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☆ Stanford, Columbia, Penn Medical Schools Expand the Exodus From U.S. News Ranking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The medical schools at Stanford, Columbia and Pennsylvania universities are withdrawing their cooperation from U.S. News & World Report rankings, pulling out less than a week after Harvard Medical School said it would no longer provide data to the publication. The moves by Stanford Medical School, Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine suggest a prolonged cascading effect after Yale Law School said in November that it wouldn’t provide data for U.S. News’s law-school rankings. More than a dozen other top-ranked schools—including Stanford Law School—followed suit. Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley said the law schools’ decisions compelled him to act.

☆ Stanford Medical School Withdraws From U.S. News Ranking, Expanding Exodus
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Stanford Medical School is withdrawing its cooperation from the U.S. News & World Report rankings of medical schools, pulling out six days after Harvard Medical School said it would no longer provide data to the publication. The move suggests a prolonged cascading effect after Yale Law School said in November that it wouldn’t provide data for U.S. News’s law-school rankings. More than a dozen other top-ranked schools—including Stanford Law School—followed suit. Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley said the law schools’ decisions compelled him to act.

☆ Columbia University Names Economist as Its Next President
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Columbia University named economist Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, the current leader of the London School of Economics and Political Science, as its next president on Wednesday. She will take the helm of the sprawling Ivy League institution in July, becoming the first woman to lead Columbia. At that time, six of the eight schools in the Ivy League—all but Yale University and Princeton University—will be led by women.

☆ Harvard Medical School Withdraws From U.S. News Ranking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Harvard held the top spot on the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of medical schools for research and landed at No. 9 for primary care. Harvard Medical School will no longer submit information to the U.S. News & World Report’s medical-school ranking, the school’s dean said Tuesday, saying he was inspired by the recent withdrawal of top law schools. Dr. George Q. Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard, said he has a philosophical concern with rankings.

☆ JPMorgan Bought College Financial-Aid Platform for $175 Million—and Now Says Most of Its Users Were Fake
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Melissa Korn | David Benoit | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is suing the leaders of Frank, a financial-aid business it bought for $175 million in 2021, alleging they duped the bank by making up millions of fake student accounts to show it had a growing business. The bank filed a lawsuit late last month in a Delaware federal court against Frank executives Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar , alleging widespread fraud at a company that is marketed as helping families navigate the complex college financial-aid process. Frank offered a tool to simplify federal financial-aid forms, as well as listings of scholarships and low-cost college courses.

☆ Rick Singer and Other Notable Figures Who Were Sentenced in the Varsity Blues Scandal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Melissa Korn | Jennifer Levitz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Douglas HodgeThe former chief executive of bond giant Pimco was sentenced to nine months in prison after paying $850,000 to the company and charity of Mr. Singer, as well as to Georgetown’s former tennis coach and a University of Southern California account controlled by an administrator who was also charged in the case. Katherine Taylor/Reuters

☆ Former USC Administrator Gets Six Months in Prison in College-Admissions Cheating Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Former University of Southern California athletics administrator Donna Heinel was sentenced in a Boston federal court to six months in prison Friday for her involvement in the nationwide college-admissions cheating scandal that exposed bribery and corruption at some of the nation’s top universities. Ms. Heinel, known to many peers as a stickler for rules until her March 2019 arrest, pleaded guilty in November 2021 to one count of honest services wire fraud. She admitted to taking more than $1 million from corrupt college counselor William “Rick” Singer, initially as donations to a university account she controlled and later as payments made to her directly under the guise of a consulting contract.

☆ Rick Singer, Ringleader of College-Admissions Cheating Scheme, Sentenced to 3½ Years in Prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BOSTON—William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind a nationwide college-admissions cheating scheme that ensnared top universities, business executives and Hollywood celebrities, was sentenced Wednesday to 42 months in prison. He will also have to pay nearly $20 million in restitution and forfeitures of ill-gotten gains.

☆ Rick Singer, Mastermind of College-Admissions Cheating Scandal, Faces Sentencing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

William ‘Rick’ Singer was the head of a scheme that prosecutors say brought in $25 million and corrupted an admissions process that was intended to be based on merit. BOSTON—William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind a nationwide college-admissions cheating scheme that ensnared top universities, business executives and Hollywood celebrities, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court here Wednesday. Mr. Singer pleaded guilty in March 2019 to four felonies, admitting to running a complex operation that arranged for parents to fraudulently boost their teens’ ACT and SAT scores and to bribe college coaches to flag the clients as recruited athletes, all but guaranteeing their admission to schools including Georgetown University and the University of Southern California. Payments were often funneled through Mr. Singer’s sham charity, allowing parents to take tax write-offs for the bribes.

