The Current State of Music...Amazing!

As I have gotten older I have observed an interesting habit amongst older folks; we like to complain. First, I must clarify, I am categorizing anyone over 35 as old. I know, 35 is a young age to call old but for my discussion on the current state of music I am looking at the age demographic that moves popular music taste which is well, under 30 so anyone over 35 is...old.

Old people complain; I stand by my statement. They complain about the government, they complain about the traffic, they complain about how things used to be, they complain about the younger generation, and they complain about music. It is almost universally acknowledged that older people have something to complain about when it comes to the current state of music.

Some of the common complains that older folks have about music today is that, “contemporary music lacks creativity, melody, interest, and is only about making money.”

True and false.

Music lacks creativity. Popular music has always been sparse on creativity; what can you really do with a I, IV, V or a I, ii, V progression? Actually...you can a lot with the limited harmonic language of popular music but there are only so many directions a three to five minute pop song can go. Even if you listen to a the wonderful song, “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean” performed by Ruth Brown the music is simple, a basic blues progression that is made memorable by a dynamic performance by Ruth Brown. Is there creativity in this piece? Well, it follows the blues progression so musically no, but the performance and instrumentation is creative. A group that is creative today is Pomplamoose. They are extremely creative musically, with the songs they cover, with their instrumentation, and the videos they produce as demonstrated by their cover of “Happy”.

Music lacks melody. I have heard many a time that music today lacks melody but has popular music ever had great melodies. Actually yes! There are melodic gems every year that have beautiful, long melodies, and then there are songs that have terrible melodies that for some reason are extremely popular. “Hound Dog” as performed by Elvis has a terrible melody but his performance and rendition has been popular for half a century. One song that has a wonderful melody is “Open Arms” by Journey. Today, Journey is viewed as a pop band that created hit after hit and is remembered fondly by its fans or is discounted as a hit factory by others. The reality is that many of Journey’s songs have great melodies of which “Open Arms” is just one of them. A recent song that has a great melody is “Crave You” by Flight Facilities. This song has a great melody that is interesting throughout and never lacks interest or melodic movement. Daniela Andrade covers this song and in my opinion, does a much better job than the original.

Music lacks interest. Many songs that make it big are just not that interesting. Why do songs make it big when in reality they just s**k? Who knows; a good beat, catchy lyrics, a good riff, an attractive performer? One of the least interesting songs recently is “Work B**ch” by Britney. I am not criticising Britney for producing a bad song, it works; it has millions of views on YouTube and made a lot of money. But it is not interesting, the vocals are non-existent, and the video is forgettable. Now if this song was just for the club then it is perfect but for four-months it was repeatedly played on the radio where its beats were lost on the FM airwaves. A recent song that is very interesting is “The One that Got Away” by the Civil Wars. Excellent melody, intriguing lyrics, perfect accompaniment, and a build-up that is the definition of musical tension.

Music is only about making money. Yes, people who become or try to become musicians want to make money with their craft as does everyone else who works for a living. The problem with popular music is that musicians can make mi$$ions selling their music, being on TV, or touring. For the last 120+ years the public part of the music business has been about making money; sheet music during the 1890s, popular songs and vaudeville of the early 20th century, Paul Whiteman in the 20s, Bing Crosby in the 30s, Frank Sinatra in the 40s, and many, many examples in the 50s, 60s, 70s, et cetera. Katy Perry is probably the poster child today of making tons of money. I have no problem with Katy Perry; she produces okay songs that are catchy and fun to listen to. My favorite thing about her is that she does not take herself too seriously which some pop musicians sometimes do (again, how much can you really do with a I, IV, V progression in four minutes).

So what have we learned? We have learned that I mainly listen to singer songwriters who try to buck the music business establishment; true. But, you can find amazing and talented artists no matter what genre you listen to: country, R&B, rap, rock, world, et cetera.

