Blogs

Jay Wexler is a tenured law professor at Boston University. He also uses his time to write creatively.

Have you ever organized an unconference session? Being good Gradhacker readers, I’m sure many of you have. My first was at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute this year at the University of Victoria. I proposed a session I called “Free and Cheap Apps to Improve Your Life.” For some reason, that made people laugh. For some other reason, people decided to come!

A new correspondent writes: "I'm curious as to how you define 'college ready,' and if you think students come to college really ready or if there are other thing that we could do in the trenches to help them."

As we segue toward September, UD offers three cautionary tales about recent efforts on the part of American universities to go corporate.

The Violinist's Thumb does for DNA what Sam Kean's first book, The Disappearing Spoon, did for the periodic table. He is able to transform what could be difficult and dry scientific concepts into compelling narratives driven by a series of larger than life personalities.

What do chocolate chip cookies have to do with higher ed strategy?

As I have noted before I am a car person and so last night I took advantage of an opportunity from a local dealer to take a preview firsthand look at the new 2013 Cadillac ATS. The ATS is aimed at the Mercedes C class and BMW 3 class competition, a competition that BMW has dominated for a number of years. The luxury entry level cars are key bread and butter cars for the upscale brands and Cadillac has been absent from this market for many years. I actually remember when Cadillac first entered this market — the vehicle was the Cadillac Cimarron, a mediocre leather trimmed version of the Chevrolet Cavalier.

Over the past few months, I've watched friends prepare to send their children off to college with a mixture of admiration and relief. I admire their ability to focus on the positive aspects of the situation—look at all the interesting new people she'll meet! An experience of another way of life, in another part of the country (or world)!—and am filled with relief that it isn't me, at least, not yet.