William Pounds, the former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management who was “famous for being willing to approach and talk to anybody,” has died at age 95. “As an administrator, he wanted to guide business school graduates to become able leaders of corporations like the ones where he had worked," writes Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe.
MIT was named to the number two spot in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the top universities, reports WBZ.
MIT has been ranked one of the top universities in the world by U.S. News & World Report, writes Emily Sweeney for The Boston Globe. Sweeney writes that the ranking “looked at approximately 1,500 colleges and universities and evaluated them on 19 measures of academic quality — this year changing its methodology to put more emphasis on social mobility and the outcomes of graduating students.”
Forbes contributor Michael Nietzel spotlights how MIT was named among the top universities in the U.S. for the economic value it returns to its students, according to a new ranking by Degreechoices. “At MIT, students earn $111,222 on average ten years after attending, and it takes those receiving federal aid under a year, on average, to pay back their total cost of attendance,” writes Nietzel. “Those numbers are consistent with MIT’s reputation for producing a large number of STEM graduates with very strong earning power.”
Sloan Senior Lecturer Tara Swart Bieber speaks with Newsweek reporter Pandora Dewan about exercises that can help improve memory. "Memory is something that can be trained using neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to be malleable throughout life," said Bieber.
A new study co-authored by Prof. Emilio Castilla finds that using stereotypically masculine or feminine adjectives to describe the qualities needed for a job opening has a negligible effect on who applies, reports Lisa Ward for The Wall Street Journal. “It’s a superficial intervention with little tangible effect,” says Castilla.
Writing for The Hill, Prof. Emeritus Henry Jacoby and his colleagues explore how younger GOP voters seem to increasingly favor lawmakers taking action on climate change. “For the sake of the planet, we can only hope that younger Republicans speak out forcefully and that their elders start listening,” they writes, “and, most importantly, that dissatisfaction with the party’s failure to address climate change is expressed in the voting booth.”
In the 2024 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse ranking, MIT has been honored as one of the best colleges in the United States, reports Emily Sweeney for The Boston Globe. This year’s ranking put a new emphasis “on student outcomes, such as graduation rates and graduate salaries,” explains Sweeney.
MIT has been named one of the top colleges in America in the 2024 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse ranking, report Kevin McAllister and Tom Corrigan for The Wall Street Journal. “The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse ranking emphasizes how much a college improves its students’ chances of graduating on time, and how much it boosts the salaries they earn after graduation,” explain McAllister and Corrigan.
MIT has been named one of America’s Top Colleges in Forbes’ annual roundup, reports Emma Whitford and Janet Novack for Forbes. The annual list “showcases 500 of the finest U.S. colleges, ranked using data on student success, return on investment and alumni influence,” explain Whitford and Novack.
Boston Globe reporter Kara Miller spotlights Prof. Basima Tewfik and her work studying imposter phenomenon. Tewfik has found that imposter phenomenon, “may make you better at interacting with other people, which, in turn, could make you more effective at your job — an outcome that has never before been identified," writes Miller.
Research fellow Michael Schrage speaks with Fortune reporter Sheryl Estrada about generative AI’s role in the digital economy. “If you truly understand and structure your use cases for generative AI correctly, there’s much less risk associated with the investment,” says Schrage.
Prof. Simon Johnson speaks with Freakonomics guest host Adam Davidson about his new book, economic history, and why new technologies impact people differently. “What do people creating technology, deploying technology— what exactly are they seeking to achieve? If they’re seeking to replace people, then that’s what they’re going to be doing,” says Johnson. “But if they’re seeking to make people individually more productive, more creative, enable them to design and carry out new tasks — let’s push the vision more in that direction. And that’s a naturally more inclusive version of the market economy. And I think we will get better outcomes for more people.”
A study co-authored by Prof. S.P. Kothari has found that, at an aggregate level, repurchasing shares neither creates nor destroys much wealth, reports Jamie McGeever for Reuters. The study concludes that “buybacks return several hundred billion dollars of capital to shareholders every year and are a mainstream financial avenue open to companies ‘that for the most part do not harm the overall market,” reports Jamie McGeever for Reuters.
Forbes reporter Roger Trapp spotlights Prof. Zeynep Ton’s work in improving employer operations as part of an effort to better satisfy employees. Ton has written two books, “Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits” and “The Case for Good Jobs,” which explores how “a combination of high investment in people and a set of choices [can produce] operational excellence,” writes Trapp.