Do not just consume what radio, MTV, Pandora, satellite radio, or YouTube tells you to listen to. Find artists that you like and support them. Use the internet to find amazing music that will moves your hips, allow you to contemplate, and swells your heart with satisfaction and contentment.

Accept nothing less.

Song/Week: “Portrait of Someone,” by Daniela Andrade

I found the perfect musician with Daniela Andrade. Having first started on YouTube six-years ago she has recorded countless videos of covers and originals and has an enormous amount of talent for such a young woman. She sings, plays the guitar, provides rhythmic support when needed, and collaborates well with others.

I only ‘found’ Daniela Andrade a few months ago and at first I thought she had not found her ‘sound’ but the more I listed to her music the more I realized that she had found her sound somewhere in 2012. The quality of the songs starting in 2012 increased dramatically and it is not just because her recording technology improved; she also found her ideal range, created solid arrangements on the guitar, chose really good songs to cover, wrote some excellent originals, and matured as a musician.

Recently, my son and I have been watching Ratatouille; a delightful movie with a special message. My favorite quote is at the end of the movie when Anton Ego is critiquing Remy’s cooking:

“In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, ‘Anyone can cook.’ But I realize only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”

I apply this to Daniela Andrade; great artists can truly come from anywhere. Thank you Edmonton and thank you Honduras for giving us such a special talent!

Guest Author: English Language Support for International Students by anonymous-sarah

The number of international students at traditional four-year institutions has been on the rise over the last five years, and according to the April 2014 report issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 29% of F and M visa holders are from China. With the number of Chinese students on the rise, it is time to explore how this population is in turn shaping the Higher Education environments in which they participate.

The upside of the recent influx of international students from China and other countries is multi-faceted. Colleges and universities seek international  students for the oft cited diversity of perspective they bring to the classroom, as well as their interest and proficiency in the STEM fields (approximately one third of student visa holders are in STEM disciplines). Some of these international grads supplement the U.S. talent pool while others return to their countries of origin and contribute to the development of their fields there. Rarely mentioned is the benefit graduates of the U.S. universities in emerging markets bring to the table when U.S. companies seek business partnerships abroad. Many of these grads have the language and cultural fluency necessary to foster successful business relationships that benefit both the U.S. and their own countries. Of great importance is the fact that international students almost always pay the full sticker price at institutions where most home-grown students rarely do. And they aren’t there by accident. The active recruitment of Chinese students by U.S. institutions has seen a steep rise in recent years.

Some years ago, my first Chinese-English language exchange friend was a woman named Monica who would meet me for two hours every Saturday morning at the only McDonald’s in Lungtan, Taiwan. After watching me struggle painfully through my early attempts at learning Chinese, Monica confessed that when she came to the U.S. to earn a Master’s degree in Education from Arizona State University, her English language proficiency was so low that she too ate frequently at McDonald’s because it was possible to order dinner by saying only “Number 3”. When I knew her, Monica’s English was near fluent, so she had clearly come a long way, but It was hard for me to understand how she could have succeeded in Master’s level coursework in her first year if ordering a cheeseburger and fries was intimidating for her.

According to a 2011 article by Tom Bartlett and Karin Fischer, Monica’s experience is far from rare. Many of the international students admitted to U.S. universities have limited proficiency in English, such that they are given conditional admission and placed in Intensive English Programs for a semester or even two before they meet minimum proficiency requirements and are allowed to take coursework in their degree programs.The perceived benefits of an American university education combined with the rise of agents within China who act as coaches to guide Chinese students through the the college admissions process have fueled the response to university recruitment efforts. In many cases the agents go beyond coaching, and engage in the doctoring of transcripts and the writing of admissions essays to bolster their clients’ chances of admission.

The admissions issue is a sticky one. In my opinion, more can be done to ensure transcripts from China are authentic by taking the student out of the equation and requiring that transcripts be sent directly from the issuing institution. But so long as the college admissions essay is a part of the evaluation process, it does not seem likely that this can be a trusted measure of the student’s readiness for a university education conducted in English.

