Report: Nearly half of London's students have not been to a theater or seen Shakespeare.

Despite living in the same city that William Shakespeare wrote many of his plays and saw them enacted, a new report from London's Social Mobility Commission says that almost half of London's students haven't been to a theater to see a play, never mind The Globe Theater reconstructed to showcase the Bard's work.

In the past decade, The Globe Theater--through donations by Deutsche Bank--has had 150,000 London students see a Shakespeare play free of charge, with 20,000 alone visiting in the past year treated to see The Taming of the Shrew.

The study showed that specifically 44% of students had never seen a theatrical performance. Indeed, Georghia Ellinas, head of learning at Globe Education, told the BBC, "We hear from teachers that some London school students who come to the Globe, living only two or three miles away, have never seen the Thames before."

The reason seems to stem from an income gap, where poorer students and their families can't afford the discretionary income required to see the theater, never mind the cost of traveling public transportation for the six mile round trek.

The Social Mobility Commission looked into various activities and income gap issues, and found it wasn't just the theater, per BBC:


"It found that trips to the theatre, galleries, the cinema or the zoo were all more likely for wealthier families - with the likelihood of such visits rising and falling in a way directly linked to family income."


I'm not sure how Shakespeare would have taken this to know seeing a hyena exhibit or checking out the next Fast and Furious entry are as difficult for many to see than one of his plays.

Does this mean Vin Diesel = Shakespeare?

At least in one sense.

The Beatdown in Brunswick: Malcolm Gladwell vs. Bowdoin College

Not Sideshow Bob.

Famous writer--and occasional Sideshow Bob doppelganger--Malcolm Gladwell has infuriated the powerful masses at Bowdoin College by claiming the elite liberal arts school's penchant for high end cuisine for its students comes at the cost of admitting fewer low-income students.

Earlier this year, the Princeton Review named the Brunswick, Maine, school as having the best cuisine of any college or university in America. Yet, at the same time, Bowdoin's acceptance rate heavily skews toward wealthier students. This, Gladwell argues on his podcast Revisionist History, is partly due to the fact that Bowdoin chooses to invest money in fine dining and not aid that could go toward poorer applicants.

As Business Insider points out, Bowdoin did not take kindly to such an assertion, and released a lengthy statement that starts off as such:


"Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast “Revisionist History” (aptly named) takes a manipulative and disingenuous shot at Bowdoin College that is filled with false assumptions, anecdotal evidence, and incorrect conclusions."

Bowdoin's thin-skinned alarmist claim is based off their being one of the very few colleges or universities in the United States that provides need-blind assistance, and includes aid packages that never involve loans, only grants.

Likewise, Bowdoin claims that Gladwell's podcast producer emailed the school to ask about the food, never admissions or aid, so that he "focused only on Bowdoin’s food in a manner that was disingenuous, dishonest, and manipulative."

This is the kind of two-snaps-and-a-twist First World drama you usually see on Bravo or E!, except more nebbish and scholarly--with a complete lack of Christian Louboutin heels.

Gladwell wasn't pleased with the reaction he was receiving from Bowdoin or the school's alumni online--so he fired back on Twitter:

In retrospect this week's episode of https://t.co/2Mqc5Dwr4V should have included a trigger warning for Bowdoin grads.

— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) July 14, 2016

Trigger warning zingers! Looks like Gladwell decided to dig into the amateur mic night material he saves for The Chuckle Hut.

In the end, the high society verbal slapfest continues between the two sides, with no winner declared in this squabble. No winner, that is, except us.

Poor school and rich school are not the same school.

The Commonwealth School, founded in 1957, is a tony private institution in Boston. With a yearly tuition of $40,000, it typically sends students off to MIT and Ivy League universities.

The Commonwealth Academy, founded in 2011, is a small private school 90-miles away in Springfield, MA. With a yearly tuition of under $1,200, it typically does not see students attend the elite educational colleges of America.

This hasn't stopped the School from filing a $2 million lawsuit against the Academy claiming "irreparable harm" and financial loss that is "presently incalculable" has occurred. Why? Because both facilities use the word "Commonwealth" in their name.

