When Harvard athletic director Bob Scalise was announcing Tommy Amaker's hire five springs ago, he called it a "rebirth" for the school's long-dormant basketball program. Given the university's world academic standing, it was the perfect word choice for the situation. Most programs rebuild or reload or recover, but not Harvard, which essentially was starting from scratch, never having had accomplished much of anything in the modern basketball arena. This was to be germination fueled by determination. Harvard needed to become a seedling before worrying about seeding.
American higher education is in the cross hairs of a heated national debate over the value and cost of a college degree. Yet in China, our fiercest global economic competitor, the popularity of American colleges and universities might be at an all-time high.
Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday led Justice Department tributes to former presidential adviser and Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who died at 90.
Your odds of getting into some of the nation's most prestigious colleges are shrinking.
As schools gear up for March Madness, a new study released Wednesday shows that race and gender gaps in higher education continue to plague college basketball players on the NCAA tournament teams.
Now that we have Sonia Sotomayor, a Latina, on the Supreme Court, the esteemed body will soon find itself in the middle of a telenovela.
The annual report of national college rankings published by U.S. News & World Report is, regrettably, one of the most powerful forces in American higher education.
About 40 students at a university in New Jersey have been taken to hospitals for treatment after an outbreak of what authorities believe is the norovirus.
This year the end of the holidays probably didn't bring the usual stress relief; there are still worries about unemployment, a flailing housing market, and a volatile stock market, all of which may be taking a toll on your health.
Last night on Twitter, I posted the Pac-12's updated nonconference records: 1-23 against the RPI top 50 (the one is Stanford over Colorado State) and 8-41 against the top 100.
How high can they go? That's one of the most frequently asked early bracket questions this year about Murray State and Harvard, both of which are poised to post gaudy records for consideration.
Contentious politics have left the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors operating without a full roster for more than five years. Now, President Obama will again try to fill the board's two open seats.
After being shown a video clip in which then-President Ronald Reagan called for reducing deficits and "raising revenue for those who are not now paying their fair share," former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney made a plea for cutting federal spending.
Two American economists won the Nobel Prize for economics on Monday for their work studying how changes in government policies or economic shocks affect a nation's economy.
Alan Blinder, an economics professor at Princeton University, was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Business, chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.
President Obama on Monday nominated Alan Krueger to run his Council of Economic Advisers, moving to fill an important vacancy on an economic team that has undergone a nearly total makeover.
1. Sociology of Fame and Lady Gaga
A professor at Princeton University took his life last week after a small group in his department demanded he be removed from his position, a longtime friend of Dr. Antonio Calvo said Friday.
Should ignorant people be allowed to vote?
CNN Opinion contributor LZ Granderson responds to comments on his article "Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Trump and race."
The fiscal year is 189 days old, and the federal government is still operating without a long-term spending bill. And now, if lawmakers can't cut a deal, the government will shut down.
Butler is in its second straight national title game, which is as likely as your housecat finishing first at the Westminster Dog Show. Coach Brad Stevens and Butler are a special, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime story. It is certainly not fair to say "Hey, if Butler did it, then why can't (insert school name here) do it, too?" You simply can't expect any school to make two straight championship games ...
He grew up as the second son of late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, deep in the shadow of his father.
CNN's Stan Grant reports on protests in Syria and the choices facing its self-described modern leader.
The strategy: Encourage your child to enroll at a state university or community college for the first year or two, then transfer to a private school.
The best man I know is Patrick Connolly.
It might amuse you to know that there were folks in Cambridge and greater Boston who actually watched CBS' Selection Show thinking that Harvard had a chance to receive an at-large big to the NCAA tournament.
With three extra spots and very few conference tournament upsets shrinking the bubble, this might not be the best year to claim you were snubbed. That said, each of the teams below (in alphabetical order) can argue that its profile was more worthy than one or more of the teams that made the field of 68:
Andy Glockner offers his NCAA seed- or bubble-related thoughts from Friday's conference-tournament games. All times are ET.
Saturday's most intriguing NCAA game may be one that relatively few fans care about -- and even fewer will be able to see. But the playoff between upstart Harvard and postseason regular Princeton for the Ivy League title and an automatic NCAA berth, to tip off at Yale (4 p.m.) and shown via webcast only on ESPN3.com, has plot elements befitting a sometimes bitter athletic rivalry that dates to their first football game, back in '77 -- 1877, that is.
