Book Description
Every spring thousands of middle-class and lower-income high-school seniors learn that they have been rejected by America’s most exclusive colleges. What they may never learn is how many candidates like themselves have been passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentials—children of alumni, big donors, or celebrities.
In this explosive book, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Daniel Golden argues that America, the so-called land of opportunity, is rapidly becoming an aristocracy in which America’s richest families receive special access to elite higher education—enabling them to give their children even more of a head start. Based on two years of investigative reporting and hundreds of interviews with students, parents, school administrators, and admissions personnel—some of whom risked their jobs to speak to the author—The Price of Admission exposes the corrupt admissions practices that favor the wealthy, the powerful, and the famous.
In The Price of Admission, Golden names names, along with grades and test scores. He reveals how the sons of former vice president Al Gore, one-time Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist leapt ahead of more deserving applicants at Harvard, Brown, and Princeton. He explores favoritism at the Ivy Leagues, Duke, the University of Virginia, and Notre Dame, among other institutions. He reveals that colleges hold Asian American students to a higher standard than whites; comply with Title IX by giving scholarships to rich women in “patrician sports” like horseback riding, squash, and crew; and repay congressmen for favors by admitting their children. He also reveals that Harvard maintains a “Z-list” for well-connected but underqualified students, who are quietly admitted on the condition that they wait a year to enroll.
The Price of Admission explodes the myth of an American meritocracy—the belief that no matter what your background, if you are smart and diligent enough, you will have access to the nation’s most elite universities. It is must reading not only for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions, but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans.
Customer Reviews:
A Ten Star Read on a Five Star Scale.......2007-10-14
Daniel Golden's The Price of Admission is a ten star read on Amazon's five star scale-- a triumph of hard-hitting investigative reporting combined with thoughtful suggestions on potential reform of college admissions policies.
The thesis of The Price of Admission is simple: a talented "unhooked" student is at a disadvantage in gaining admission to a prestige college, versus less talented alumni legacies, the scions of wealth ("development admits"-- while colleges may contend that admissions are "need blind" with respect to students, the colleges' own financial needs are keenly considered during the admissions process), faculty and staff children, and players of sports of wealth favored under the federal Title IX program, such as crew, polo or lacrosse. The only edge favoring "unhooked" studients is the preference for federally-designated minorities, including blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans-- a group that excludes Asian Americans and poorer immigrants.
Golden proves his thesis handily, using both broad-based admissions statistics and individual case studies. To my mind, Golden's willingness to name names and cite individual cases is a plus-- it is hard to brush off repeated instances of highly-credentialed "unhooked" candidates denied admission for less-talented but better connected children of donors, celebrities and alumni. As a result, this volume is a must-read for college admissions counselors, parents and college applicants. The sting of a college rejection of a talented "unhooked" student will hurt less if the context of that rejection is understood more fully. And perhaps the lure of the Ivy League plus Stanford and Duke will abate a bit if the public realizes that admissions to these institutions are hardly decided on a level playing field.
Especially heartbreaking in The Price of Admission are the stories of top tier students, frequently but by no means uniformly Asian American, rejected at multiple Ivies, while lesser-credentialed but better connected classmates are admitted. Poor foreign immigrants and, ironically, unhooked applicants whose parents have sacrificed to move to strong public school districts or to send their offspring to elite private schools (where they are more likely to compete with "hooked" classmates), are also disadvantaged in college applications. The Price of Admission offers must-read information for such students and families by helping them to realize that the college admissions process is biased and that rejection from top colleges does not signal personal failure. On the basis of personal experience, I would also suggest that talented students who are not admitted to Ivies will typically do well in life on the basis of their talent and drive, and should not let college admissions decisions define them.
Golden also highlights three colleges that do not admit on the basis of alumni preference, family wealth or athletic prowess, illustrating that alternative admissions systems can work effectively. Cooper Union admits strictly on academic and artistic merit, while Caltech admits solely on mathematical and scientific ability. Berea College, which serves a need-based population in the Appalachian Mountain area and in part of Ohio, admits students on the basis of merit, financial need and place of residence. The stories of Berea, Caltech and Cooper Union demonstrate that alternative admissions policies can and should flourish.