In an audio interview with The Chronicle, Karin Fischer discusses the impact the influx of Chinese students has had on classroom teaching. According to one University of Delaware Professor, he has changed the assignments in his courses because this population of students struggled to a great degree with developing giving presentations, and other activities that required critical thinking. This is the part I find most disquieting. While failure to modify teaching approach doesn’t seem like the right answer, it neither makes sense to respond by making fewer demands on students’ higher order cognitive skills, especially when the classes are also filled with native and proficient English speakers..

In my experience working with students from East Asia (Korea as well as China), the American teaching approaches are at least as difficult for these students to deal with as learning and producing work in English. One possible response is to develop a course to be taken in conjunction with Intensive English Program courses that provides students practice in the kind of classroom activities they are likely to encounter in their program courses. Exposure to group projects, presentations, engaging in debate, writing essays that require the application of theory to a new situation, etc. in a safe environment where the students can ask questions about what they are experiencing would better prepare them for their subsequent coursework. If we believe that international students are a valuable part of the University student body, and we continue to actively recruit them, this seems like a logical next step in building an appropriate support system for them.

anonymous-sarah works at the same Phoenix area for-profit higher education institution as anonymousbjorn.

Mocking Sculpture

Recently a sculpture by George Rammell at Capilano University was seized by administration because the sculpture, not so glamorously, depicted the university president and her poodle. This action started a lively discussion about artistic freedom, censorship, and the actions of administration towards faculty.

Now I live in Arizona, over 2,500 km away and if Capilano’s administration would have done nothing about this sculpture I, and probably most people south of the border and east of Vancouver would not know about it but since they seized it everyone knows! There are so many things wrong with this situation it is hard to know where to start.

First; administration. I understand why administration were not fans of this sculpture. According to the President of the Board of Directors, Capilano University (along with every other organization) strives to “to cultivate and protect a respectful workplace in which personal harassment and bullying are prohibited” while this sculpture, according to the President of the Board, “has been used in a manner amounting to workplace harassment of an individual employee, intended to belittle and humiliate the president.”

I assume that all employees of Capilano along with faculty and the president have to acknowledge an employee handbook and in this handbook it states that employees cannot harass each other. At the end of the article Steven Dubin, a professor of arts administration at Columbia was quoted about this situation.

“‘It sounds like it was handled as badly as it could possibly have been handled. I think they lost all credibility when they levied workplace harassment. That’s absurd,’ Dubin said, noting that harassment usually implies a power differential in which the harassed is the comparatively powerless figure.”

I agree that this situation was handled about as badly as it could have been handled but to say that this is not harassment is interesting. Harassment occurs at every level; top to bottom, amongst equals, and bottom to top, and to disregard this as possible harassment means that you have a limited, only top to bottom view of harassment.

“People who are in the public as the university president is and who make decisions that affect a lot of people need to have a thicker skin and there needs to be a higher level of tolerance for satire and caricature and so on."

Again, I agree  with Dubin that people who are in the public sphere have to have a thick skin but does a university president, of a mid-sized university, need to have a tolerance for satire and caricature? Is it common for faculty members to make fun of their boss in a very public manner? Is it okay for a rank a file employee to publicly make fun of the president of their company? Is it okay for a lieutenant to publicly make fun of the general of the army? Or is it because this is academia that people seem to think that faculty members, aka. employees can be blatantly disrespectful in the name of artistic and academic freedom? (FYI, I have a hard time figuring out how this falls under academic freedom; artistic licence, yes, but with artistic licence comes possible consequences.)

Also, does Steven Dubin have any expertise on the topic of workplace harassment being a professor of arts administration or is it because he is from Columbia that his thoughts carry more weight? I would rather read the opinion of a third party Canadian HR expert than just some professor in arts administration.