While dogs slurp to alleviate thirst, cats display a mastery of physical dynamics that leaves their whiskers, chin and the counter top free of liquid, researchers found.
For the past two years, Dan Buettner has teamed with psychologists and scientists to seek out the world's happiest people for his new book, "Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way."
Student loan debt is on the rise, and fewer graduates are getting jobs to pay back what they borrowed.
Researchers have long known that money can make you happier -- though the effect wears off after you earn $75,000 a year, says Princeton University's Angus Deaton and Daniel Kahneman.
Audience testing has been used for decades to judge how well a film or product will be received, but proponents of an emerging field called "neuromarketing" hope it can provide hitherto unseen insight into the minds of consumers.
When Janet Stark finally gets around to building her own website, the admissions consultant will run it with the headline, "I've been accepted to Harvard Business School over 50 times!" Her students are a bit less open.
As a sociologist who studies black churches, my research allows for compelling conversations with some of our nation's most powerful religious leaders. But my most memorable interview to date was not with a celebrity preacher, but a lesser known young gay Christian I'll call David.
When I was a child in Adelaide, Australia, I loved games with clear, unambiguous rules; puzzles that were tough but fair; and the clean, abstract, simplicity of numbers and symbols. So it is perhaps not surprising that I have been drawn to mathematics for as long as I can remember.
With its durability, structure and life cycle, the NCAA basketball tournament is a kind of organism. And like most living things it has, over time, developed an immune system. There's no better example than what happened in 1989, when men in backrooms plotted to strip the little conferences of their automatic bids -- and were foiled when No. 16 Princeton came within a point of upsetting top-seeded Georgetown.
Acolytes of "Food Rules" guru Michael Pollan and other well-meaning foodies who've made corn a scapegoat for the nation's health crises have welcomed a new study from Princeton University that suggests high-fructose corn syrup causes more significant weight gain than table sugar.
Leaders from the largest African-American Methodist churches gather to help troubled youth. Don Lemon reports.
Instead of letting her son spend his spring break at a beach with friends, Sheila Wilson-Freelon took him to another gathering this week: a convention of black church leaders aimed at finding solutions to the problems that plague young African-Americans.
Back by popular demand, it's time to once again go behind enemy lines.
Michelle Obama expressed confidence Tuesday that Congress will enact some sort of change to improve the nation's health care system.
Michelle Obama says that congress has to pass a health care reform bill because "doing nothing is not an option."
On "Hannah Montana," Brooke Shields plays Miley Cyrus' dead mother, but rumor has it that off-screen she is playing the role of Miley's high school guidance counselor.
In money, and in life, you are very often your own worst enemy. You promise yourself you're going to diet, then eat not one or two french fries but a whole plate. You decide to really commit to saving for retirement, only to wind up with a new pair of shoes in your closet.
In the next six months, President Obama faces one of his biggest and most important decisions about the economy.
Students at Princeton University were asked to remain indoors briefly Wednesday after a report of an armed man on campus, but police determined that there was no gunman, according to the university's Web site.
The CBS News anchor also gets in a dig at Sarah Palin during an irreverent speech at Princeton University
Visiting a particle accelerator is like a religious experience, at least for Nima Arkani-Hamed.
We all make bad decisions sometimes. In some contexts, to a certain extent, psychologists know why.
Let's say you bought two stocks last year. One has tanked and looks likely to fall further. One has gone up and you expect it to keep rising. (Hey, it's not completely impossible.) Which are you more apt to sell?
Princeton University's policy of not allowing its officers to carry guns on campus doesn't hurt the officers' ability to do their jobs, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ruled.
A window opening. A glimpse of the ungraspable. A sudden surge of love ... or hope ... or awe. We asked artists, writers, thinkers, and doers to recall the flashes of understanding that took their breath away.
New research finds that if people feel powerful in their job, they're more competent at it
Universities are always looking for cash from their alumni (or anyone else with a big enough checkbook). But sometimes colleges are offered donations of another variety. Here are stories of six rather unusual gifts given to universities across the world.