While the School claims they didn't even know the Academy existed until 2015, School headmaster William Wharton tells the Boston Globe that the word is "a part of our identity, and it’s something that we ultimately have to protect." Nothing like stopping confusion among things by creating confusion in the first place.

One major sticking point is that Massachusetts officially goes by the title of Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (As do Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.) With both institutions located in the same state, and thousands of different locations and buildings in the state all labeled with the word, it's a tricky argument by the School.

Then there's one other minor issue, if this isn't already too much commonwealth for you to handle in one sitting: There's already a separate Commonwealth Academy, located in Virginia, who says they're perfectly content with the similarly named school in Massachusetts.

A hearing on the matter is expected to be held on July 12th.

In the meantime, no common sense or common good can apparently come from "Commonwealth."

Sportswriter loses bet, picks up $2,100 dinner tab for billionaire and his wife.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the median salary for an average newspaper reporter in the United States is $36,360. A reporter's average salary usually maxes out at roughly $81,580--and that's not for any old reporter. That's for a Scoops McGee type person, someone with the fifty years' weight of misery, shame, and newspaper ink holding them down. Cigars, high-waist khakis, and a pocket full of back alley sources are their M.O. And Scoops still has to own a 15-year old, 250,000 mile Chevy Impala on his salary.

Tim Kawakami is one such writer. He works at the San Jose Mercury News covering sports, and recently recounted on a podcast how he made a joking bet that the San Francisco 49ers' billionaire owner Jed York wouldn't have the team's new stadium built by a random 2014 deadline. A chuckly ha-ha was had by all.

Except the stadium was built by 2014. Except Kawakami still agreed to buy dinner. Except York wanted that dinner. Except York was bringing his wife along, too. Except everyone agreed to go to The French Laundry for the dinner.

[[[pause]]]

If you don't know, The French Laundry makes for a once-in-a-lifetime dining experience. It is also like pouring kerosene on your life's savings and smoking feverishly around the fumes. Reading the wine list alone will take the rest of your afternoon to cover. Looking for that casual $50,000 bottle of wine? It's there, my friend. "Screaming Eagle Vineyards." Hotkey search that. Then double-check your credit limit.

[[[end pause]]]

The problem Kawakami had with the whole situation wasn't that he paid off the non-binding bet, but that York didn't seem to register the impact of such a meal on a measly sportswriter income, at The French Laundry no less. As Kawakami recounts:

"If I thought Jed [York] was sticking it to me, I’d almost be okay with it. I don’t even think he knew. I don’t think he knew what $2,100 means to a sportswriter who didn’t inherit a billion-dollar team."

That's right. The 36-year old York is a billionaire because grandpa was one, and such stacks of cash get passed down two generations. And, as I told you, check that wine list out. It's $310 a person for food The French Laundry. Three people = $930. (Service is included.) York cranked out another $1,200 on Kawakami through drink, but was oblivious.

Maybe York was oblivious that there was a $50,000 bottle available on hand. Things could have snowballed so much more rapidly.

Facebook is less particular about their hiring practices, while still being particular.

Potentially an executive at Facebook.

Investment banking.

Law.

Consulting firms.

A small handful of other professions.

Does your mom or dad wear a monocle or own a Bentley [but only with a man servant behind the wheel]? Did your grandfather have a closet full of top hats and smoking pipes? Do you know the elderly nanny that raised you better than your mother and father?  Does your name sound like a piece of furniture from Pottery Barn? Congratulations! You won the life lottery, and odds are you're employed in a small segment of career fields that desire such a background.

Facebook once operated similarly as well. As a smaller, promising upstart years ago born of Harvard's bosom, Facebook focused on hiring from a pool of candidates largely out of Ivy League schools, with the occasional Stanford thrown in for good measure. But today, as powerful companies focus solely on pedigree regardless of ability, the pool has drained thin. Very thin. This has led Facebook to expand their own talent pool search.

