This and That
Duke political scientist Brendan Nyhan defends Larry Summers on his blog, pointing out the various ways in which Summers statements about women in science have been translated into the popular press. See for yourself...and while you're at it, Harvard folks, you might take notice of something else: A professor who actually writes a blog!
(All right, I take it back, he's a graduate student. But still.)
Meanwhile, a commenter below wondered what was up with Rick Levin's decision not to abandon early admissions at Yale. Here's his explanation...and here's my excerpt of what seems to me the most candid part:
Y: But by keeping early admissions, you keep a system in which the early pool, which is wealthier, has a higher acceptance rate -- approximately 18 percent last year versus 8 percent for the regular pool.
L: The quality of the early pool is higher on average. Many of the best high schools encourage their best students to apply early.
Y: In 2002, you told the alumni magazine you would like to see early admissions eliminated everywhere.
L: I emphasized that every school would have to eliminate early admissions to achieve the desired result. But this is very unlikely to happen. If Yale were to eliminate early admissions now, it is most likely that we would end up with a system where the top three or five schools had no early program, and just about everybody else did. That wouldn't solve many problems and would create some new ones.
By the way, good for the Yale Alumni Magazine to ask Levin some tough questions. While people pay a lot of attention to Harvard Magazine—which is very fine, it's true—the YAM has actually gotten really good, and is in some ways (design, for example) better than Harvard Magazine.