Golden concludes The Price of Admission with recommendations for moving college admissions more fully in the direction of merit. Many of his recommendations are thoughtful ones and deserving of careful consideration by college admissions staffs and policymakers.
Altogether, a ten star read on Amazon's five star scale. Recommended with keen enthusiasm.
A bit repetitive... was probably better as a newspaper article.......2007-07-27
In a series of articles for the Wall Street Journal, Golden brought attention to controversial aspects of college admissions that act to hinder economic diversity at elite campuses. The most striking allegation is that many universities mantain active communication between the admissions and development offices. For example, the development office at Duke applied pressure to accept applicants from wealthy families even if there had been no sign of interest in donations. Golden illustrates the unsavory nature of this connection through a series of comparisons between the wealthy (undeserving) applicant who was granted admission and a poor (deserving) applicant who was denied admissions. This style of writing is a nice appeal to emotion, but it works much better in the comparatively short format of a newspaper. After reading a dozen such comparisons between various students I would have preferred some real analysis. One piece of analysis that I have recently come across is a study by the New America Foundation which found that among the 140 most selective colleges, only 3% of students come from the bottom quartile.
The Price of Admission.......2007-03-10
This is one of the most revealing books ever written on the topic of unequal rights and entitlement. Its chilling detail about the disproportionate number of applicants who gain admission into the hallowed halls of America's elite institutions on the backs of their parents financial contributions is riveting stuff. It is very apparent that our legal system would have us believe that colorblind policies and not affirmative action should be the major criterion in considerations of admission in order to level the playing field. But race-based discussions in this context are spurious and misleading. This book reveals plainly why how in the midst of our most diverse society ever, American elite college admissions stands by the motto "I pledge allegiance to my university's endowment and to the hypocrisy for which it stands; one nation, divisble, with Liberty and justice for all who can afford it." Legal challenges would be next to impossible since the cloaked wonders on our Supreme Court come from these same hallowed halls. And we have the nerve to think God Blesses America!
entralling, but biased........2007-02-11
Higher education is regarded as the most effective means to elevate ones socioeconomic position. The author discusses how the admissions system of elite universities continually favors the wealthy, while neglecting disadvantaged students. For this book, he primarily utilizes his past columns on admissions, admissions data from the U.S. News & World Report, and personal correspondence and interviews.
Golden's main theme is the "gross inequity" of elite college admissions obtained through an "informal quota system" aimed at maintaining the homogeneous wealthy class (p. 11). From the introduction, the author details the various means by which elite institutions enact double standards in admissions between "hooked" and "unhooked" applicants via the personal tales of applicants who were rejected by their top choice universities. These sometimes heart wrenching stories are complimented by accounts of admission of various under-qualified applicants assisted by a variety of connections, such as the admission of President Bush's niece to Princeton past the official deadline. While somewhat repetitive by the end of the book, these narratives are effective at illustrating the author's theme of the favoritism towards the wealthy.
Overall, The Price of Admission is as a interesting, though scalding, review of admissions at elite institutions. Daniel Golden's stories of corruption and heartbreak certainly captivate the reader, and the need for admissions reform is clearly communicated. Some of the author's points, such as abolishing athletic preference, especially for athletes in sports only available to the wealthy, can and should be put into place. However, Golden's recommendations are too idealistic as a whole to be easily enacted under realistic circumstances. While forces other than merit should not influence admissions, much cultural and organizational change would be needed to truly change the current system. Universities rely on alumni monies, as they do funds associated with development cases, and until more equitable fundraising procedures such as those at Cooper Union can be successfully enacted, legacy and development preferences cannot be abolished. Also, American universities need to continue to use their limited financial aid funds for our students, rather than offer needs-blind admission to international applicants. Golden states "a fair, accessible college admissions system based on individual merit...would inspire students of all races...." (p. 297). While this is likely true, one must remember that the changes the author recommends would primarily benefit the fairly privileged middle class, who can afford good secondary education and test preparation to meet merit requirements. To truly open elite higher education to the masses, the reform must begin with primary and secondary education.
who's doing the not so right thing ar schools.......2007-02-07
This is a tattletale book of who is working the system to get their kids into privledged schools, often bypassing any main criteria that the institution has for any other students. The ending is a good one because the author offers solutions to this epidemic. he also cites some schools, one bing, Cooper Union in NYC that does not bow to any pressures to let kids into their school.