"We recruit from three hundred schools," Facebook vice president Janelle Gale mentioned at a San Francisco educator conference recently, all while shuffling her abacus and looking to be awarded a gold star. "We want to hire people who’s need to learn is greater than their need to be right," Gale said. What does that even mean? I don't know, but it's exciting in its ambiguity!

"We want people who are open and receptive. We want to make sure people are in jobs they are good at and enjoy," she continued.  People who are open and receptive and willing to accept being wrong when told so? Sounds like me as a bagger boy at a grocery store when I was fourteen. Where do I sign up?

Gale never specifically detailed the alleged three hundred schools Facebook recruits from, but Forbes analyzed LinkedIn's searchable database and found "at least 40 Facebook employees attended Arizona State, while nearly as many hail from Cal State, Chico. The University of Oregon has at least a dozen alumni at Facebook; Texas Tech can count six."

That's a steep drop off. Texas Tech counts six and we're only four schools into counting. Incuding the Ivy League and a handful of other overly connected schools, we still have a list of roughly 280 schools to flesh out. So how thin is this Facebook job search?

This is all related to what Lauren Rivera wrote late last year in the Harvard Business Review, studying how elite corporations have an incestuous relationship with elite schools, creating a cycle of elitist entitlement. "[Elite professions have] on-campus “school lists” [with] two tiers, based largely on prestige," Rivera notes. "So even before applications are received, employers allocate jobs based on alma mater, skewing opportunities toward (and against) students from particular campuses [...] This leaves most students from nonlisted schools out of the game."

Phew. At least we now know Facebook's hiring ambiguity wasn't done out of nobility but just pure necessity. The plebeian masses thought they might have a chance for a second, and that can't happen.

Cornell's endowment chief is leaving $6 billion fund, apparently because he wasn't making the endowment enough money?

A.J. Edwards, endowment head of Cornell University, still brought a return on the endowment year after year. It just appears it wasn't enough.

On a $6 billion endowment, Edwards averaged a 10% return every year over a five year period through 2014, but that's slightly below the 10.4% return other universities with an endowment over $1 billion saw.

Remember, this is an endowment. It's essentially money to sit on, which a university will do next to nothing with except to say, "Hey, look how big our endowment is!"

The final straw for Edwards came after the 2015 fiscal season saw only a 3.4% return--again, a positive--which some felt was a stark contrast to Princeton, which had a 12.7% return on their endowment investments.

But it's Cornell after all. It's supposed to pale in comparison to Princeton. Everyone knows this. When you rattle off the eight Ivy League schools, you inevitably stop at after six, pause, and entirely forget Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania are the last two.

Hell, the University of Pennsylvania is just happy if you don't call it Penn State.

Tiny London bookstore supplies to the whims and quirks of the average and elite.

Heywood Hill is tiny in size, but mighty in scope. The venerable 80-year old London bookstore eschews the trappings of modern retail book buying, the conveyor belt of mass production, and instead focuses on one major aspect: individualized attention. Their attention to detail is so renowned that the Queen--yes, that one--has someone shop for her at their store.

Looking for a collection of books regarding Dadaism? Need some advice on engaging reads about The Crusades? Thinking a wide array of material on Australia's involvement in World War One is key to any well-rounded intellectual conversation? That's where Heywood Hill lends a hand.

But what if you're opening a fashionable hotel and looking to supply varied reading material to worldly clients? Does your private jet need some tomes to accompany guests on long flights? Have that vacation home in the Hamptons or on Nantucket, and are just tired of coffee table books you see at your competition's friend's place? Heywood Hill finds the perfect collection to suit any taste or situation--for a price.

As the New York Times reports, Heywood Hill's assistance can cost into the six figures. If you still haven't hit the lotto despite your dogged determination and want to have a respectable collection of books, their program called 'A Year in Books' supplies a book-a-month based on your tastes for roughly $515.

But back to the Queen. Everyone wants to know what's on her reading list--so what does she fancy? Histories? Biographies? Harlequin novels?

"We don't really talk about her," said store manager Nicky Dunne to the Times.

