> This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. The educational reforms of the last 100 years are predicated on information scarcity. Today, not unlike the early 1900s, Children go to schools where [...]
Making Money Shouldn’t Be the Purpose of a College Education
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:21-05:00As a Princeton professor, I really ought to love college rankings. The most famous of them, by U.S. News and World Report, currently places my employer first among national universities, nudging out Harvard and Yale. Forbes’s list of “America’s Top Colleges” has [...]
Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:24-05:00In the spring of 2008, I did a daylong stint on the Yale admissions committee. We—that is, three admissions staff, a member of the college dean’s office, and me, the faculty representative—were going through submissions from eastern Pennsylvania. The applicants had been assigned [...]
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00It didn’t dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. I’d just bought a house, the pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy [...]