Next; the artist. Are the crimes committed by the president of Capilano University so heinous that she merits a mocking sculpture? You can’t choose another subject to mock; Stephen Harper, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad or something light to mock like a shuttlecock, American Football, McDonald’s, or Barbie?

With that said I understand why George Rammell is upset. In 2013 Capilano University was facing a budget shortfall and one of the ‘line item’ cuts was the Studio Art Diploma of which he is a faculty member. Does this merit him creating a sculpture that blatantly makes fun of the president? Does it give him the right to publicly disrespect the president of the institution?

The problem with budget cuts is we (usually) do not know steps that led to the actual cuts. Did the arts faculty, including Mr. Rammell attend the budgetary meetings and plead their case for the Studio Arts Diploma? Were they or their faculty representatives part of the governance process or did the administration just make cuts without thought, consultation, or public discussion?

Finally; come on! Get it together people and talk it over. Administration at Capilano University need to talk to its faculty and get their input; faculty need to talk to administration and be part of the governance process including the boring budget meetings. In my mind this is not an us versus them issue, this is bad communication on every level and every side of the equation issue.

Addendum:

At the end of the day this article was longer than I originally intended because the situation is such a mess! What could have been done to make this situation better? Below are three ideas:

- Capilano University should never have seized the sculpture without due process; they should give it back to Mr. Rammell;

- If administration believes harassment occurred, Mr. Rammell needs to be ‘charged’ and be on disciplinary review;

- If administration did not want the sculpture on-campus they should have informed Mr. Rammell of this fact allowing him time to remove it.

If Capilano would have just started with the third bullet point then there still might be a controversy, but it would be much smaller. If Capilano's administration would have informed Mr. Rammell that the sculpture was creating an issue on-campus, <Enter Policy Here> and that he had xx-days to remove it then he would have been fully informed. He could have appealed, allowing for due process or if he refused then the university could remove the sculpture and be within their ‘right’. Or, after informing Mr. Rammell of the need to remove the sculpture he could have moved it to a studio where it could have lived in full glory for the world to view.

But did these events occur? It does not seem like it and so we have an asinine controversy and broken trust because of poor communication, lack of respect, and no desire to follow due process.

Song/Week: Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich by Heinrich Schutz

This is one of my favorite mid-17th century works. Written in 1650 as part of Schutz’s Symphoniae Sacrae III, Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich is a powerful three minutes of music that contains sacred text from Acts Chapter 9. Amazingly, this short work only uses three lines of text and the way Schutz uses them is masterful. From the San Francisco Bach Choir, I found the following translation:

Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich?

Es wird dir schwer werden,

wider den Stachel zu löcken.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

It will become hard for you

to kick against the thorns.

These three lines of text are so artfully crafted, varied, and developed that this work never gets tiresome or repetitive. Schutz passes the text from voice to voice allowing for different ranges and voice timbre to highlight the lines and individual words especially at the end when the tenor proclaims “Saul” over and over (see the tenor part below).

*Music taken from IMSLP.

Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich uses a large(ish) ensemble (mostly voices) that pre-dates the idea of the orchestra yet is orchestral in concept and execution. It is polychoral and I like that even though it is from the middle of the Baroque it does not follow all of the rules of tonality and is modal.

To finish off this #songoftheweek that is over 360 years old I challenge all composers and songwriters out there: what can you do with just three lines of text?

...Advantage

So...I am not sure how to write about this. Generally I avoid race in my writing but I have read so many articles about white privilege that it is hard to ignore. So here I go.

Disclosure: I am white and male.

With that out of the way let’s talk about what I call educational advantage. I wanted to write about educational advantage after reading The Atlantic article, Checking Privilege Checking by Phoebe Bovy about a Princeton freshman. Dr. Bovy’s article has many excellent points and so does the article by the Princeton freshman at the Princeton Tory. After reading both articles and the New York Times article I was struck by one simple fact: we don’t know what that freshman is truly like besides his article and word of mouth. From the three articles it seems like the whole reason there is controversy is because this freshman is (1) at Princeton and (2) an unapologetic conservative.