Book Description
In Investors and Markets, Nobel Prize-winning financial economist William Sharpe shows that investment professionals cannot make good portfolio choices unless they understand the determinants of asset prices. But until now asset-price analysis has largely been inaccessible to everyone except PhDs in financial economics. In this book, Sharpe changes that by setting out his state-of-the-art approach to asset pricing in a nonmathematical form that will be comprehensible to a broad range of investment professionals, including investment advisors, money managers, and financial analysts. Bridging the gap between the best financial theory and investment practice, Investors and Markets will help investment professionals make better portfolio choices by being smarter about asset prices.
Based on Sharpe's Princeton Lectures in Finance, Investors and Markets presents a method of analyzing asset prices that accounts for the real behavior of investors. Sharpe makes this technique accessible through a new, one-of-a-kind computer program (available for free on his Web site, at http://www.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/apsim/index.html) that enables users to create virtual markets, setting the starting conditions and then allowing trading until equilibrium is reached and trading stops. Program users can then analyze the final portfolios and asset prices, see expected returns, and measure risk.
In addition to popularizing the most sophisticated form of asset-price analysis, Investors and Markets summarizes much of Sharpe's most important previous work and reflects a lifetime of thinking about investing by one of the leading minds in financial economics. Any serious investment professional will benefit from Sharpe's unique insights.
Customer Reviews:
good new book for good price.......2007-09-06
good new book for good price. of all the books on the subject, this is by far the easiest to read.
Important read for professional investors.......2007-08-23
An important, relatively recent book by William Sharpe, a Nobel Prize winning economist and Stanford business prof. Not for the rank-and-file investor; but much useful information for pros and teachers of finance. Last chapter contains a summary of very useful advice suitable for anyone who invests in stocks.
"Normative Issues in a Positive Context".......2006-12-05
William Sharpe, who really needs no introduction, has made major contributions to some of the most influential discoveries in financial economics. From his parsimonious diagonal model which simplified the use of Markowitz' normative (prescribing how investors should behave) mean/variance approach to portfolio choice to the positive (describing how investors actually behave) Capital Asset Pricing Model, Professor Sharpe clearly approaches -- even from his earliest investigations - financial economics from a pragmatic perspective. Of course that work contributed to his selection in 1990 as a co-recipient (along with Harry Markowitz and Merton Miller) of The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Professor Sharpe has also been commercially successful, as a RAND economist, and as President, Chairman and/or Director of several enterprises related to investments. Of course, practitioners may know him best for his famous "reward-to-variability" ratio which we all know as the Sharpe ratio. Professor Sharpe has also made important fundamental contributions to options valuation, asset allocation implementation, and returns-based style analysis.
His pioneering books are standard text assignments for both undergraduate and graduate students of finance; these include Portfolio Theory and Capital Markets (McGraw-Hill, 1970 and 2000), Asset Allocation Tools (Scientific Press, 1987), Fundamentals of Investments (with Gordon J. Alexander and Jeffrey Bailey, Prentice-Hall, 2000), Investments (with Gordon J. Alexander and Jeffrey Bailey, Prentice-Hall, 1999). Now we are fortunate as an industry to have Professor Sharpe's latest book, Investors and Markets: Portfolio Choices, Asset Prices and Investment Advice (Princeton University Press, 2007), available.
