WEBVTT - Project Dillard 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Bushkin. 0:00:20.556 --> 0:00:23.316 In New Orleans, a few miles from the French Quarter, 0:00:23.716 --> 0:00:27.236 there is a small liberal arts college called Dillard University. 0:00:27.876 --> 0:00:30.836 The campus is an elegant cluster of one hundred year 0:00:30.876 --> 0:00:34.796 old white buildings bordering a large lawn. Long rows of 0:00:34.836 --> 0:00:37.636 live oaks run down either side of the green. It 0:00:37.716 --> 0:00:41.196 looks like a postcard from the nineteen thirties. And because 0:00:41.236 --> 0:00:58.876 this is New Orleans, the school choir is amazing. The 0:00:58.916 --> 0:01:03.196 president of Dillard is Walter kimbro Tall, mid fifties, close 0:01:03.236 --> 0:01:06.836 cropped hair, pencil thin mustache, Bachelor of Science from the 0:01:06.876 --> 0:01:11.716 University of Georgia, master's degree from Miami University, PhD from 0:01:11.716 --> 0:01:18.396 Georgia State. Your father is a very well known pastern Atlanta. 0:01:18.876 --> 0:01:19.836 Yeah, that's right. 0:01:19.916 --> 0:01:22.036 He's Walter Senior. You're Walter Jr. 0:01:22.436 --> 0:01:25.116 Well, we have different middle names, so he's Walter Lee 0:01:25.156 --> 0:01:27.236 and I'm Walter Mark. Because he felt like Walter Lee 0:01:27.316 --> 0:01:30.916 was country, so he didn't give me that. But yeah, 0:01:30.956 --> 0:01:32.076 that's that's my dad. 0:01:32.196 --> 0:01:37.756 Yeah. I would encourage you, should you ever be in 0:01:37.796 --> 0:01:40.836 New Orleans to pay a visit to Dillard, hear the 0:01:40.916 --> 0:01:44.036 choir perform if you can, and walk around the campus 0:01:44.396 --> 0:01:52.436 as I did with Walter Kimbro. Yeah, we're in this 0:01:52.556 --> 0:01:54.956 area of New Orleans is Gentili's Callegenttillity. 0:01:55.276 --> 0:02:00.516 The area is very residential. It was middle class African 0:02:00.596 --> 0:02:02.956 American community, So a lot of things. I want to 0:02:02.956 --> 0:02:04.596 sort of walk this way and make a loop. 0:02:07.276 --> 0:02:11.116 Then, when you finished your roller on campus, look up 0:02:11.156 --> 0:02:15.196 Dillard on the US News and World Report Best College's 0:02:15.316 --> 0:02:19.356 Rankings website. They're on the Liberal Arts college list, which 0:02:19.436 --> 0:02:23.316 usually has some combination of Williams, Amherst and Swarthmore at 0:02:23.316 --> 0:02:26.796 the top. But keep going down the long winding road 0:02:26.836 --> 0:02:33.596 of elite private American education, gilded with Ivy Granted and Tweed, Pomona, Wellesley, Bowden, 0:02:34.116 --> 0:02:37.156 keep going, and after you get to the fancy schools, 0:02:37.436 --> 0:02:39.916 and the tier below the fancy schools, and the tier 0:02:39.956 --> 0:02:42.956 below that tier, there is a bottomless pit into which 0:02:43.076 --> 0:02:46.116 US News dumps all the colleges that they considered too 0:02:46.196 --> 0:02:50.876 mediocre to marit proper assessment. Dillard is in the bottomless pit. 0:02:53.236 --> 0:02:57.516 My question was why. That's the mystery that led me 0:02:57.596 --> 0:02:59.956 all the way down to New Orleans to see Walter Kimbro. 0:03:00.716 --> 0:03:05.876 What does America's premier ranking system have against Dillard University. 