"A World of Private Higher Education" is the definitive treatment of a sector accounting for a third of the world's 200 million higher education enrolment--yet remaining largely unknown even to scholars of higher education and widely mis-characterized when it is considered by stakeholders or the general public. Beyond the eye-popping…

In this 12th edition of its flagship annual survey of college general education curricula, "What Will They Learn?," American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) shines a light on the wide disparity in academic standards at institutions of higher learning across the country. "What Will They Learn?" reviews the core curricula…

"What Will They Learn?"™ evaluates every four-year public university with a stated liberal arts mission as well as hundreds of private colleges and universities selected on the basis of size, mission, and regional representation. All schools in the "What Will Will They Learn"™ study are regionally-accredited, nonprofit…

In the fiercely competitive, global job market, solid preparation in core skills matters a lot. Will college graduates write with the clarity, grace, and accuracy that employers (and everyone else) expect? Will they have the basic mathematical and scientific skills--regardless of their majors--that equip them to navigate an increasingly…

The popular image of the Ivy League is one of a slightly awesome bastion of the well-born, well-bred, and soon-to-be-powerful or, less charitably, a haven for "the effete, unAmerican, and hopelessly bookish." This pervasive idea of collegiate personality is analyzed, tracing the evolution of the Ivy League from an incongruous array of…

Harvard University's effect on American life is examined through investigation of its pervasive mystique, magnitude of power, fallacies, controversies, and its ramifications on both the national and international scenes. Viewed from its modest beginning in 1638 to the present, Harvard is described as "a multinational academic conglomerate,…

The behavior of universities is considered from an economic perspective. It is assumed that both the administration and the faculty pursue goals consistent with their own self-interests. In addition to reviewing studies from other disciplines, the market in which institutions compete is described, and a formal model of the university as a…

Applicant selections by elite institutions, and specifically Harvard University, is considered, with attention to admissions, selection objectives, predictions, academic performance and later-life contributions, nonacademic predictors of later-life contributions, and representation of certain groups. For six Harvard schools/departments, selection…

Truths and myths involved with student admission to Ivy League colleges are revealed by a director of admissions whose experience includes admission work at Vassar, Bowdoin, Harvard and Yale. Several basic concepts are offered as fact: most private colleges in America today are not highly selective; many colleges pose as being more selective than…