☆ U.S. News & World Report to Revamp Parts of Its Law-School Ranking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Yale Law School said late last year that it would no longer provide information to help U.S. News compile its list. U.S. News & World Report is revamping some elements of its law-school ranking, capitulating to pressure after deans at more than a dozen top law schools publicly challenged the value of the closely followed list. In a letter sent Monday to deans of the 188 law schools it currently ranks, U.S. News said it would give less weight in its next release to reputational surveys completed by deans, faculty, lawyers and judges and won’t take into account per-student expenditures that favor the wealthiest schools. The new ranking also will count graduates with school-funded public-interest legal fellowships or who go on to additional graduate programs the same as they would other employed graduates.

What credit scores don't captureLenders have always needed a way to determine a borrower's creditworthiness, and credit scores were a faster, easier way to do so. "If you look at credit scores from the perspective of other social actors, like policymakers or consumer advocates, why someone does or does not repay might start to have more bearing on how you make sense of credit scores," says Kiviat. The credit scoring system can also reflect and even worsen existing racial and wealth inequality. However, the credit scoring and reporting systems can function imperfectly, leaving many of the most marginalized without credit scores or with poor credit scores. Furthermore, policymakers have been considering how to make it easier for people to access their credit scores and resolve mistakes on their credit reports.

☆ University of Southern California Sued Over Education-School Rankings Claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A legal advocacy group for students is suing the University of Southern California and 2U Inc., alleging that the school and the company that runs its online graduate programs in education defrauded students by using misleading U.S. News & World Report rankings to promote the courses. According to the suit, filed in Los Angeles County Court, USC’s Rossier School of Education used rankings that covered their in-person programs to highlight the strength of the online offerings, even though they had different selection criteria and student populations. The suit also says those rankings, even if they had been relevant to the online programs, were based on inaccurate information the school used to improperly boost the school’s score.

☆ Former NYU Administrator Charged in $3.5 Million Fraud Scheme, Using Grants to Pay for Home Upgrades
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

New York prosecutors on Monday charged a former New York University administrator with fraud, alleging she diverted $3.5 million in state grants and used some of the money for a new swimming pool at her home. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said Cindy Tappe , who served as director of finance and administration at the university’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, stole money that the state awarded to the center to administer programs in special education and for English-language learners.

☆ Harvard University Names Government Scholar Claudine Gay as Next President
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Harvard counts among a number of top-tier schools undergoing leadership changes. Harvard University named as its new president Claudine Gay , a government professor who for the past four years has led the school’s undergraduate and Ph.D. programs. She will be the second woman and the first Black person to lead Harvard.

☆ Most Colleges Give Inaccurate Price Details in Financial-Aid Letters, Federal Report Finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A federal watchdog is calling for Congress to establish tighter regulations on how colleges and universities describe their financial-aid packages, saying the information most schools now share with students and families is woefully inadequate and even misleading. The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report Monday saying that the aid letters that are supposed to lay out tuition, fees and other expenses, and what grants, loans and other financing options are available to cover those costs, lack crucial information that would allow families to compare institutions. At their worst, some financial aid offer letters lead students to enroll in schools they can’t afford.

☆ Stanford Launches Review of President’s Research After Misconduct Allegations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Stanford’s board launched a review of the university president’s research after a report in the Stanford Daily, the student newspaper. Stanford University’s board of trustees is investigating whether multiple research papers co-authored by the school’s president, neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne , contained altered images, raising concerns about the academic integrity of the leader of one of the world’s top research institutions. The board launched the review after the Stanford Daily, the school’s student newspaper, reported this week that a European scientific journal was reviewing one of Dr. Tessier-Lavigne’s papers and said that an expert on research misconduct also found potential errors in three other papers on which Dr. Tessier-Lavigne was co-author years ago.

☆ Even University Presidents Lose Their Minds When Their Teens Apply to College
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Richard Holz filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the Fafsa, for his two daughters. Like many parents, he found the process baffling. “It’s like they want to know your shoe size,” says Dr. Holz. “They want to know so much, and why is it relevant or pertinent?” he adds. “It should be so much easier.”

