"...In his new podcast series, Revisionist History, he makes this point by contrasting Bowdoin College, which is regularly cited by campus guides for outstanding food, with Vassar College, where students tell him the food is mediocre. Both are elite liberal arts colleges, with highly competitive admissions, respected faculty members and beautiful campuses. But Vassar enrolls a much larger share of low-income students than Bowdoin, and Gladwell blames the gourmet food Bowdoin students enjoy..."
Malcolm Gladwell says trade-off exists between high-quality campus dining and admitting low-income students. Bowdoin questions his logic and ethics.
Reading and/or listening to Gladwell makes you stupider. I'm using the Gladwellian experimental method of not bothering to test this theory because the last six people I talked to were noticably dumber after reading one of his books - that's sciencey! Where's my publisher's advance?
The comments after the linked article are funny.
Most colleges claim their housing/food service is run independent (i.e. self-funding).
Is this for real or is it a joke?
Where do people dig up this garbage?
Gladwell has a history of coming up with some interesting ideas but then cherry-picking his "evidence". Blink was particularly egregious in that respect (IIRC--it's been years since I read it, but I mostly remember coming up with counterexamples as I read the book).
Does Gladwell even use actual statistical analysis?
BTW, I'm on the faculty at a (public) university that does admit a lot of low income students. And we have some good food, too.
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