My Favorite Higher-Ed Stories

Five days a week I start my day reading stories about the higher-ed world.

First I digest articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher. I also get links to a long list of higher-ed stories from around the country that somebody at the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis must assemble early, early, early in the morning. Thanks to the staffer who got stuck with that thankless job, I appreciate it!

I also receive a story line up from the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and I find stuff up some hidden gems through my higher-ed LinkedIn groups.

And every now and then I’ll pick up an article from one of the magazines that I regularly read such as this one from New York Magazine this week:  The Obama College Socialism Backlash is Here. When I was reading this article, I clicked on one of the links and it lead to one of my posts. But that is hardly why I’m sharing it.

It occurred to me that I should start sharing some of the articles that I particularly like or find especially relevant with the folks who stop by to visit my college blog.

I plan to start doing so periodically, but today I want to simply share the links of two of my all-time favorite articles on college.  I read both of them in The New Yorker, which I have been subscribing to since I was a college student.

Article No. 1:

Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, explains in convincing and wicked detail why U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings (the latest rankings will be unleashed upon the public any day now) are a crock. My favorite anecdote in the article that illustrates how ludicrous the rankings are comes from a former Michigan Supreme Court judge. I share this gem during my talks.

Here is the link to the article:

 The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us

Article No. 2:

Just a few month later, Louis Menand, an academic from a family of academics,  wrote this insightful article about the value of a college degree. It’s well worth the read.

In case you didn’t know…

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller and the person who feeds this blog regularly.