0:03:07.996 --> 0:03:11.116 My name is Malcolm Glawe. You're listening to Revision's History, 0:03:11.276 --> 0:03:16.396 my podcast about things overlooked and Misunderstood. This episode is 0:03:16.436 --> 0:03:21.396 a continuation of my investigation of the strange annual American 0:03:21.516 --> 0:03:28.596 ritual known as the US News Best Colleges Rankings. I 0:03:28.676 --> 0:03:32.156 decided I'd pick a school in order to better understand 0:03:32.316 --> 0:03:36.316 how the rankings work, make it a case study, analyze 0:03:36.356 --> 0:03:40.196 its performance on the bewildering set of metrics used by 0:03:40.236 --> 0:03:47.276 the mysterious US News algorithm. Let's call this investigation Project Dillard. 0:03:50.956 --> 0:03:53.756 About three quarters of the student body at Dillard are 0:03:53.836 --> 0:03:58.876 Pelgrant eligible, meaning they qualify for federal assistance. The average 0:03:58.876 --> 0:04:01.916 family income of the students is just over thirty thousand 0:04:01.996 --> 0:04:04.996 dollars a year. A third of them are the first 0:04:05.036 --> 0:04:08.876 in their families to go to college. Virtually all are black. 0:04:09.556 --> 0:04:12.436 Dylan is a part of a group of HBCUs they've 0:04:12.476 --> 0:04:16.556 called the Black Ivy League, so more House, Spelman, Howard Hampton, 0:04:16.636 --> 0:04:18.796 Dillar was in their group too, and so some people, 0:04:18.996 --> 0:04:20.916 you know, buy into that a lot and take pride 0:04:20.956 --> 0:04:24.356 in that, and when they're broke, you won't necessarily know 0:04:24.436 --> 0:04:26.356 that this is a student that comes from a family 0:04:26.396 --> 0:04:29.276 they're really sort of struggling because they put it together 0:04:29.316 --> 0:04:31.876 and they are able to carry themselves like they've been 0:04:31.916 --> 0:04:34.116 solidly middle class all their life, and they haven't. 0:04:34.756 --> 0:04:37.916 US News tells us that schools ranked higher on their 0:04:37.916 --> 0:04:41.076 list are better than schools ranked lower on their list, 0:04:41.716 --> 0:04:44.476 And I want to figure out what US News means 0:04:44.476 --> 0:04:48.276 by that word better. Why is it that the black 0:04:48.396 --> 0:04:51.956 IVY League is not treated with the same reverence as 0:04:51.956 --> 0:04:56.156 the white IVY League. I started this story on a 0:04:56.276 --> 0:04:59.276 little bit of a lark because I thought it would 0:04:59.276 --> 0:05:01.596 be fun to make fun of US News. But the 0:05:01.676 --> 0:05:05.036 more I did it, the angrier I got. A not 0:05:05.236 --> 0:05:08.236 very sophisticated group of people in Washington, DC came up 0:05:08.236 --> 0:05:12.396 with a by which we measure higher education in this country, 0:05:12.436 --> 0:05:16.476 and that standard is massively biased against people who want 0:05:16.516 --> 0:05:20.036 to serve underserved populations, and they have made the lives 0:05:20.036 --> 0:05:22.236 of people like you and your students more difficult as 0:05:22.276 --> 0:05:22.636 a result. 0:05:22.876 --> 0:05:25.556 Right, That's what it is, exactly, That's I mean, that's 0:05:25.596 --> 0:05:28.196 exactly what it is. I call, you know, the US 0:05:28.276 --> 0:05:31.196 News ranking is a perpetuation of privilege. That's what I've 0:05:31.196 --> 0:05:33.556 always called it is. That's all it is. It's a 0:05:33.556 --> 0:05:34.956 perpetuation of privilege. 0:05:38.556 --> 0:05:41.276 In last week's episode, I consulted with a group of 0:05:41.276 --> 0:05:44.876 statisticians at Reid College who had hacked their way into 0:05:44.876 --> 0:05:49.436 the secret US News algorithm. I decided to call on 0:05:49.476 --> 0:05:54.516 their services again, this time to help me with the 0:05:54.516 --> 0:05:56.636 puzzle of Dillard University's rank. 0:05:58.236 --> 0:06:02.156 My name is Lauren Reebe. I am an environmental studies 0:06:02.236 --> 0:06:05.436 economics major at Read College and I'm a senior. 