So, Harlequin novels it is then.




photo: publishingperspectives.com

University of Michigan student claims her family making $250,000 a year makes them middle class.

Defining what is middle-class is a fickle definition. The U.S. Census Bureau defines middle class in the United States as a median household income of $51,017. That said, the middle class varies. What's middle class in Massachusetts or New York is different than what qualifies as middle class in Mississippi or Alabama. But median is median. Massachusetts and Mississippi meet each other at some point, and it's regularly well under $100,000. Well, well, well under $100,000 for a family.

But that doesn't stop University of Michigan student Jesse Klein from claiming in the school newspaper that she is really middle class--despite her family earning over $250,000 a year and living in a $2 million home in Palo Alto.

"My family's household income is $250,000 a year, but I promise you I am middle class," says Klein in her article. "I live in a $2 million dollar house, but I promise you I am still middle class. It has one story, doesn't have a pool or its own movie theater. It is a modest three-bedroom, two-bath."

It doesn't have a movie theater? That's slumming it. And she did promise us...

Klein's story has raised the angst of people around the country who debate the merits of what makes someone middle class. (Psst: it's not $2 million homes). Palo Alto is an affluent neighborhood, but even there the median household income isn't a quarter million.

Indeed, the last demographic statistics for median household income for Palo Alto was $119,046--which is still lower than Ms. Klein's idea of middle class--by more than half of her estimate.

The problem for Klein is a matter of perspective, and to a degree, ridiculousness. While the median income of her hometown might be $119,046, the University of Michigan reports that 63% of all incoming freshman claim a family income of over $100,000. In essence, Klein has no idea how the majority of the world--the majority of America--lives, if only because everyone she grew up and attends college with is equally affluent.

And apparently, the University of Michigan has no idea as well.

There's a bubble, and sometimes it's hard to see outside it.

Study suggests that economic divide is growing rapidly between America's richest and poorest.

The Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy released a study that suggests the gap between America's richest and poorest is playing out most rapidly in higher education statistics.

In the last 40 years, the percentage of America's poorest students (those making $34,160 a year or less) who've attained a bachelor's degree by the age of 24 rose only from 6% to 9% of that entire economic class. Meanwhile, in the same time span, America's wealthiest students have now graduated by 24 at much greater rates--increasing from 44% to 77%.

The more money your family makes, the more reliably you tend to graduate college. 99% of students from America's absolutely wealthiest families (those making $108,650 or more) graduate by the age of 24.

Why the disparity? Experts can't pinpoint the reason, but one glaring fact stands out.

The average cost to attend college in 2012 is more than two times what it was in 1975--when the federal Pell Grant student assistance program was created. Back in 1975, Pell Grants covered 67% of college costs. By 2012, Pell only covered 27%. Higher costs, less assistance.

Likewise, says David Zimmerman, an economics professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, there's a gross lack of low-income students at America's most premier colleges and universities.

So that American dream you always hear about? It's still really just a dream.

Forbes Magazine reminds us that writers are poor. Very poor.

"No one has ever written his way into the ranks of the 400 richest Americans..."

So begins Forbes Magazine's story, reminding us once and for all that writers are the hobos of civilization apparently.

The good news is that 49 of those same richest Americans have written books. The bad news is those books were written by the likes of Donald Trump, Ted Turner, Charles Schwab, and George Soros--almost all entirely nonfiction and about how they're fabulously wealthy.

Yeah-yeah--but do those books share the finer aspects of being a hobo writer? I think not.



photo: Reuters, via Politico

Glorified daycare is wildly expensive in Manhattan.

Glorified daycare (a.k.a. preschool) in Manhattan has become a wannabe caste system say experts, where the wealthiest of locals have taken the admittance of their 2-year old to private preschools as intensely as college applications.

"It was totally insane, but I live here, and I had to accept that it's part of the system if I wanted to send Zee to a private school," Canadian writer Judy Batalion tells CNN Money, apparently unaware how totally insane she sounds.

