Why education, not just money, is what levels the playing field
Wealth equality has never really been a priority in America; we hustle, and we try to out-hustle everyone else on our journey toward the top of a ladder that we really do believe each of us has an equal opportunity to climb. No, equal sharing of wealth might not be…
But it might feel like a quick fix
Sara was a pragmatist. Like many in her generational cohort born between 1995 and 2012 (iGen), she was a realist and she saw college as training for a job. However, unlike many of her peers in the wealthy village on the edge of Lake Tahoe, she was an undocumented child…
The “latchkey generation,” also known as Generation x (those born between 1965 and 1979) is now raising teenagers in a way that may be called “compensating” for the lack of attention they may have received from their parents.
If you went to school in the 80s, you may have very…
How these Dual Degree Programs Can Offer the Best of Both Worlds and End the Ill-Informed Mad Dash Toward Engineering
In his college applications, Peter wants to go into engineering. But he’s actually interested in farming, and cars, and foreign languages.
Why does Peter — and why do so many high school students — claim they want to go into engineering? They have almost no context about what this degree…
Why Aren’t Candidates Talking about Price Capping?
The major democratic positions on college education can be broken into 3 main categories, as outlined below. Yet, I found myself squirming during the debates. …
I’ve always been that person who walks away from crowds, from lines, and from books that everyone is reading. I’m not trying to be cool or alternative (the hipster persona just doesn’t come naturally to me), but I simply can’t get excited about things that are “at capacity,” overly saturated…
We’ve fallen out of love with the American University. It’s just not doing what we want anymore, so we’re in an unhappy relationship that we can’t seem to get out of. Something keeps pulling us back in, like we feel there are no other fish in the sea. To be…
It’s not for us to decide
It’s a phrase I hear often from educators, parents, and friends. When people hear that I’m a college counselor, what follows is often a remark such as this one, or may something a bit more subtle, “So, do you also help those students who, you know, just shouldn’t really go…
The earliest universities focused on inward and outward examination, separating one’s future earnings from the purpose of learning. After years of mass, transactional, and career-centric higher education, some of us seem to be craving a more progressive return to the past.
But this is true: a university is a human…
A publication devoted to dismantling the cult of college prestige and forging fresh paths to adulthood
In a recent episode of On Being with Krista Tippett, Denise Pope, and Abraham Verghese, the conversation centered around redefining success for young people today, who, according to a growing body of research, are way more stressed out than previous generations (we don’t really need research to convince us of…
Alex Ellison
Student-centric college planner & education consultant. Teen advocate. NU Wildcat. TEDx and SXSW speaker. | www.alexellison.com