0:06:06.876 --> 0:06:10.596 Tell me how how did Kelly recruit you for this project? 0:06:11.676 --> 0:06:16.116 Kelly Kelly McConville, a professor at Read who enjoys conjoling 0:06:16.156 --> 0:06:19.156 her students into various acts of statistical mischief. 0:06:20.316 --> 0:06:22.836 Kelly just messaged me one day and was like, hey, you, 0:06:23.156 --> 0:06:25.476 I have a project that might be fun for you. 0:06:25.596 --> 0:06:27.596 We just get to play with data and make some 0:06:27.676 --> 0:06:29.836 models and try to predict some things. 0:06:29.516 --> 0:06:32.476 And hold on, hold on. Your first question was can 0:06:32.556 --> 0:06:33.636 I make graphs? 0:06:35.156 --> 0:06:35.876 That's true. 0:06:37.796 --> 0:06:39.836 I think we need to go back to the mysterious 0:06:39.916 --> 0:06:42.676 variable that makes up such a large portion of the 0:06:42.756 --> 0:06:48.316 US News algorithm, the Peer Assessment Score. US News asks 0:06:48.396 --> 0:06:52.876 every college president, provost, and admissions dean in the country 0:06:53.316 --> 0:06:57.156 to rank the academic reputation of every other college in 0:06:57.196 --> 0:07:02.676 their category on a scale of one to five. If 0:07:02.716 --> 0:07:05.636 you listen to the previous episode, you'll know that I 0:07:05.636 --> 0:07:09.116 couldn't figure out how all those college presidents came up 0:07:09.196 --> 0:07:10.756 up with their peer assessment grades. 0:07:11.116 --> 0:07:11.636 I tried. 0:07:12.236 --> 0:07:15.556 I interrogated Bob Morse, who runs the rankings. I had 0:07:15.556 --> 0:07:18.716 a long interview with a mysterious deep throat figure named 0:07:18.756 --> 0:07:22.356 Dean as we did a peer assessment lightning round. I 0:07:22.396 --> 0:07:25.916 looked into whether hot sauce could sway the graters in 0:07:25.956 --> 0:07:31.436 the end. Let's be honest, I got nowhere. But then 0:07:31.476 --> 0:07:35.196 I realized I could ask the read college hackers to 0:07:35.276 --> 0:07:40.236 do a statistical analysis what factors actually correlate with the 0:07:40.236 --> 0:07:44.516 peer assessment score. That was my assignment for Lauren Rabe. 0:07:45.036 --> 0:07:48.956 We were focusing on a few variables. College endowment, which 0:07:48.996 --> 0:07:50.996 is just how much money they have in the bank. 0:07:51.316 --> 0:07:53.916 We were looking at tuition, so how much it costs 0:07:53.956 --> 0:07:56.636 for a student to attend, the percent of students that 0:07:56.716 --> 0:07:59.516 are white, the percent of students that receive PEL grants. 0:08:00.156 --> 0:08:04.676 And I found that endowment by itself, just the size 0:08:04.676 --> 0:08:10.116 of the endowment predicts half of the peersssessment score, So 0:08:10.156 --> 0:08:14.356 we can explain half of the assessments. The peer assessment 0:08:14.356 --> 0:08:16.396 scored just by how much money a school has in 0:08:16.436 --> 0:08:19.316 the bank, and then once we start adding the other 0:08:19.756 --> 0:08:24.196 the remaining school characteristics, we end up with over ninety percent. 0:08:24.836 --> 0:08:28.636 Ninety one point three percent to be precise. It seems 0:08:28.636 --> 0:08:31.876 pretty clear that you can predict the reputation assigned to 0:08:32.116 --> 0:08:36.356 every college in the country with almost perfect accuracy, just 0:08:36.396 --> 0:08:42.076 by spending a few minutes on Google. Dillard's reputation score 0:08:42.276 --> 0:08:45.076 is two point six a terrible score, by the way, 0:08:45.716 --> 0:08:48.436 but now we know why. It's not because there's something 0:08:48.556 --> 0:08:53.036 very wrong with Dillard's reputation. It's because Dillard falls short 0:08:53.276 --> 0:08:56.116 in all of the areas that make for a high score. 