I don’t remember when I first heard about Goodhart’s Law, but it was probably several years ago. But as I think about the higher education in general, and admissions specifically, it seems to be more and more relevant to our daily lives. Goodhart’s Law was first articulated by Charles Goodhart in a 1975 paper, as “As soon as […]
I like provocative, abstract, conceptual ideas as much as anybody. Even absurd comparisons can sometimes be instructive. I think this has to do with my appreciation for what Samuel Johnson called the “Metaphysical Poets,” like John Donne and Andrew Marvel. The poets shared a flair for something Johnson called “discordia concors” or finding similarities in things […]
“Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, just backwards and in high heels.” –Frank and Ernest As I checked my Twitter feed this morning, the tweets came fast and furious: Grinnell College will stay need blind, but will think about raising loan caps and will try to recruit more wealthy students. Read it again. I’m […]
We continue to read more each day about SAT score reporting irregularities at some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities. And now that another has joined the crowd, there are calls from people to fix the “problem” and suggestions about how to do so. Only one problem: There is no problem. Don’t get […]
I graduated from high school in 1977 (I’m 54…to save you the math). Up until then, I had lived my whole life in Dubuque, a great place to be from, and a city that is probably in better shape today than it was then. In our family, you went to Catholic School, but after sophomore […]
I used to have lunch almost every day with a group of faculty who were from the sciences, economics, and finance. Occasionally someone from English or Political Science would join the table, but the types of discussions that went on scared some people and seemed to repulse others. Although I’m a long way from Libertarian, […]
I’m back from the USC CERPP Conference on non-cognitive variables in the college admissions process, where I gave a presentation on the results we’ve seen at DePaul, and offered some commentary on the whats and whys of what we as a profession are doing. In a nutshell, here’s what I said in my presentation: Most […]
I’ve been enjoying the holiday break, one of the nicest parts about working at a university. It’s normally a time to sit back and take stock of the year while looking forward to getting back to work soon after the first of January. As I checked my Twitter feed this morning, I noticed NACAC had […]
A recent article in USA Today lauded the ways in which Notre Dame football is Number 1 in graduation rates of its players. And of course, they’re now Number 1 in the AP Poll and BCS rankings for College Football, too, a rare accomplishment that seems to make the always-proud alumni base even more sanctimonious […]
I’m not even going to link to the stories, as they’re so abundant and common: Over the past several years, many colleges have been caught (or sometimes admitted without getting caught) doing things to inflate the profile of the incoming class. Usually, this is the freshman class and SAT manipulation (Emory, Baylor, Claremont McKenna); sometimes it’s class […]
Jon Boeckenstedt's Admissions Weblog 