Lies, Damned Lies, and College Admissions

Every year, Ivy League colleges tell prospective students that, "Here, you learn even more from other students than you do from your classes." What if that were just a roundabout way to say, "Our teaching is pretty mediocre "? What if, in addition to providing mediocre teaching, colleges were extracting exorbitant sums of money from students, their families, and American taxpayers? What if the college admissions process had transformed high school education into a series of pointless hoops for students to jump through? What if some of the most successful people in America had never gone to college? What if that were not just a coincidence, and their refusals to participate in a disempowering educational system had caused their successes? What if the very thing that American students work so hard for, that American families save for, that American taxpayers subsidize, is not only overpriced, but actually harmful?

Every year, Ivy League colleges tell prospective students that, "Here, you learn even more from other students than you do from your classes." What if that were just a roundabout way to say, "Our teaching is pretty mediocre "? What if, in addition to providing mediocre teaching, colleges were extracting exorbitant sums of money from students, their families, and American taxpayers? What if the college admissions process had transformed high school education into a series of pointless hoops for students to jump through? What if some of the most successful people in America had never gone to college? What if that were not just a coincidence, and their refusals to participate in a disempowering educational system had caused their successes? What if the very thing that American students work so hard for, that American families save for, that American taxpayers subsidize, is not only overpriced, but actually harmful?

Arvin Vohra is the founder of Arvin Vohra Education, the author of Lies, Damned Lies, and College Admissions, and the author of The Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Excel at Math, which has been published in both the United States and China, and featured on Channel 9 News (CBS). He also developed the highly popular Vocabulary Synapse software, and the Mandarin Chinese Synapse apps for iPhone and Android. Arvin's passion for educational innovation began while he was studying at the Landon School in Bethesda, MD. Frustrated by the limitations he perceived in standard education, he began to test the limits of a different type of approach. He learned algebra in a few weeks to advance a level in math, and even attended college courses as early as eighth grade. In high school, he received a score of 5 on 10 AP exams to become an AP National Scholar. For 6 of those exams, he did not take the corresponding AP class, and instead relied on intensive outside study. He was also a National Merit Finalist, with the highest SAT and PSAT scores in his graduating class. On the SAT, he received a score of 790 on both the math and verbal sections. He also received a perfect score of 800 on both the Math IIc and Chemistry SAT II tests. For his efforts he was awarded the Rensselaer Medal for Math and Science in his junior year. During this time, Arvin worked actively as a tutor for younger students, most notably at the North Chevy Chase Elementary School. Arvin attended Brown University, where his passion for educational innovation continued to grow. He worked as a tutor and teacher as part of the Wheeler School's Aerie Program. At Wheeler, he designed accelerated and nontraditional curricula for students ranging from second to eighth grade. Later, he worked as a consultant for the Hamilton Institute for Learning Differences. After graduating from Brown University with a B.Sc. in mathematics and a B.A. in economics, he received perfect scores on both the GRE and the GMAT, finishing each test with well over an hour to spare. He also passed two actuarial exams in a single testing period while working as an actuary at GEICO.