0:08:56.276 --> 0:08:58.876 There aren't a lot of white people on campus. The 0:08:58.916 --> 0:09:02.476 tuition is low compared with top liberal arts colleges. It's 0:09:02.556 --> 0:09:06.116 nineteen thousand dollars a year, and Dillard's endowment is a 0:09:06.156 --> 0:09:09.716 minuscule one hundred and five million dollars. A top rank 0:09:09.756 --> 0:09:13.956 school like Williams College has two billion more dollars in 0:09:13.956 --> 0:09:20.236 the bank than Dillard. The next thing US News really 0:09:20.276 --> 0:09:25.116 cares about is graduation rates. What percentage of a freshman 0:09:25.196 --> 0:09:32.556 class get their degree within six years. US News rewards 0:09:32.556 --> 0:09:36.676 schools for having high graduation rates, and they punish schools 0:09:36.996 --> 0:09:40.676 for low graduation rates on the theory that a school's 0:09:40.796 --> 0:09:45.076 graduation rate tells you something about how well it educates 0:09:45.156 --> 0:09:51.436 and inspires its students. This metric seems to make a 0:09:51.436 --> 0:09:54.956 lot more sense than peer assessment scores. Right at Dillard, 0:09:55.196 --> 0:09:58.276 the graduation rate is around fifty percent. How can we 0:09:58.316 --> 0:10:02.076 call a school good if half its students don't graduate? 0:10:03.036 --> 0:10:06.356 But when I asked Walter Kimbro about this, here's what 0:10:06.396 --> 0:10:06.796 he said. 0:10:08.036 --> 0:10:09.876 I was doing one of my one meetings with a 0:10:09.876 --> 0:10:13.556 freshman student last week and the question I asked, what's 0:10:13.596 --> 0:10:15.236 the best part about being a college student? 0:10:15.316 --> 0:10:15.996 Was the worst part? 0:10:16.196 --> 0:10:18.956 And she said the worst part for her was Thanksgiving 0:10:18.956 --> 0:10:21.316 and Christmas. It's like why, she said, because I had 0:10:21.316 --> 0:10:22.596 to figure out what I was gonna do, where I 0:10:22.596 --> 0:10:25.236 could live. It was very powerful the way that she said. 0:10:25.276 --> 0:10:26.756 I was like, because I was like, what. 0:10:26.636 --> 0:10:27.036 Do you mean? 0:10:27.436 --> 0:10:29.556 Why is that the worst part of college? She said, 0:10:29.556 --> 0:10:30.876 I didn't know where I was gonna stay. 0:10:32.116 --> 0:10:34.796 Think of how difficult it must be for that student 0:10:35.116 --> 0:10:38.156 to focus on staying in school. How can you plan 0:10:38.236 --> 0:10:41.316 for the future when your life right now is so unstable? 0:10:41.916 --> 0:10:44.596 And what happens when someone in your family gets ill, 0:10:44.876 --> 0:10:47.276 or loses their job, or has an accident, and all 0:10:47.316 --> 0:10:49.796 of a sudden, the cost of sending you to school 0:10:49.996 --> 0:10:54.756 becomes overwhelming. If the average family income of your student 0:10:54.796 --> 0:10:57.876 body is just over thirty thousand dollars a year, there's 0:10:57.996 --> 0:10:58.996 going to be a lot of that. 0:10:59.676 --> 0:11:03.636 For a school like us that you're seventy five percent 0:11:03.636 --> 0:11:06.316 pail grant eligible. If you have a six year graduation 0:11:06.396 --> 0:11:09.756 rate that's over fifty percent, it's almost miraculous because there 0:11:09.756 --> 0:11:11.956 are so many other factors that I just can't control. 