the Sam Jackson College Experience

I discovered an interesting pattern while playing around with Google Trends: if you compare ‘Yale University’ and ‘Harvard University’ with the tool, there is an eerie similarity in their trend lines. Even minor up and down ticks are mirrored across search terms. See for yourself: trends chart below, Harvard in red, Yale in blue.

The trend is clearer for Google search data, but there are still some pretty strange similarities for the news references (below the main chart). I understand that every time one school does something, the other feels compelled to respond, but the fact that these trends link together so closely is very interesting. My first question was whether much of this might just be seasonal–fluctuations in the course of the admissions cycle. To test this, I compared Yale with a few other schools, trying to eliminate large sports schools as a factor. Georgetown vs. Yale produced fairly similar results to Yale v. Harvard, but not with the same level of overlap.

Years ago I did this same comparison with Phillips Exeter Academy vs. Philips Andover Academy (interestingly, historically they were once prominent feeder schools for Harvard and Yale, respectively) but the results there were not numerous enough to show any significant overlap; the numbers there were probably inflated by vanity searches from the students at either school.

Other interesting trends to take from this data: search volume for both of these terms has declined continually over the years, relatively speaking. Why is this? Is it because people are better able to use the school sites and don’t do as much searching, or is it because of a methodological feature whereby their search volume stays stable but relative to other terms decreases? It’s not clear, but it’s an interesting trend all the same.

International attention is something else to compare. If all the queries came from Australian applicants, hypothetically, that would shift things in the calendar because of their different school cycles. But more realistically, it’s just an interesting reflection of foreign interest. Harvard predictably comes out ahead, but check out these countries which are ranked by how much people are searching for Yale (Harvard comparison):

Google lets us get even more precise, though: down to city level. This is really interesting because we see the rate at which Yale students search for themselves compared to how much Harvard students search for things about Yale. If we then compare this to another chart, showing how often Harvard searches for Harvard, we see that Yale–via New Haven–doesn’t even make the top ten. In other words, Harvard is by some measures more interested in Yale than Yale is in Harvard. Inferiority complex much? : ) (Yes, I realize this is methodologically flawed… just joking).

Finally, we can compare the international chart with a language chart. English is first, then Chinese, then, surprisingly enough, Italian.

Very interesting for a few minutes googling! I highly recommend playing around with google trends and exploring interesting things about your own favorite words, or trends, or schools. Dogs and Puppies beat Cats and Kittens, etc. Have fun, and don’t draw too many sweeping statistical conclusions : )

There has been a 14 percent decrease in the number of Yale students getting Pell grants in the last 8 years, according to Pell Institute senior scholar Tom Mortenson study, reports the Yale Daily News. Dean of Admissions Jeff Brenzell disagreed by citing more limited data which statistics professors at Yale argued were statistically invalid. Instead, it seems he prefers to somewhat cherry pick his data, looking at families % with less than $60,000 a year. Quotes from the article, emphasis mine:

Mortenson said he was especially concerned about the 14-percent drop in Pell students at Yale in the past eight years, given that the percentage of Pell students at Harvard University increased by 53 percent over the same time period, according to his Dec. 2007 analysis.As the percentage of low-income children in the K-12 school system increases, Mortenson said, Yale has a responsibility to help educate these students — a responsibility that it is not meeting.

“The real question is, ‘Who is trying to deal with this huge demographic tide, and who isn’t?’” Mortenson said. “As I look at Harvard’s data, I say Harvard is, and as I look at Yale’s data, I say Yale isn’t.”

Yale’s recent announcement of an unprecedented increase in undergraduate financial aid did not change his analysis.

Mortenson called Yale’s new financial-aid initiative — which dramatically reduces the expected parental contribution from families making up to $200,000 a year and eliminates the need for student loans — a mere “public-relations gesture.”

So… there’s failure all around, but Yale is especially lagging. Brenzel does reasonably point out that some of Harvard’s success with Pell grant numbers could just be that Harvard has a better ability to get them to come, rather than special recruitment efforts; Harvard’s yields are certainly very impressive in general and a Harvard admissions letter can be pretty sticky. But that just means that Yale needs to work harder and reach out more to low income students. This might not be the fault only of the admissions office, it could be that they are not able to effectively allocate their resources to do so without compromising other parts of their mission which are valued more. Luckily, here at Yale… they don’t really have to choose! The university has the resources needed to make significant change here, and if it isn’t moving up the charts on this, it can’t point at Harvard or anyone else and try to avoid blame.

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This is quite significant news which is why I made sure to wait a little while before publishing on it. Not that there’s anything wrong with “riding the wave” of coverage on the topic; I just like having some time to let my thoughts evolve and multiply before spitting them out.

Sorry about the hiccups in posting the last two weeks–I’m at school now, yes, but thanks to my God-like time management skills, I’ve still been writing, I just haven’t been publishing. There is a subtle but real distinction.

Back to Harvard. So they ended early admissions–what do I think about that? It doesn’t affect my chances (if I apply) since I’m applying this year, but I’ve still got some things to say.

