“According to the materials, Mamdani scored a 2140 out of 2400 on the SAT, placing him in the 89th percentile nationwide. At the time, this was below the median SAT score for admitted students at Columbia and, given the prevailing distribution by race, well below the median SAT score for Asian students, but likely well above the median SAT score for black students—hence, the advantage of marking “black.”
The wrinkle in the story, however, is that, despite having a father on the faculty and marking black on his application, Columbia rejected Mamdani. There are two plausible theories for why this happened. First, in general, Columbia is a highly competitive university with an admissions rate of less than ten percent, which means that candidates around the median will not make the cut.
Second, there is a possibility that Mamdani’s box-checking gambit backfired. The full application includes the name and contact information for his father, Mahmood Mamdani, and his mother, Mira Nair, both of whom are public figures and neither of whom is black. The application also included a flag noting that the elder Mamdani appeared to be “affiliated with Columbia” and another line noting the family’s address in an exclusive Manhattan neighborhood. With even cursory research, an admissions officer could have seen that Mr. Mamdani was neither black, nor underprivileged”
“When you effectively give every prospective medical student a limitless pile of money to draw from, colleges are incentivized to hike costs. If we want to make medical school more affordable, the first step should involve actually incentivizing medical schools to stop overcharging students.”
“Just how mad is Beijing about President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke student visas for Chinese nationals? Not as mad as it says, and not as mad as one might expect. Publicly, China’s leadership will likely complain that Trump’s action is yet another attempt to thwart the country’s rise. But in reality, Beijing would probably just as soon keep its smartest kids at home.”
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) suddenly terminated about 4,700 records in the database of foreign students with F-1 visas authorizing them to attend American universities. That move, which sowed panic among students across the country, was the result of the Trump administration’s “Student Criminal Alien Initiative.” But contrary to the implication of that label, the initiative affected many people who had no criminal record that would justify revoking their visas. Nor did ICE cite any other specific justification listed in the relevant regulations. Instead, the students were told their records had been terminated for “otherwise failing to maintain status.””
The SAT helps colleges determine who will succeed at college. It helps show which students from disadvantaged schools have the most potential to shine. The wealthy can better game other admissions standards than they can the SAT.
Trump administration is forcing students to start paying their loans again. The systems in place to help people who can’t afford it are broken due to DOGE cuts. The lack of staff also makes it difficult to fix a mistake, like when people receive a loan bill higher than it should be.
“the administration’s indiscriminate approach has also halted countless important projects like the use of artificial intelligence to detect early signs of breast cancer. There are simple alternative policy changes that would both curb politically biased research and protect crucial scientific research that benefits the public. For instance, the administration could change the criteria by which future grants are evaluated to avoid funding projects that are political in nature. If researchers or universities are unwilling to comply, the administration could let existing grants expire and decline further renewal.
Some higher education critics might consider this nitpicking — after all, when the federal government holds the leverage, what does it matter if the changes are implemented with the proper decorum? But they neglect the decentralized nature of universities and the buy-in from faculty required to make long-term changes.
The Trump administration’s current approach alienates exactly those influential allies within universities who would help facilitate and maintain long-term changes, forcing them to choose between left-wing intolerance and right-wing authoritarianism.”
“Bots create AI-generated student profiles, apply for enrollment, and submit minimal online coursework—often AI-generated—to stay enrolled long enough to receive federal and state aid disbursements intended for low-income students. The scammers are known as “Pell runners,” who disappear after collecting the $7,400 federal grant.”