-qualified students and consequently turned down a higher percentage of them. Even schools that admit the vast majority of applicants are becoming more selective.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received 20,017 applications, up from 19,736 last year. The state school’s acceptance rate fell to 33.3% from 34.1%.

Kenyon College
At Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, 4,624 students applied, up 8%, yet it accepted 1,348, down from 1,395 last year, to prevent overenrollment.

Miami University
Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, saw a record 15,836 applicants this year, up from 15,498 the year before; it accepted 73% of them, down from 78% last year.

Georgetown University
Georgetown University saw applications rise to 16,198 from 15,067 last year. It accepted 20% of them, down from 22% a year ago.

The University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania saw applications rise 11% over the last year to a record 22,634, while its acceptance rate fell to 15% from about 17% last year.

Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College had a record 14,176 applications, up 2% from last year. It accepted 2,165, or 15% — its lowest acceptance rate in history.

Yale University
Yale University’s applications fell to 19,323 from 21,101 last year. Although there has been speculation that Yale’s low acceptance rate last year caused fewer students to apply this year.

Harvard University
Harvard University drew a record 22,955 applicants and accepted a record low 9%.

Stanford University
At Stanford University, the number of applications rose 7% to 23,956. It accepted 10.3%, down from 10.9% last year.

What is Fueling the Rise in Applications?

1. More Students Graduating From High School
The number of students graduating from high school has risen each year since the 1995-96 school year, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The U.S. Department of Education predicts that the trend will continue until at least 2013.

2. International Students
More colleges are recruiting international students. UNC-Chapel Hill had 736 foreign nationals apply this year, up from 590 last year. The university admitted 167 of them, up from about 125 a year ago.

3. The Common Application
More students than ever are using theCommon Application, a form that can be completed online and sent to a number of admissions offices far more easily than paper-based applications. More than 300 schools accept it. Most students apply to more than 15 schools using the common application.

4. Applicants With More Realistic Expectations
High school guidance counselors are encouraging students to apply to safety schools.

College | University

Harvard Medical School, in the hopes of attracting teachers, is offering doctors salaries that are double what they would otherwise earn as primary care practioners, according to a CNN story. Sixteen million dollars are going into the effort.

I knew that a shortage of teachers was a major problem in nursing all through America. (From Massachusetts to California) but I didn’t realize that it was in issue at medical schools as well. Apparently, it’s a national problem…”the single biggest problem facing virtually every course director,” said David Cardozo, a neurobiology professor who led the effort to bring more money in for teaching doctors.

Teachers are the lifeblood of a well-functioning society, as are doctors. This is one problem we certainly don’t need.

Posted By Sindya Bhanoo
college | medical school

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 York University, Tom Hanks - Sacramento State University.

This year, Ivy League educated Meryl Streep is once again on the illustrious Academy Award short list. We were curious to know how many of the leading role actors made it to college and if so, where did they go?

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Forest Whitaker – USC and UC Berkeley

Leonardo DiCaprio - No college

Ryan Gosling - No college

Peter O’Toole - Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts

Will Smith - Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School, turned down a scholarship for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Penelope Cruz - No college

Judi Dench - Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama

Helen Mirren - No college

Meryl Streep – Vassar College and Yale School of Drama

Kate Winslet - No college

Film | College | Academy Awards | Oscars

Students at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism finished the semester in a cloud of confusion and suspicion. When a student reported that there had been cheating in some form on a take home exam in a Law & Ethics course, school officials probed further. What they found was that there was cheating, ironically in an ethics class, and in a program that only has Pass/Fail grades! As a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, I know that this is a field in which your clips and your portfolio are what matter. Grades? Nobody even asks.

So what inspired these students to cheat? What were they thinking? Columbia remains pretty mum, the instructor of the course, esteemed journalist and writer Samuel Freedman, refrained from commenting.

Nobody has been punished for cheating, and all students have been assigned a new exam question to remedy the situation. It’s a play on life:

“You are the executive editor of a newspaper,” begins Exam Essay Question III, forwarded to a reporter by a student. “You receive a tip from a credible source that one or more unspecified articles in recent editions of the newspaper contain fabricated material. No more details are given.” No one admits responsibility. What do you do?

Posted by Sindya Bhanoo
Cheating|Grades