Indeed, CNN dives down the rabbit hole of private preschool in Manhattan, detailing a world of private school admissions consultants who charge $15,000-$30,000, tuitions up to $40,000, and parents requesting letters of recommendation from former President Bill Clinton, and one asking for the same from the Pope.

Says one adviser, "I've seen people tell the school they're Navaho (sic), when they're like 1/36th," she said. "It's a nuthouse."

Damn straight. Everyone knows to claim you're Cherokee first.




How would Clinton or the Pope write a letter of recommendation for a 2-year old? Where would they start? "This toddler has fine-tuned their motor skills to eat birthday cake like most 3-year olds--even better than some 4-year olds." Or "I was amazed at this toddler's ability to nap on cue like a narcoleptic on Ambien." Where, for example, would the Pope go with such a letter? Would he suggest Jesus recommends the toddler, too? "I think it's safe to say Jesus knows everything, and even Jesus knows this toddler was meant for this preschool."

By the way, apparently the Pope never answered that request. Because, you know, the Pope isn't insane.

Poll of graduates shows Harvard University is every stereotype you've envisioned.

Harvard University's school newspaper, The Crimson, polls graduating seniors every year regarding a myriad of topics, and this year's results are either to be expected or frightening, depending on how much of a cynic/realist you are.

The highlights:

Hey, Big Spender!

19.42% of graduating males report their first job's starting salary will be $90,000 or more, with 6.2% reporting they will earn more than $110,000 starting immediately. (Now would be the time to wax poetic about that time you graduated college and worked as a waiter at Applebees.) There's income inequality among genders at Harvard though, as only 3.57% of females report they will earn a starting salary of more than $90,000 upon graduation. The glass ceiling is universal, regardless of economic background.

Overall, nearly 70% of males and 45% of females report they will earn at least a $50,000 salary with their first job. In case you're wondering, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that the median individual income for any American is roughly $29,000.


So everyone on Wall Street attended Harvard?

The finance industry is attracting the plurality of graduates. Nearly 1-in-4 male Harvard graduates report entering the finance field, and 31% of all graduating seniors, male or female, report their first job will either be in finance or consulting.


Put another way, it's not an accepting place.

When it comes to accepting diversity on campus, Harvard apparently has a long way to go. 36% of non-white students reported feeling marginalized during their time at the university, with 60% of African Americans responding as such.

Likewise, sexual assault is abundantly prevalent on campus, with 12% of females and 2% of males reporting they have been sexually assaulted during their time at Harvard. Of those who responded about being assaulted, only 16% ever reported the crime.

42% of all Harvard graduates reported seeking out mental health counseling at some point. Of those that directly sought help through the school, 57.9% were neutral, dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied with their treatment. This contrasts greatly with students who sought counseling through off-campus means, where 74.4% of respondents reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with their treatment.


Politicians learn from a young age.

And, lastly, the Crimson reports that 17% of all Harvard graduating seniors admitted to cheating on their academics while attending the school.

The real kicker? Those who admit to be entering the field of politics proclaim to be much more honest. Only 7% of potential politicians admitted they ever cheated academically.

Chipotle cups now showcase the work of Toni Morrison, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, and sanctimony.

Starting today, Chipotle's cups and bags are featuring new, short-form work by a variety of high profile writers, including Toni Morrison, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Michael Lewis, and Jonathan Safran Foer.

It's a cute idea. Have famous modern writers jot down something small and quaint to read while you're eating your burrito.

Then listen to Vanity Fair explain Jonathan Safran Foer (the writer of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Eating Animals) and his involvement in Chipotle's marketing:


"Jonathan Safran Foer was sitting at a Chipotle one day, when he realized that he had nothing to do while noshing on his burrito. He had neglected to bring a book or magazine, and he didn’t yet own a smartphone. “I really just wanted to die with frustration,” Foer told VF Daily."