In my life I don’t care if you are liberal, moderate, conservative, rightist, leftist, Tea Party, Green, a modern Commie, a Free Capitalist, or whatever, all I care about is what you bring to the table and if you can have an open and constructive dialogue. In the article at the Princeton Tory the Princeton freshman states he has been told several times to ‘check his privilege’ and his article is his response to this. In the article his family’s narrative is amazing and heartbreaking, and I applaud him for his accomplishments; I don’t think anyone faults him for making it to Princeton and what he has done to this point in his life.

It seems to me that most of the controversy comes not from the article but with the Princeton freshman himself and the fact that he seems to be an unapologetic conservative. Again, I don’t know that he is a conservative, I don’t care if he does not support the President but from my read of the situation it seems that he might be an argumentative person and if he is and if he brings politics into everything he does then it makes sense that he has been asked to ‘check his privilege’ by some people at Princeton. I am not saying it is right, I am not defending those who have tried to ‘check’ him but when presented with someone who bloviates without the ability to have a constructive dialogue some respond in-kind.

If this article would have appeared at Rutgers or Seton Hall we would not be talking about it but because it appeared at Princeton everyone is talking about it. With my discussion of the Princeton freshman out of the way I am going to talk about what I am calling educational advantage.

I am sure there is a proper higher education and sociological term for educational advantage but I am not familiar with it. I am not going to use the term white privilege because as Dr. Bovy said, “‘Privilege’  isn't merely unearned advantage—it implies entitlement… advantage about which one is unaware.” Excellent definition and not applicable to what I am going to discuss moving forward.

To start off I will discuss my educational advantage. First; since educational advantage is often about money my father was enlisted in the Army and my mother was a nurse. They worked hard and provided a great deal for me and my brother. Is this an advantage? Well, my parents were together which is an advantage compared to some. Were we rich? No; not an advantage when discussing white privilege. Were we middle-class? Yes; an advantage when holistically discussing higher education (it is an advantage to be in the middle).

My biggest advantage, in my opinion, is the fact that I have been largely anonymous most of my life. As a teenager and young adult  I could go anywhere and people would barely notice me. Even today when I drive my silver midsize family sedan, wear business casual, and have the same haircut as my son; people barely notice me.

How is this an advantage? Well, it has allowed me to live my life without having to worry about my personal safety. Does every 16 or 20 year old black or hispanic male go through the same experience of being anonymous? Yes and unfortunately no. So my biggest advantage has been that no one really notices me yet this has allowed my body of work, my accomplishments, and my character to be what people judge me on. As stated in the New York Time article by a different Princeton freshman, “He [the original Princeton freshman] doesn’t know what it feels like to be judged by his race...I don’t think I’ve met an African-American who believes that they are judged solely by their character.”

So where do we go from here? When talking to someone, anyone, you should do the following: (1) look them in the eyes; (2) listen to their narrative; (3) do not dismiss their personal experiences; (4) acknowledge their accomplishments; (5) accept them for the person they are and what they have gone through; and (6) only judge them on their character.

Da Capo. It seems like in the story of the Princeton freshman and the people he was ‘checked’ by did not follow the six points above (these points are not comprehensive). You should only give constructive criticism to people you know or to friends you have build rapport with. You should never ‘check’ anyone you just met and you do not get any college awesomeness points for ‘checking’ an unapologetic conservative (or liberal) you barely know.

With that said, I know college kids like to argue, after all they have figured out the world by age 20 and often feel like they have accomplished something when they have the opportunity to defend their ‘core’ beliefs but at the end of the day what does this type of arguing accomplish?

You can only influence people by getting to know them, building trust, and having an open and honest dialogue with them. Change only occurs when two people sit down, start talking, share a cup of coffee, and start understanding each other.

