Author Archives: Eric Purington

Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale used to be like those three annoying kids in elementary school. When one did something, the other two would too, and they would make a hullabaloo in the process. It seems that these three schools — educators of eight dead presidents — will soon do away with early admissions, »

After yesterday’s news that Harvard University dropped early admissions, what are the chances that Yale will do the same — nearly 100 percent? It seems that for at least the past couple years, Yale has taken the follower’s role in relation to its two closest competitors, Harvard and Princeton. In the admissions arms race, Yale »

Have you seen the study that reports massive reductions in student productivity because of Facebook? I haven’t yet, but sooner or later, such a study is sure to tell us what we already know. Midterm procrastination and a recent article about increasing use of the Facebook in even the most unlikely settings (“Facebook becomes tool »

Liberty is out, and freedom is in. Less than a year ago, President Bush said in his second inaugural address, “We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom … We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind.” The word “freedom” abounds outside of just rhetoric; there is the »

As an American in Germany in 2004, my conversation with Germans began with two questions: Wie heisst du? (What is your name?), and Bush oder Kerry? I was often forced to comment on Rumsfeld’s infamous declaration that France, Germany and other countries — as part of “old Europe” — are meaningless. On election night, German »