The number of schools ranked highly in guides such as Barron's Profiles of American Colleges is increasing, without any evidence that these schools' instructional quality is also increasing. Applicants and their families should be wary of letting these rankings serve as the main criteria in their college decisions.

A university is more than the sum of its ethnic parts. It is comprised of individuals — black, white, Hispanic, Asian and others — who should be admitted or rejected without their race or ethnic heritage making any difference.

Not all colleges are created equal when it comes to getting their students over the finish line. One step toward a better outcome is improving the information available about quality and costs.

The stage now seems to be set for perhaps the final act in the Euro-zone debt crisis. With its economy literally imploding, social tensions close to the boiling point, and its IMF program woefully off track, there is every prospect that Greece will experience a hard default by year end.

A century from now, observers may well identify the last months of 2011 as the start of higher education’s Great Disruption.

Our understanding of white America is subject to a number of outdated assumptions that need rethinking.

At times of serious economic and financial crises, politicians are wont to shirk responsibility for their policy errors and to seek scapegoats for their policy errors. European politicians are proving to be no exception to this tendency.

Changing horses midstream is generally a risky proposition. Trying to do so in the midst of the eurozone debt crisis, where the economic and political stakes could not be higher, could prove especially hazardous. It will be even more so if careful thought is not given to the ramifications of the partial debt restructuring proposals that are now being happily bandied about.