Two new studies throw some doubt into the conventional wisdom of what the Earth was like when dinosaurs roamed it
From a box of Franzia to a bottle of 1961 Chateau Petrus, there are few drinks with such a wide range of quality and cost as wine.
College is a time for tremendous learning and personal growth. A time to make your own decisions and mistakes. Feel at home even when you're away. Nate Berkus shows you how to personalize and organize your dorm room -- without missing class!
State lawmakers are increasingly stepping into the void created by the failure of Congress to approve sweeping changes to immigration policy
The pursuit of money and the pursuit of happiness often get equated, especially in our success-addled culture. But over the past decade or so, science has set us straight on two points: First, once...
Princeton University said it will not raise its tuition for the 2007-2008 school year, holding it steady - at $33,000 - for the first time since 1967.
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, the first day of confirmation hearings.
Black job applicants without criminal records are equally likely to be hired as their white counterparts who have served time in prison, according to a recent Princeton University study.
With the rising cost of college, it isn't surprising that many families are feeling strapped by the financial burden of sending their children to school.
Princeton University students are showing support for the filibuster by staging their own.
SALEM, Ore. (CNN/Money) - Here is a pop quiz:
From Elizabeth I to Robert Redford, redheads have stood out throughout history because of their distinctive fiery manes. Now, students at Princeton University have joined forces to discuss and celebrate their unique experiences of having red hair.
The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was arrested Thursday after interrupting a campaign speech by first lady Laura Bush. As police hauled her away, she shouted, "Police brutality."
In hindsight, it wasn't the high P/E ratios or absurd IPOs that marked the height of the stock market in the late 1990s.
Many adults may remember camping as a summer ritual arranged by their parents to keep them out of trouble.
LCD, CRT, LED -- they're all ways of displaying graphics, pixels, images, you name it. Even if you don't know their abbreviations, you see their output every time you look at your computer or cell phone.
Rakesh Khurana is a young and, some might say, charismatic assistant professor at Harvard Business School. But in his forthcoming book, Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Ch...
Philip Morris has a new name. You've probably heard it already. Pop quiz: Can you remember it? Too late. It's Altria. The company says the word derives from the Latin altus, meaning "high," and is ...
You may have heard that Albert Einstein called compound interest "the most powerful force in the universe." The line pops up in George W. Bush's Social Security reform proposal, in think-tank posit...
You know all those magazine covers screaming "Seven Stocks to Buy Now"? All those pundits and gurus who say mutual fund investing is dead? They make stock investing sound like a cross between heat-...
Here's one from my e-mailbox: "I want advice regarding the Y2K problem and the stock market. I have worked at the same place for 25 years and have invested in TIAA/CREF since I started working. The...
I have some important advice either for Alan Greenspan or for bond investors. The problem is, I can't decide which.
The presidency isn't the all-powerful institution most people think it is, and given what's happening these days, that's a good thing. A President, for instance, doesn't govern anything. The Framer...
If you could single out one piece of information that would give you the best insight into a mutual fund's chances of outperforming its peers, what would you choose? Five-year performance? One-year...
Did you know that even in 1900 Americans typically spent more on food than citizens of almost any other nation? Or that in 1960 only 12% of French households owned what Americans by then took for g...
Here's why: -- Men's annual retirement income, including Social Security, pensions, and personal savings, averages $10,450 -- not much. But women get only $6,020. Since women live some seven years ...
Get ready for Act II of Clintonomics -- the First Lady's task force on health care. A key question: Will Hillary emulate Hammurabi, the Babylonian ruler who slapped on history's first-recorded pric...
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Joining the nationwide trend toward a multicultural curriculum, Princeton University is offering a course on American Indian religions for the first time this semester. But no on...
As the Dow industrials busted through the 2900 mark and went on to record highs, small investors rediscovered their enthusiasm for stocks. In April, total cash flowing into equity mutual funds (aft...
In his 1973 book A Random Walk down Wall Street, Burton G. Malkiel, a noted Princeton University economics professor, lucidly explained the efficient- market theory. Its bottom line for investors i...
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Quick thinking by a . . . co-ed dampened the impact of a flag-burning by two fumbling Princeton University student protesters. Alexandra di Campi . . . snatched a flag Wednesday ...
The late word from central New Jersey is that Princeton University is still not ready to put its Social Honor Code into practice, and yet the present writer has not removed the code's controversial...

