Notes in the Margins: Black students, the college racket and the 1 percent

What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In According to the Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey, the majors that give you the best chance of reaching the 1 percent are pre-med, economics, biochemistry, zoology and, yes, biology, in that order. (The New York Times)

A Free College Education For All We are on the cusp of a new world in higher education – a world that can provide a free (or nearly free) college education for all. Here are some suggestions for how higher ed can imitate successful organizations, improve quality, and reduce costs even to zero. (Forbes via University Business)

5 wrong ideas about college admission Energetic and well-informed high school counselors are assembling their notes for upcoming parent meetings. These sessions are usually valuable and informative. Yet, despite all the good data and advice, some false assumptions about college admissions stubbornly survive. You encounter them while dining with friends, surfing the Internet or eavesdropping on the sidelines at youth soccer games. (The Washington Post)

The college racket Humanities courses in liberal arts colleges have replaced the canon of Western civilization with course offerings in gay scholarship, feminism, race studies and the like. Parents - and increasingly the students themselves, through loans - are left footing the bill for degrees that neither pay off in the marketplace nor enrich the intellectual lives of those on whom they are conferred. (The New York Post via NAICU)

Black students: Duke study shows deeper problems  An unpublished study by Duke University researchers that says black students are more likely to switch to less difficult majors has upset some students, who say the research is emblematic of more entrenched racial problems. (Associated Press via The Boston Globe)

• How Augsburg is going all Mark Twain
• How past U of M presidents view higher-ed today
• Metro State data breach affected 160,000 students