A plea for death. That's subtle. Yes, those ten minutes it's going to take you to eat a middling burrito from a fast food chain restaurant is a soul crusher of frustration that has led lesser humans to take their own lives just to avoid having to listen to themselves think for awhile. Does Foer usually get this easily frustrated in life? Does eating an ice cream on a hot July afternoon just make him want to strangle himself because he has to spoon frozen deliciousness into his mouth without being stimulated from an iPhone app?

But Foer--a vegetarian, eating at a chain restaurant that kills thousands upon thousands of animals every year for its own profit--continues to explain to Vanity Fair why he felt justified in his involvement:


"I mean, I wouldn’t have done it if it was for another company like a McDonald’s, but what interested me is 800,000 Americans of extremely diverse backgrounds having access to good writing. A lot of those people don’t have access to libraries, or bookstores. Something felt very democratic and good about this."


Well, thank God. For a second there I was worried Foer would sound pretentious. Literacy has come to the plebeian masses via two minutes of text on the back of a paper cup. The poor schmucks with closed libraries nearby, who live too far from a Barnes & Noble, are now saved from budding illiteracy because a messianic Chipotle cup features the snappy writing of Foer, Toni Morrison, and others--and it can be theirs if they fork over $10 first. Hoooray, $10 democracy! Screw offering that good writing for free! Make those losers pay a ten spot first!

Drew Magary at The Concourse shares a similar sentiment in questioning Foer and friends:


Think about how arrogant you have to be to put your writing on a soda cup (FYI, soda will kill you) from a burrito joint (a chicken burrito from Chipotle has 1,300 calories), and then calling it "democratic and good." As if some poor bastard out there will be like, "Well, my town couldn't afford to keep its library open. THANK GOD FOR THIS CHIPOTLE CUP [dies of heart disease from eating too much guacamole.]"


Magary continues:


This is Silicon Valley in a bag. It's regular-old commerce gussied up like runway food and presented to you as some kind of noble humanitarian effort. Why not just say you did this for money? Is it so fucking hard? There's nothing crass or ignoble about licensing your work for money. [...] The crassness comes when you try to fool people into believing this is some kind of exercise in burrito-funded utopianism. Lunch is lunch, and it doesn't need to be more than lunch.


Exactly.

Give me a plain white bag and a crayon and that will serve my artistic impulses and synaptic stimulation needs more than any sanctimony from Foer and friends.

Harvard receives a record $150 million gift.

For a university sitting on a $32 billion endowment, the last thing it needs is another kiss of cash from a former student. But whereas countless donations to schools go in the form of having buildings named after the benefactor, hedge-fund chieftain Ken Griffin has a specific reason for his donation of the biggest monetary gift in the school's nearly 400-year old existence.

The $150 million is to be used to fund students less financially affluent than your typical Ivy Leaguer, providing full scholarships for 200 undergraduates, and offering matching funds for 600 others. Current tuition at Harvard runs around $39,000, but including fees, room and board, and other costs, the price is closer to $56,000.

In case you're wondering, according to CNN, 20% of Harvard's students come from families who earn less than $65,000 a year. The US Census Bureau reports that the median household income in the United States between 2008-2012 was $53,046--meaning more than 80% of Harvard students come from affluent (or, at least, quite financially comfortable) backgrounds, at least by American standards.

And there's your education equality in America.

Most common grade at Harvard University is an A, admits dean.

Confirming suspicions of a grade inflation issue at one of America's premier colleges and universities, the Dean of Undergraduate Education at Harvard University, Jay M. Harris, told the school newspaper the most commonly awarded grade is an A, while the median grade is an A-.

A university full of geniuses? Not quite. The same issue has plagued many colleges and universities, most notably the Ivy League variety. A review of grades at Yale University between 2010 and 2012 showed that 62% of all grades were in the A range.

This all comes on the heals of Princeton University's desire to reexamine its grading policy implemented in 2004, which required that no more than 35% of an individual class's grades should be an A. Critics deem it grade deflation, which puts Princeton in the back of the pack when it comes to which Ivy League school the elites want to attend.

As Yale student Aaron Berman told the school newspaper, "The feeling I got after visiting Princeton was that the grade deflation put too much pressure on students and made students feel as if they were competing for grades."

