"Well-Regarded Public Colleges Get a Surge of Bargain Hunters" (NYTimes, 03/01/09)

At SUNY New Paltz, as at many other well-regarded public institutions this spring, admissions calculations carefully measured over many years are being set aside as an unraveling economy is making less expensive state colleges more appealing.

"The Big Cram for Hunter High School" (NYTimes, 01/02/09)

Six graders study word roots as they prep frantically for the entrance exam that will determine whether they are eligible to attend Hunter College High School.

"Building a Better Admissions Test" (Inside Higher Ed, 11/11/08)

Most standardized admissions tests — from the SAT and ACT to those used for admission to graduate and professional schools, such as the Law School Admission Test — promise one thing: to predict academic success in the first year enrolled. Most standardized tests also face growing skepticism because white and Asian students tend to outperform, on average, black and Latino students.

What if a standardized test managed to predict much more than first-year success? And what if there existed the possibility of having standardized tests that didn’t have ethnic or racial gaps, but better predicted long-term success?