A Long-Overdue Shakeup in Higher Education

City Journal ^ | Oct 23 2025 | Michael Torres

[E. Pluribus Unum]

New schools, accreditors, and tests—plus new rankings—mean much-needed competition.

Admissions officers from two of the nation’s elite law schools joined the Advisory Opinions podcast in early August for a conversation about how students earn a coveted spot in their institutions. Surprisingly, both lamented the dearth of high objective standards at many of the prestigious colleges and universities from which their applicants came.

“It’s actually absurd, the level of grade inflation,” said Kristi Jobson, dean of admissions at Harvard Law School. “When you have tons of people with high LSAT scores and everyone is coming with a 3.9 and up, how do you distinguish between people in a way that feels objective?”

“At one of our top national state schools, just over a 4.0 is at the 75th percentile . . . At one of our Ivy League Institutions, a 3.95 is at the bottom half of the class,” said Miriam Ingber, associate dean of admissions and financial aid at Yale Law School. As a result, she said, “we’ve stopped looking at GPA as a number.”

While it may be depressing that top students’ academic performance has been rendered meaningless, it should not be surprising. In recent decades, these institutions’ goals have gone from the pursuit of truth and the development of liberally educated citizens to the pursuit of jobs and an orthodoxy of equity.

What’s needed is a shakeup. Thankfully, new competitors are challenging the status quo. New colleges like the University of Austin and Wyoming Catholic; new college rankings like City Journal’s; new higher-education accreditors; and new admissions exams like the Classic Learning Test all offer a breath of fresh air in a stagnant marketplace.

In 2009, President Barack Obama declared that “every American will need to get more than a high school...”

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: education; poisonivyleague; schools; spammingfr

[Bayard]

High-school used to be the standard for making young adults ready to work and be independent.

Why does everyone have to have a 4 year degree?

[aspasia]

Because there exists an immense advantage for propaganda after children leave home.

[sauropod]

Equity.

/eyeroll

[Tell It Right]

Why does everyone have to have a 4 year degree?

To funnel tuition grift money to the academic industry— perhaps the Dims’ most loyal supporters.

[Blood of Tyrants]

This

[KarlInOhio]

Because the high schools are doing a horribly inadequate job in lesbian womyn of color studies.

[goodnesswins]

College is now the high school jr and sr year...by design...I was on a comm coll board in early 1990s...talk then was how ill prepared hs students were...had to remediate them...30 years ago.