Song/Week: “Somebody That I Used to Know,” Pentatonix (Gotye cover)

So I like the original by Gotye but my favorite thing about that version is really Kimbra. For me, the Pentatnoix cover brings out all of the best aspects of this song; good melodic line, interesting harmonies, and a sad story. I never watched any of the seasons of The Sing Off on NBC of which Pentatonix won the third season and I discovered the band watching Sesame Street with my son and the song “Pentatonix Counts (and Sings) to Five.”

With “Somebody That I Used to Know” along with other songs like “Say Something”, “Valentine”, “Run to You”, and “Aha!” the group has really found their sound. Each singer is versatile, talented, and special props to Avi Kaplan who sings bass and Kevin Olusola who is the rhythm section and plays the cello at times.

Great group and I am hoping for more ingenious covers in the future!

Mother's Day Poem

When we got married we were all smiles,

our friends were all smiles, our families were all smiles.

It was such a lovely Tucson day; warm, clouds, with a hint of chill at night.

When we closed our eyes all I could do is hold you, love you, yearn for you.

That night I did not know what to dream about...I had you.

Over the next few months our lives got back to normal

and still I did not know what to dream about.

I just worried about school and work, I worried about money and bills.

Every night I dreamt about you.

Now that we have graduated from our small apartment

to living with your parents, we live in our castle.

Our reality goes beyond anything I might have dreamt about,

because of you, because of us, because of our family. 

Guest Author: The Role of Liberal Arts in a College-and-Career-Ready Society by anonymouscharity

Ask a stereotypical barista a stereotypical question: “What did you study in college?” You might just get a stereotypical answer: sociology, English, history, or anthropology. There is derision of liberal arts study floating around the media and society at large (see: here or here for examples). There are also counter-arguments, extolling the benefits of the liberal arts.

I recently read an article that distinguished “liberal arts education” from “liberalist education” as a possible explanation for why the value of studies in humanities is questioned by so many. In it, Nathan Schlueter described a dichotomy. On the one hand are the liberal arts, which he asserts promote study of “truth, beauty, and goodness” through exploration of Great Books, study of great scholars and writers of the past, and helping students examine current issues in light of that search for wisdom. On the other hand are “liberalist” studies, which he says have three features: “First, a suspicion of all authority, including the authority of truth; second, the celebration of autonomy and individual choice; third, a commitment to social justice.”

Schlueter explores this so thoroughly, I won’t repeat his discussion here. But for me, the issue of the value of liberal arts raises the question: what is the role of liberal arts general education in an educational program that is focused on careers? In my professional role, I support information technology degree and certificate programs at a for-profit institution. Students in my programs are seeking career-ready skills in networking, information security, web design, and a host of other technical skills.

Some students opt for certificate programs, which solely focus on the technical coursework. But students in the associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs also complete general education coursework, to the tune of 42-45 credits. They take required and elective courses in the humanities and sciences, with the institution’s goals of developing critical thinking, communication, information utilization, and collaboration.

I wonder: is it enough that they develop those skills, which could translate to any professional setting to support their career outcomes? Or should students also gain those insights that Schlueter listed, through study of “truth, beauty, and goodness?” How focused on liberal arts should the curricula of humanities coursework be, in the context of a career-oriented degree program?

If planned effectively, study of the liberal arts could help these technically-minded students enhance their appreciation of elegant technical solutions to organizational problems. The liberal arts may provide IT professionals a common language of culture through which they could develop more meaningful relationships with coworkers who are not in IT. Study of the liberal arts might even awaken a deeper interest in the arts, sparking hobbies outside of their professional life and enhancing the creativity these professionals apply to technical designs.

What are your thoughts? What is the role of humanities coursework for an IT degree (or any career-focused program)?

anonymouscharity works at a for-profit higher education institution in the Phoenix metro area. 

What do you Want from your College?