Investors and Markets is the culmination of a series of three lectures Professor Sharpe gave at Princeton University in May, 2004. The lectures, titled "Asset Prices and Portfolio Choice" are designed to help individual investors make good saving and investment decisions, and Professor Sharpe is the first author I have seen to treat both asset pricing and portfolio choice as a single subject in an attempt to do so. The book is also a nice departure from the well-worn mean/variance framework (which places restrictions on beliefs), relying instead on the state/preference approach (which places restrictions instead on tastes) originally developed by Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu. Although it relies on a discrete-time formulation, one advantage of the state/space framework is that it accommodates both consumption preferences and production outputs. Because there are (literally) an infinite number of future states of the world, closed-form derivations are nearly impossible and simulation is required in this context if we are to achieve equilibrium. To do so, Professor Sharpe built a simulation program called APSIM (Asset Pricing and Portfolio Choice Simulator), which was not available a couple of years ago when the lectures happened but since then he has made freely available on his website, [...].
Professor Sharpe's original Princeton Lectures are organized into 1) Equilibrium, in a single-period setting with homogeneity of investor expectations, 2) Diversity, in a setting where investors have heterogeneous expectations, and 3) Protection, a world in which investors have access to spanning instruments such as principal-protected notes. This is also largely the sequence of the book, which is organized into discussions of equilibrium, preferences and prices in chapters 1-4, which basically comprise Lecture 1; positions (reflecting preferences), and predictions (reflecting disagreement among investors) in chapters five and six, material primarily from Lecture 2, and protection and advice in chapters seven and eight, which is composed mainly of material from Lectures 2 and 3. The book concludes with four simple recommendations for personal investment: diversify as broadly as possible; economize on unnecessary costs; incorporate the circumstances and preferences of the individual client in the portfolio decision; and contextualize portfolio choice vis-à-vis asset pricing, keeping in mind the distinction between investing versus betting, desire for principal protection, and the potential trading impact of the investor when he or she eventually requires liquidity.
In Investors and Markets, Professor Sharpe is "primarily concerned with helping individual investors make good saving and investment decisions - usually with the assistance of professionals such as financial planners, mutual fund managers, advisory services, and personal asset managers." Although this book may prove tough going for the layperson, all professionals in the asset management industry would do well by their clients to buy, read and re-read it ... the clients will certainly benefit.
Average customer rating:
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The Price of Faith: Exploring Our Choices About Money and Wealth
Marie T. Cross
Manufacturer: Geneva Press
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Faith & Money: Understanding Annual Giving in Church
ASIN: 0664502164 |
Book Description
The wizards are going to war - against one another. And they may destroy the Forgotten Forest in the process. As apprentice to the wisest of the wizards, the reader must decide what role to play in the coming conflict: If you want to remain with the wise wizard and help defend his castle, turn to page 63; If you want to take along magical spells and try to talk reason to the fighting wizards, turn to page 10; If you want to use a magical powder to become invisible, and set out to stop the most dangerous wizard of all, turn to page 22. Make the wrong decisions, and you may lose your life. Make the right decisions, and you could become a hero. Whatever fate you meet, you can always go back to the beginning and start again. In the Forgotten Forest, only one thing is certain: The choice is yours!
Book Description
This is the ultimate pattern-name identification book and price guide for collectors of Carnival Glass.
Collectors will find a bounty of information on the origins of Carnival Glass and priceless information on identifying pieces by their shape, base colors, and manufacturers, including Fenton, Dugan, Imperial, Northwood, and more. Lavishly illustrated and full of helpful tips for identifying all forms of Carnival Glass, prices are listed both in U.S. dollars and British pounds.
Author Marion Quentin-Baxendale has been collecting Carnival Glass for more than 30 years and has researched extensively at factory sources throughout America, Australia, Northern Europe, and Scandinavia.
• More than 400 listings and gorgeous photographs of various varieties of Carnival Glass
• Up-to-date prices listed in U.S. dollars and British pounds
• The ultimate pattern-name identification and price guide available
Customer Reviews:
great book to carry when your searching for carnival glass.......1998-10-15
This book is an excellent book to carry when your scouring for carnival glass, It's paperback, yet has hundreds of color pictures for easy identification, especially European purchases. It also has brief histories of the major manufacturers of carnival and several detailed drawings as well as suggested prices. I highly recommend it!!
