 Dear reader,
We’re in the season when my inbox is filled with press releases from elite four-year colleges announcing record-low admit rates while boasting “the most competitive year ever” for admissions. It’s a phrase you’ll see repeated in major news outlets, but here at The Hechinger Report, our higher education coverage is more focused on who is not going to college, how to pay for it without crushing debt, and what happens when students arrive.
And that’s why the story Hechinger’s Olivia Sanchez reported out of Austin, Texas, about the struggles many freshmen are having is so important.
“Their failure is my failure,” legendary University of Texas math professor Uri Treisman told Olivia. The pandemic is creating a new class of students who are less prepared, more anxious and not as ready for college-level work. Last fall, some 25 percent of students in Treisman’s first-year calculus class failed; in a normal year, just 5 percent fail. There are steps being taken to help these students, and what is happening at UT is not isolated.
Another important higher education story comes from our Proof Points columnist Jill Barshay; it looks behind the promise of free-tuition programs to determine who actually applies and enrolls. We welcome your thoughts and reactions, and greatly appreciate when you share our stories – as well as reminders to sign up for our newsletters.
Liz Willen, Editor
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