First, Some [cynical] people, like the sharp bunch at IvyGate, will note that the only way Harvard could make this move with confidence was because of their fabulous wealth and stupefyingly high yields; fundraisers brought in $595 million in fiscal ‘06 (Crimson). With the immense recognition and value of the Harvard brand, Harvard is safer than other schools in tossing early programs, because it can be reasonably assured of a strong applicant / admit pool early action notwithstanding. The Daily Pennsylvanian ran an editorial praising Harvard but noting that UPenn isn’t in the same position and couldn’t do the same (yet). The Ithaca Journal more or less did the same for Cornell.

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Time Magazine cover story, August 21st 2006: “Who Needs Harvard?”

Guys, guys! Harvard was named #1 in the Shanghai school rankings! Check it out here: Top 500 World Universities. Wait, what’s that you say? That methodology is tremendously flawed and generally just ridiculous?

I… I’m sorry, I was just trying to compensate for the terrible psychological shock the part of my brain programmed to hypervalue “Harvard prestige” has received this week–that Shanghai rating was just about the only good Harvard-related news I’ve been able to dredge up in a while! I mean, with the recent US News & World Report college rankings which have Harvard ranked #2 behind Princeton, and the fact that Harvard’s selectivity was behind Yale’s again this year? I just don’t know what to do about it. Newsweek decided on “25 new ivies” which can’t help but take a marketing edge off the Harvard buzz. What’s worst is that Time Magazine, that beacon of truth in the world of periodicals, is running a story titled “Who Needs Harvard?” as its August 21st cover…

Bzzt. I don’t know who takes Time magazine seriously, but I sure don’t. The article isn’t written or reasoned particularly well, and the good points it tries to make are nothing new– the fact that you should look for the college that suits you as an individual and the complementary fact that you can get a great education anywhere you go are nothing new. So long as you apply yourself and make the best of your college experience, there is no difference in where you attend school, as a general rule. Academic studies support this; for all but the very economically disadvantaged, there is little to no difference in later-life wage earnings for Harvard, Yale, etc grads than for those who were accepted at aforesaid hyperselective institutions but decided to go to University of Miami or some other random place. (See: Alan Krueger and Stacy Dale’s study: ESTIMATING THE PAYOFF TO ATTENDING A MORE SELECTIVE COLLEGE )

This title “Who Needs Harvard?” and this publication date both are just meant to coincide with US News & World Report’s ranking release; Time is just trying to hijack some of the limelight to increase sales, which is appropriate marketing but generally underwhelming. I don’t like Time magazine normally and I certainly don’t care for its set of education-themed articles because I feel they lack the depth these thorny issues deserve. Airy and whimsical, a Princeton grad (Walter Kirn) is certain that it was the name on his diploma which ensured him his success. Or a short interview with the author of a book about college admissions; usual bland, lifeless Time fare. The point is that this theme gets them attention, as evidenced by the fact that my grandmother mentioned it to me when we spoke on the phone today.

This article has been getting a lot of play on blogs and on the Internets in general; it’s clogging up the tubes and muddying the news-waters of any other good new stories which might be trying to make their way to the front these days. It needs to stop because this lowest-common-denominator tripe doesn’t merit the attention we’re all giving it. Read the articles if you must, but don’t bother to buy the magazine.

One more fun note: Remember how I wrote that one of Harvard’s professional schools was being more trans-positive (i.e. more friendly towards trans people)? Turns out Harvard has a very specific club–the Harvard Trans Task Force! Not particularly relevant, I was just pleased to have happened upon that club today for no particular reason.

For those of you not hip to the jive of the GLBTQETC community, trans+ means “trans positive,” as in, accepting and welcoming to transgendered / transsexual people. I still think “trans+” was a bad tagline to grab for that submovement, because it does sound like some sort of disease, but regardless. I discovered yesterday that Harvard Business School has, in the words of site Christian Public Relations, “introduced a third gender” [to its application form].

Let me preface this brief by saying that, though it is reporting on fact, it’s presentation is downright hilarious. To me, at least. Maybe not to “family-minded christians” from the heartland. But, I’m one of the godless east coast liberals. So there you have it. I also like “AgapePress,” that sounds very christian.

WDC MEDIA NEWS
Christian News and Media Agency
Harvard Introduces Third Gender
2006-07-25 –

(AgapePress) – Prospective applicants to prestigious Harvard Business School no longer have to be of the male or female gender. One pro-family leader in Washington, DC, is criticizing the school for legitimizing transgenderism.

Before completing an application, students looking to enter the Harvard Business School MBA program are asked to fill out an online profile that offers three choices of gender: female, male, or transgender. The form also asks prospective applicants if they would be interested in learning more about the school’s “lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender” community.

Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute (CFI) at Concerned Women for America, says “it’s not compassionate” for Harvard to encourage people to reject their “God-given natures.” But then Knight considers the source.

“I’m not surprised it’s coming out of Harvard,” he says, “because they’ve flirted with the idea that, in terms of sexuality, anything goes, and they’ve given intellectual respectability to it.” Knight continues, sharing that he feels it is “harmful” that Harvard, one of the most prestigious colleges in America, now thinks there are three sexes instead of two. “That kind of thing trickles down to other institutions,” he laments.
[continues]

So, right wing christian news source aside, that’s nice! It’s good to see such a prestigious institute of higher learning adopting a more welcoming policy towards people who… aren’t male or female. As long as they’re human, it’s fine by me.

[tags]Harvard University, Harvard Business School, Harvard, trans+, transgendered, transsexual, christian news, family values[/tags]