Selectivity and Brand as a Proxy for Quality in Higher Ed
Jeff Selingo
Bestselling author | Special Advisor to President, Arizona State U. | College admissions and early career expert | Contributor, The Atlantic | Angel investor | Editor, Next newsletter | Co-host, FutureU podcast
?? Good day!?Here are excerpts from my bi-weekly newsletter, Next.?Sign up here.
? WAITING:?The U.S. Supreme Court issued opinions yesterday, but none in the two cases of interest to higher ed:?race-conscious admissions and student-loan forgiveness.
As SCOTUSblog reported "the?justices will return to the bench to release opinions on Thursday. The chief justice did not include the additional language indicating that Thursday will be the last day before the summer recess." So hang on, we might get decisions Friday—or maybe we'll go into the Fourth of July week.?
Last Friday,?Exclusion U.?premiered on various streaming services.*
The documentary, which I saw during a screening in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, has at times an over-zealous point of view on the Ivy League. I get it: there is a lot of hate for elite institutions of all kinds right now. While the documentary gets most of it right—that Ivy League institutions get a ton of public dollars but don’t always serve the public interest—the narrative, at times, conflates government support for students with dollars for federal research as essentially the same pot of money going to these gilded campuses.
Where the documentary sticks the landing is that the Ivies?love?that they are selective—and getting more so.?They don’t care that people call them “the highly rejectives.”?They see their exclusivity as a feature and not a bug.
As the documentary points out, being more selective means that the Ivy League enrolls a paltry number of low-income students on federal Pell Grants,?which typically go to families making less than $40,000 a year.?An analysis that I did in 2021 with my friends at Open Campus?found that?there are three campuses in the University of California system—Irvine, San Diego, and Davis—that?each?enroll more Pell students than the?entire Ivy League.?As the movie notes, since 1980, the total number of undergraduates at U.S. colleges has swollen by 62%, while?the enrollment of the Ivy League has barely budged.
Exclusion U.?get it right on this point and several others including:
Where I think the movie goes off script?is when it talks about all the dollars these wealthy institutions get from federal coffers (or by not paying taxes). It includes federal research dollars in its analysis without being clear that the money is specifically awarded for research grants and shouldn’t been seen as fungible dollars that necessarily benefit students. Indeed, research costs colleges money in the faculty they need to attract and other expenses not fully covered by overhead dollars.
The documentary also spends the last 30 minutes or so featuring colleges that are expanding enrollment, but it still focuses on more selective institutions like Rice and Purdue. (While the latter does have an acceptance rate above 60%, that’s not the case for its most competitive STEM programs).
I was interviewed for?Exclusion U.?in the fall of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic.
My big hope is that those who see the film will realize that we should stop giving colleges that?enroll so few students and occupy such a tiny space of American higher ed?so much of our attention.
Of course, since I was interviewed for the film, the Ivies and other selective colleges have only become more selective as applications to those institutions jumped by more than 30% the last few years.
Parents see selectivity and brand as a proxy for quality in a world where opportunity seems increasingly scarce for their kids and the college search is a jumble of choices.?They want more options—colleges that are easier to get into and offer generous discounts—but they don’t always know where to look or which schools to take a chance on.
As a dad of triplets once told me: “All the talk is about top tier schools. Even when the discussion is not focused on Harvard, it’s about Bates. For most families, those are still top tier schools.”
Finding those colleges beyond the top of the rankings is a challenge.?For a project I hope to soon tell you more about, I’d like to know HOW you have found “hidden gems.” Drop me a note to tell me more.
I like the approach?Money?magazine takes in its latest list:?instead of a number rank, colleges get somewhere between two-and-a-half and five stars. After all, there are small differences between colleges ranked 15th and 30th or 60th and 80th in?U.S. News,?and rather than get hung up on these modest differences, I hope that the?Money?ratings give consumers ideas on a range of colleges rather than one perfect fit. What’s more,?I’ve long liked?Money’s rankings?for focusing on graduates’ outcomes rather than institutional input measures like faculty with terminal degrees.
?? Check out the?Money?list. While you’re at it, also?check out the?New York Times?attempt?at a rankings tool, which focuses on what students are looking for in a college. And watch?Exclusion U.?when you get a chance. *although the film’s?website?says the movie is streaming on Amazon Prime, it’s not there yet. The movie’s producers say it will be soon.
—WELOME TO THE SUMMER INTERNS.?You’ll be seeing bylines in the coming weeks and months from Gracie Gallagher and Olivia Roark , who will be working on?Next?as well as several other projects with me.