☆ Georgetown Law Joins Roster of Schools Withdrawing From U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Georgetown University said that its law school’s students, faculty, alumni and staff favor exiting the rankings. Georgetown University Law Center said Friday that it will no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report law-school ranking, the latest in a string of prestigious programs abandoning the influential list over concerns that it promotes poor practices and penalizes schools for supporting students pursuing public-interest jobs. Yale Law School was the first to pull out Wednesday morning, with its dean calling the rankings “profoundly flawed.” Harvard Law School announced a similar move later that day, and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law followed on Thursday.

☆ Georgetown, Columbia Join Schools Withdrawing From U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Georgetown University Law Center and Columbia Law School said Friday that they will no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report law-school ranking, the latest in a string of prestigious programs abandoning the influential list over concerns that it promotes poor practices and penalizes schools for supporting students pursuing public-interest jobs. Yale Law School was the first to pull out, on Wednesday morning, with its dean calling the rankings “profoundly flawed.” Harvard Law School announced a similar move later that day, and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law followed on Thursday.

☆ UC Berkeley Joins Yale, Harvard in Withdrawing From U.S. News Law-School Ranking
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The University of California, Berkeley’s law school came in at No. 9 in the latest U.S. News ranking. The University of California, Berkeley School of Law is withdrawing from the U.S. News & World Report law-school ranking, its dean said Thursday, a day after Yale Law School and Harvard Law School pulled out of the high-profile publication. Berkeley’s law school came in at No. 9 in the latest U.S. News ranking.

☆ Yale Law School Abandons U.S. News Rankings, Citing Flawed Methodology
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Yale Law School is known as a training ground for legal scholars and prominent lawyers. Yale Law School is pulling out of the U.S. News & World Report law-school ranking that it dominated for decades, the latest in a series of blows to the credibility and power of the high-profile rankings. The move stands to disrupt what had become a fairly static and extremely influential list of the nation’s best law schools. It isn’t yet clear whether other schools with top rankings will also withdraw their participation.

☆ Yale and Harvard Law Schools Abandon U.S. News Rankings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Yale Law School is known as a training ground for legal scholars and prominent lawyers. Yale Law School and Harvard Law School are pulling out of the U.S. News & World Report law-school ranking that they have dominated for decades, issuing a blow to the credibility and power of the high-profile rankings. “The U.S. News rankings are profoundly flawed,” Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken said. “Its approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, but stands squarely in the way of progress.”

☆ International Students Return to U.S. Colleges, Though Enrollments Still Fall Short
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

At Georgia Tech, applications from India surpassed those from China for the first time last year. International students returned to U.S. college and university campuses in droves last fall, with schools recovering a portion of the enrollment they lost when visas were hard to come by and the nation closed its borders during the depths of the pandemic. Enrollment by international students rose by 3.8% to 948,519 in the 2021-2022 school year, compared with 914,095 the prior year, according to a new report by the nonprofit Institute of International Education and U.S. State Department.

☆ More Colleges Offering Admission to Students Who Never Applied
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Montclair State University in New Jersey worked with the Common Application last year to offer spots to 3,000 prospects based on their GPAs. It sounds too good to be true: Get into college, with a guaranteed scholarship, without ever applying. This fall, tens of thousands of students will receive such offers from schools around the country. Direct admissions, as the approach is often called, allow colleges to send offers to students based just on their GPAs or a few other criteria, such as intended major or geographic location, without the hassle of essays, recommendation letters and months of uncertainty.

☆ Former Yale Soccer Coach Sentenced to Prison in College Admissions Cheating Case
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Former Yale University women’s soccer coach Rudolph Meredith admitted to taking bribes in exchange for facilitating teens’ admission to Yale as soccer players. Former Yale University soccer coach Rudolph Meredith was sentenced in a Boston federal court to five months in prison for his involvement in the sprawling college-admissions cheating scandal that also ensnared executives and Hollywood stars, a harsher sentence than even the prosecutors had recommended. Mr. Meredith took $860,000 in bribes from corrupt college counselor William “Rick” Singer , and agreed to a $450,000 payment directly from at least one parent, in exchange for facilitating teens’ admission to Yale as soccer players.

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