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Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930
Price V. Fishback
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0195067258 |
Book Description
While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on the struggle to organize unions, this work offers a more diverse and quantitative examination of the labor market. It regards the economic lives of the bituminous coal miners in the early twentieth century. Fishback's analytic framework encompasses competition among employers for labor, the legal environment, institutional development in response to transactions costs as well as the impact of labor unions on the coal industry. Utilizing economic theory and statistics, Fishback reveals the models hidden in the descriptions of events, and then tests their internal consistency as well as the hypotheses they generate.
Book Description
A complete collection of the most crucial offensive basketball drills. Covers conditioning, ball-handling, screening, passing, shooting, fast-break, lay-up, post play, offensive rebounding and out-of-bound drills. Each drill is described in detail and diagrammed. Coaching pointers are included for maximum results.
Customer Reviews:
Great Basketball Drill book, Ode to cover of Detlef Schrmepf, one of top 75 NBA players of alltime!.......2006-06-29
[Four of Four stars] George Karl and Terry
Stotts do very good work here. The diagrams
are easy to follow and the funky Tueton on
the cover is Detlef Schrempf, former 16-yr.
NBA Forward/Guard. Detlef in german is 'Der-
rick' and 'Schrempf' is short [and he was 6'
10"!]
Excellent drills for competitive AAU basketball teams.......2004-03-18
Boys and girls youth AAU basketball throughout the United States is extremely competitive. To this end, "101 Offensive Basketball Drills," by George Karl is an ideal book for AAU basketball coaches who are looking to maximize team skills. This book is certain to assist new and veteran coaches alike with conditioning, ball-handling, screening, passing, shooting, rebounding and fast-break drills.
Moreover, the offensive drills are presented in easy to understand diagrams with concise implementation instructions. On the downside, this is a succinct drill book with very little coaching narrative. Any coach looking for comprehensive strategy or fundamental basketball insights should go elsewhere...this book is primarily a blackboard practice resource. Nevertheless, I found "101 Offensive Basketball Drills," an excellent tool to liven up practices and introduce new ways to improve the education of players. Recommended.
Bert Ruiz
Excellent material for the Jr. High and High School Coach.......1998-07-10
The text is well written and the diagrams of the drills are easily understood and implemented. The book breaks down the numerous drills by disciplines, (ie.. shooting, ball-handling, etc..), for easy use and reference. I have personally implemented over twenty drills into my Jr. High basketball program.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Nephrology Nursing Journal, published by Jannetti Publications, Inc. on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 594 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Advance directives vary: one corporation with two choices.(Ethical issues: advance directives and DNA orders)
Author: Christy Price Rabetoy
Publication:
Nephrology Nursing Journal (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Jannetti Publications, Inc.
Volume: 31
Issue: 1
Page: 94(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Affordability amidst affluence.(2006 PLANNING AWARDS: Current Topic Award-Housing Choice and Affordability): An article from: Planning
Ed Finkel
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
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Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B000NIVEX6
Release Date: 2007-02-14 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Planning, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 868 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Affordability amidst affluence.(2006 PLANNING AWARDS: Current Topic Award-Housing Choice and Affordability)
Author: Ed Finkel
Publication:
Planning (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 72
Issue: 3
Page: 7(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Books:
- The Safe Shopper's Bible: A Consumer's Guide to Nontoxic Household Products, Cosmetics, and Food
- The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company
- The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership
- This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future
- Time Is Of The Essence (Indigo: Sensuous Love Stories)
- Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles' Water Supply in the Owens Valley
- What Every Manager Should Know About Training: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Money's Worth From Training.
- What Government Can Do: Dealing With Poverty and Inequality (American Politics and Political Economy)
- White Ghost Girls
- Advertising Secrets of the Written Word: The Ultimate Resource on How to Write Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs
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