An Introduction to The Early Action
What I Hope To Achieve With This Education-Driven Newsletter
When I was a journalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, one of my required courses was covering a beat within the city of Syracuse, New York. I chose the education beat, which focused primarily on attending school board meetings and speaking with elected officials and local constituents about immediate and long-term challenges that concerned students, their families and faculty.
Five years later, the experience covering local education was my most rewarding academic endeavor. Since then I find myself constantly reading and learning about issues and topics ranging from increasing competition in college admissions, to the urgency for improved resources in urban school districts across the country, and various other issues that aren’t attended to in the media ecosystem.
I feel education is not given the full attention it so rightly deserves. As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated online-based learning for students of all ages, it also stands to impact the institutions and the future methods of engaging with future generations moving forward.
My goal with The Early Action is simple: provide you with a comprehensive newsletter containing news and respected analysis concerning college education and admissions in the United States. That means highlighting the most noteworthy content for The Early Action audience, whether it’s from national outlets or local publications that may not receive the typical notoriety.
Ultimately, I would love your feedback on what topics you would like me to curate most in future newsletters (publishing every Tuesday). Your ability to subscribe and share with your friends is greatly appreciated.
Harvard To Conduct All Classes Online This Year
Harvard University announced Monday that all course instruction for undergraduate and graduate students will be delivered online during the upcoming school year.
The plan is to allow only 40% of undergraduate students to live on campus when the fall semester begins in September, the majority of them being first-year students as they acclimate to college life. Meanwhile, the plan for the spring semester is to bring seniors back to campus for their final semester while first-year students transition to online learning.
Harvard President Lawrence Bacow, along with two academic deans, made the official announcement to the school community.
In our planning efforts, we have sought a path to bringing all students back as soon as conditions allow, while continuing their academic progress in the meantime and remaining a vibrant research community across our broad range of disciplines. But we also recognize that, fundamentally, there is an intrinsic incompatibility between our highly interactive, residential Harvard College experience and the social distancing needed to mitigate COVID-19 transmission. The recent upturn in COVID-19 cases in certain states illustrates the difficulty of making predictions, even well-informed ones, about the evolution of this virus.
Despite the transition to online learning for the upcoming academic year, the full tuition of $49,653 will remain unchanged.
Wharton School Names New Dean
A new dean is now leading the renowned Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Erika H. James began her new position on July 1st, becoming the first woman and person of color to lead the school since its inception in 1881.
Dr. James was introduced to a national audience last week during her seven-minute interview with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America.
I boil it down to something that is very simple. We have to change our own self-talk. Often times we impede our own self progress because we don’t have the confidence to say yes I’m ready for this role, yes I can meet these challenges, yes I have the expertise in the background that is necessary. When we get out of our own way and truly bet on ourselves, that’s when we start to create other people’s confidence in us.
Dr. James previously served as dean of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, a top-25 business school in the country.
Recommended Reading This Week
Here are a few articles that I believe will be worth your time (links embedded below).
From The Wall Street Journal: New Rules Detail How Foreign Students Can—and Can’t—Take Classes at U.S. Colleges This Fall
From The New York Times: The future of college admissions could change forever. That is according to Eric Tan, a rising high school senior in New Jersey who was among the nine winners selected in the high school category of The New York Times’ “Seventh Annual Student Editorial Contest.”
Thank you for reading, subscribing and sharing this newsletter! Next week’s addition will land on the web and in your inbox on Tuesday, July 14th.
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