The Death of an Adjunct
Thea Hunter was a promising, brilliant scholar. And then she got trapped in academia’s permanent underclass.
Re-creating Facebook on Instagram
Class accounts are a way for incoming freshmen to make friends, find roommates, and suss out colleges before fall.
The Real Reasons Legacy Preferences Exist
Several schools forgo or have abandoned them, but seem to be faring just fine.
Lasting Grief After a Mass Shooting
Suicides among people affected by shootings are, unfortunately, a familiar phenomenon—and support for survivors often misunderstands the nature of their grief.
The Cult of Homework
America’s devotion to the practice stems in part from the fact that it’s what today’s parents and teachers grew up with themselves.
A #MeToo Nightmare in the World of Competitive College Speech
Success in forensics is about making yourself vulnerable. Several former competitors accuse a prominent coach of exploiting that vulnerability to sexually harass students.
The Time Crunch on Standardized Tests Is Unnecessary
The allegedly fraudster parents in the cheating scandal exploited extra-time accommodations. Could slowing down tests for everyone make them fairer?
Trump’s Redundant Executive Order on Campus Speech
The president’s much-anticipated directive doesn’t do much.
4 Myths Fueling the Fight Over NYC’s Exclusive High Schools
Year after year, Stuyvesant High has abysmal enrollment rates for black and Latino students. But the debate over admissions reform is brimming with misunderstandings.
What the Scammers Got Right About College Admissions
Just because some people allegedly cheated the system doesn’t mean the system is defensible.
There Is No Way to Prevent the Next Cheating Scandal
Admissions officers are in no position to evaluate the truthfulness of the applications they review.
New York City High Schools’ Endless Segregation Problem
Seven black students were accepted to Stuyvesant High School this year. Five years ago, the number was exactly the same.
Elite Colleges Constantly Tell Low-Income Students That They Do Not Belong
Unwritten rules underlie all of elite-university life—and students who don’t come from a wealthy background have a hard time navigating them.
Elite-College Admissions Were Built to Protect Privilege
Even as selective schools opened their doors to a wider array of applicants in the early 20th century, they put policies in place to maintain the advantages of wealthy white students.
Ignorance Was Bliss for the Children of the College-Admissions Scandal
And in that, they’re no different from all the other people who can’t see the hidden forces working in their favor.
9 Revealing Moments From the College-Admissions Indictment
Anecdotes from the Department of Justice’s indictment show the lengths that parents will go to buy their kids’ way into selective colleges.
One Way to Stop College-Admissions Insanity: Admit More Students
If selective colleges were less selective, there would be less incentive to cheat to get in.
A Scandal Fit for a Win-at-All-Costs Society
“These mothers and fathers live in a world in which the mark of good parenting is substantially tied to where one’s children are admitted.”
Not That Kind of Girl
In her influential 1959 Atlantic article, “Sex and the College Girl,” Nora Johnson predicted that young, educated women pursuing expansive new opportunities would likely end up disappointed. She spent the rest of her life finding out what could happen instead.
Why the College-Admissions Scandal Is So Absurd
For the parents charged in a new FBI investigation, crime was a cheaper and simpler way to get their kids into elite schools than the typical advantages wealthy applicants receive.