Good News, Bad News on Student Experience
With most American students still trying to make up for what they lost during the pandemic,?only 1 in 3 undergraduates at four-year colleges say their high-school education?made them feel “very” or “extremely prepared” for their campus coursework.
领英推荐
What’s happening:?Overall, the survey finds students are engaged in the undergraduate experience?if?they’re connected with peers and feel like their voices are heard in giving feedback to the institution.
Deeper dive:?Among those students who said they were prepared for the academic rigor of college, they cited activities in high school, slightly more than coursework, as what got them ready:
What’s happening:?The student journey begins with admissions and orientation—and while colleges spend time and money to recruit students—they seem to “lean out” once students are in, according to the survey. Fewer than a quarter of students said they felt very or extremely prepared for college after orientation.
?? Efforts to improve the student experience are front-and-center at many institutions?that are?trying to increase enrollment and retention. During the "Next Office Hour," we heard several suggestions to solicit feedback and engage faculty in the student experience, among them:
?? Explore the?survey results on the student experience with an interactive dashboard?(registration with Qualtrics required).
???Watch an on-demand recording of the “Next Office Hour”?about the survey and what it means (sponsored by Qualtrics; separate registration required).
ChatGPT and How We Learn
Generative AI tools?have taken higher ed by storm since last fall—and much of the focus has been on the role AI plays in teaching and learning on college campuses.
A big part of the debate is the source of intelligence.?Roy Pea, the 2022 Harold W.?McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education winner and a Stanford University professor, argues?that intelligence is not an individual trait but “distributed across the people, material, and digital tools available in socio-technical systems.”
How it works:?Distributed intelligence is configured in social activity. Think of people in action––a car mechanic repairing a transmission, a doctor in the operating room. Pea explained during a?recent webinar that intelligence is accomplished rather than possessed and comes to life in action.
We need this concept,?Pea said, to celebrate what we as humans can accomplish in our activities and to inform how designers conceptualize the socio-technical activity systems where artifacts will be put to human uses.
This is where ChaptGPT comes in.?Pea explained that the AI tool should be used to advance an individual’s creative ability, much like a writing partner. But there are vital differences between humans and AI that must be understood. Humans have person-specific knowledge and experience. AI tools are expert statisticians but do not understand anything they create.
The implications for education:?Pea said we should strive toward intentional distributed intelligence in education, where learners are inventors of distributed intelligence as a tool, not as a replacement for substance.
Until next time, Cheers — Jeff?
If you got this from a friend,?see past issues and subscribe?to get your own copy.?
Define "quality". I contend that it is an intrinsic value, both achieved and measured by the learner. In part, "selectivity" is also a cultural attitude that may or may not have practical applications in the workplace.
CEO & Founder of Your29 | Empowering Students for College & Career Success | Connecting Students, Businesses, & Colleges | College Admin | College Coach | College Athlete
1 年Thank you for this post. There’s for sure a lot to tackle in this one excerpt. So many incredible individuals graduate from non-Brand and “less selective” institutions and do amazing things. I challenge this generation with greater resources now available will begin to focus instead on Fit, Experience, Opportunity and Culture on Campus. Providing ways for our future leaders to seek, read real reviews and match to higher education is exciting.
Career Advisor: Providing Clarity -> Best Fit Career and College Major
1 年Parents seeking selectivity and brand is a proxy for their fear of losing status, via their kids, and their hoped-for promise of future success. The same kind of underlying premise of the Varsity Blues scandal which ultimately undermines their student's ability to learn to handle failure and find success on their own.
Thank you for this newsletter and for alerting us to the documentary. I’m 100% with you on your arguments. The Ivies have a distinct opportunity to educate more people with their embarrassment of riches, and they choose not to. I wanted to stand up and cheer while listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s “I Hate the Ivy League” and I felt much the same way reading your newsletter. Just watched the documentary trailer and am off to find a way to stream the film.
Adjunct Faculty Adjunct Lecturer Colorado State University/Pikes Peak State College
1 年A study published in the?Journal of College Student Retention?in 2012?found that first-generation college students receive far less emotional, informational, and financial support from their parents than continuing-generation students. “The problem is that many of these parents know nothing about college,” “Students with parents that didn’t go to college don’t have that person they can call when they have a question. They have no map. That child is lost.” So, consequently, the parents do not know where to look and rely on high school counselors and college recruiters which can be a double edge sword.