Because if there's one thing a student shouldn't do, it's work hard for a grade.

Admittedly, 900-thread count sheets do sound pretty sweet.

There was a time when college students ate Ramen for breakfast, wore used underwear for three straight days to avoid doing laundry, and considered the Taco Bell drive-thru a swanky night out.

C'est la vie.

The Wall Street Journal has a story about concierges catering to college students who need, among other things...

...an authentic mariachi band
...to ship 300 bottles of perfume
...hard-to-get restaurant reservations and sporting event tickets
...to have someone appeal speeding tickets and pay the fine at court
...bedrooms and apartments furnished and decorated
...extra-long, twin, 900-thread count sheets


The twin sheets didn't happen, as such a thing doesn't regularly exist. The rest? All were catered to by various concierge services.

Hara Estroff Marano, editor at Psychology Today, isn't a fan, and tells the Journal, "Any parent who subscribes to or subsidizes this should really have their head examined."

It's pretty bad when the editor at Psychology Today whips out the amateur mic night comedy material to mock you.

Study: Spoiled kids perform worse in college.

WHA-WHA-WHAT?? Spoiled kids slacking??

Sociology professor Laura Hamilton combed over databases of economic and education data and found that the more a parent blindly spends money on their child's college education the worse that child's grades will be.

According to Inside Higher Ed:

This finding backs the idea that parental financial support can act as a "moral hazard" in that students make decisions about how seriously to take their studies without having personally made the investment of cash in their educations. [...] Generally the grades were lowest for students with high levels of support from their parents at private, out-of-state and more expensive colleges.

[...]

The problem is that most parents who give a lot of money are apparently less than demanding about expectations. Then, Hamilton said, the students find college to be a great experience, and not one they are going to endanger by failing. "They say 'I want to stay there, but I'm not going to work too hard while I'm here.' They stay in college but dial down their academic effort."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what if you're the Nadia Comăneci of keg stands? That has to count as some sort of effort.

Holiday tipping guide suggests your 'extracurricular instructors' hate money.

If you're rich, the holiday season means you need to start tipping the the plebeian masses around you.

Jacqueline Whitmore, a leading international etiquette expert and founder of the Protocol School of Palm Beach, suggests that you give a "thoughtful gift" to the array of teachers, educators, and intellectuals raising the child you haven't seen since birth.

Whitmore says those 'extracurricular instructors' raising your children don't want money, but actually desire a creative gift at the holidays. For example, according to Whitmore, if you're a piano teacher you'd actually prefer a bookmark made out of an ivory piano key instead of a cash tip.

On the bright side, you can sell that ivory bookmark at a pawn shop for, like, $25.


Don't forget to tip your sarcastic bloggers, too. Besides cash, I also accept personal checks and PayPal.

Parents sue 'Education Consultant' for $2 million after their two children aren't accepted into Harvard.

Two Hong Kong parents paid a $1 million retainer fee per child for the 'consultant' to guide their two sons into Harvard, while also paying a $4,000 a month fee per child for tutoring and educational services. The two sons didn't make it into Harvard.

Just goes to show you that you don't need to be the child of an alumnus, celebrity, politician, corporate executive, doctor, lawyer, or old money to get into Harvard.

No--wait, yeah, it does.

One-in-five American households have student loan debt.

19% of American households have student loan debt, according to CNN/Money referencing the Pew Research Center. This is up from 15% only three years earlier.

And, of course, depending on how poor you are correlates to how likely you're to acquire that student loan debt--as CNN offers us with this delightful graph:

And yet 19% is supposed to be high--which is a bit of a downer, because I'm pretty certain that 19% is all of my friends.



Just a little quibble with the graph:
How come CNN labels the top fifth as richest but labels the poorest fifth as lowest? Are they afraid to use the word poorest? But are these people not the poorest? And doesn't that work in conjunction with labeling the top fifth as richest? Yeah, yeah, I might be arguing semantics here, but words are words--and it seems CNN is afraid of some.


Graph: CNN/MONEY