In a recent article about college acceptance rates, Jacoba Urist discusses if it is harder to get into college today than a generation ago. The short of it is no, it is not harder to get into college but it is more competitive to get into highly selective schools.

Article complete! Below are my favorite quotes from the article.

“Today, applying to six or seven places is on the low end. Many high achieving students will apply to 10 or 15 schools, so you’re looking at doubling or even tripling the number of applications from the same pool of applicants.”

Why would anyone apply to 10 to 15 schools? If my son wanted to apply to a dozen schools I would highly recommend creating a short list of six schools and concentrate on three. If you are applying to a dozen school can you really give all of your attention and energy to each application while still being in high school? Depending on your SAT/ACT scores, your financial need, parent’s income, and extracurricular activities, there might be 1-6 schools you know will reject you but because of your ego, you still apply. Besides the application fees you will spend a ton of money travelling to each school, going through the motions, and wasting you and your parent’s time. Maybe it is because I live in the provinces and am not rich, but applying to more than six schools is a gross misuse of energy, a waste of money, and shows a lack of ego control.

“Today, an American college education has become a consumer good—and schools are actively marketing themselves overseas.”

First observation: “consumer goods” from Investopedia are “products that are purchased for consumption by the average consumer.” I don’t like using definitions from a ---pedia but since the author described college as a consumer good I wanted to get the definition out of the way.

College has always been a product consumed by consumers it is just that in the past commentary about college was mainly written by people who all went elite schools and exhorted the benefits of a liberal arts education. Fast forward to the present most commentary is still written by people who attended elite schools but while two generations ago only small minority of people obtained college degrees today almost 35% of the population attain bachelor's degrees. A liberal art education is still important but there are millions of more student going to college today than in 1975 and not all of those students need a comprehensive undergraduate liberal arts education.

Second observation: “schools are actively marketing themselves overseas.” I know many large and small schools actively market overseas to get international students; when a school gets an international student this student will often pay full price (out-of-state or full tuition) meaning they are lucrative for the institution. It also creates an enrollment pipeline for schools allowing them to not be as reliant on domestic students. With that said if ‘issues’ between governments flare-up this international pipeline can dry-up leaving schools short of students and revenue.

“Wealthier families on the other hand, have the resources and flexibility to ensure that their children attend the highest quality high schools, prepare for college admissions tests, and are exposed to the cultural and experiential capital they need to gain acceptance to the most selective schools.”

I find this quote amusing especially “cultural and experiential capita.” What this means is that wealthy parents often think about their child’s college experience since day one and their education, from Pre-K to their senior year of high school is all college prep. Wealthier families have more resources to help their kids be holistically prepared for college giving them a distinct advantage over less financially secure families.

So at the end of the day what does all of this mean; is it harder to get into college today? No.

If your son or daughter or you are going off to college just relax and do the best job you can. If you are aiming for the stars and have to get into an Ivy League (or equivalent) school and have to get into an Ivy League (or equivalent) law or med school then feel free to stress out, work a threescore minimum work week for the rest of your life (I am sure many doctors and lawyers would say fourscore workweek), and apply to 10 to 15 schools. Or if you are more interested in your holistic develop as a young adult then go to the school that fits you at age 18 and don’t go to the school others think you should go to.

Consider this: Presidents of the United States have walked the halls of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Georgetown, Stanford, and Duke but they have also walked the halls of Texas State University, Georgia Southwestern State University, Eureka College, George Fox University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. As an adult, your undergraduate experience is only the first mile in a long, expansive journey called life.  

Song/Week: “April” by Imaginary Future ft. Kina Grannis

Great song. Imaginary Future, aka. Jesse Epstein has a wonderful voice with beautiful back-up vocals provided by Kina Grannis. The accompaniment is simple, straight-forward, and never overwhelming. I read through the lyrics and I am not sure what the song is about, I am sure that it is something sad and poignant, but the video is cute and touching.

Just a great song.