On June 14, the University of Chicago made headlines by announcing its decision to become test-optional. As explained in this blog post, a college that is test-optional does not require its applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores. According to The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, there are [...]
For the last several years, around mid-April, I've seen headlines that say something along the lines of, "College acceptance rates hit record low." Frank Bruni, who for many years wrote a New York Times column about college and college admissions, published a column on March 30 in which he stated that Stanford's acceptance [...]
In my recent blog post, "U.S. News College Rankings: How Reliable Are They?", I explained some of the pitfalls of U.S. News and World Report's "Best Colleges" rankings. I focused on the fact that a significant portion of each college's rank is determined by individuals at "peer institutions" -- people with a questionable [...]
While it's unlikely that they'll be covered by celebrity gossip websites like TMZ or Perez Hilton, college rankings scandals are worth paying attention to, especially if you're a high school student (or the parent of one) who's planning to go to college. Although U.S. News and World Report's college rankings may not accurately represent [...]
It's been 30 years since U.S. News & World Report published its first "Best Colleges" rankings in 1983. Since then, the hype and fanfare around these lists seems to have grown exponentially. But what do these rankings really reflect, and how valuable are they to high school students and their parents who are [...]