0:11:11.996 --> 0:11:15.636 I can't control those family pieces, and I just can't 0:11:15.636 --> 0:11:16.156 control that. 0:11:17.116 --> 0:11:20.556 Just for contrast, the graduation rate at a school like Boden, 0:11:20.996 --> 0:11:24.756 currently number six on the Liberal Arts College Rankings, ninety 0:11:24.756 --> 0:11:30.796 five percent. Everyone graduates, maybe because one in every five 0:11:30.836 --> 0:11:33.876 students at Boden comes from a family with an income 0:11:34.236 --> 0:11:38.796 in the top one percent. The worst part of Christmas 0:11:38.836 --> 0:11:42.396 for a Boden student is deciding which of their houses 0:11:42.436 --> 0:11:45.636 to go to. No one's dropping out of Boden, not 0:11:45.756 --> 0:11:50.156 with Daddy paying for everything. Graduation rates don't tell you 0:11:50.276 --> 0:11:52.556 how good a school is. They tell you what kind 0:11:52.596 --> 0:11:58.316 of students a school is admitting. My first conclusion in 0:11:58.356 --> 0:12:02.436 the Project Dillard investigation, why is Dillard at the bottom 0:12:02.436 --> 0:12:06.036 of the rankings? They enroll the wrong kind of student. 0:12:16.196 --> 0:12:20.596 Halfway through Project Dillard, I had the idea of conducting 0:12:20.916 --> 0:12:26.196 a thought experiment. Most of the things that US News 0:12:26.236 --> 0:12:29.756 cares about have to do with money. That's how you 0:12:29.836 --> 0:12:34.316 raise your academic reputation score. Wealthy students are also way 0:12:34.356 --> 0:12:37.836 more likely to graduate from school. That boosts your school 0:12:37.836 --> 0:12:40.796 as well. But there are many other variables in the 0:12:40.876 --> 0:12:44.316 US News rankings that are also really just about how 0:12:44.396 --> 0:12:47.316 much money a school has in the bank. Variables like 0:12:47.796 --> 0:12:54.276 faculty resources, financial resources per student, average, alumni giving rate, 0:12:54.636 --> 0:13:00.476 graduate indebtedness, and on and on. Since I was curious 0:13:00.476 --> 0:13:04.276 about this, I asked Robert Morse, who runs the US 0:13:04.276 --> 0:13:08.516 News rankings, what is the basis for the assumption that 0:13:08.556 --> 0:13:11.676 the more money school has, the better quality of the 0:13:11.796 --> 0:13:13.156 education the school is providing. 0:13:14.676 --> 0:13:18.196 There's a number of points. One is that you hardly 0:13:18.236 --> 0:13:22.516 ever hear a college president say cut my budgets, take 0:13:22.556 --> 0:13:27.836 away my programs, fire my faculty, reduce my sports, and 0:13:28.636 --> 0:13:32.156 I'll be a better school. It's rare that you see 0:13:32.796 --> 0:13:37.716 higher education leaders say that less equals more. So this 0:13:37.876 --> 0:13:43.316 is spending for students on academic programs and on aspects 0:13:43.356 --> 0:13:46.596 of the education like that you have a greater chance 0:13:46.596 --> 0:13:50.396 of having a richer academic experience. And if you have 0:13:50.516 --> 0:13:53.676 less spending, then you're going to have less. And we're 0:13:53.716 --> 0:14:00.516 saying that in this case, more is better than less. 0:13:58.996 --> 0:14:04.796 More is better than less. I mean, look, I mean, 0:14:05.116 --> 0:14:08.396 let's assume I'm getting paid two hundred thousand dollars a year. 0:14:08.396 --> 0:14:10.756 If you can say, Malcolm, if I gave you four 0:14:10.836 --> 0:14:13.316 hundred thousand, would you be a better writer? I would 0:14:13.316 --> 0:14:17.596 say absolutely, I would be better. But that would be false. 0:14:19.076 --> 0:14:21.796 There's no correlation. But how much you pay Malcolm, how 0:14:21.796 --> 0:14:22.916 good Malcolm's writing is? 0:14:25.236 --> 0:14:28.716 Right? But that's I'm not sure that analogy works in 0:14:28.716 --> 0:14:33.956 this particular case because you're dealing with, you know, a budget, 0:14:34.156 --> 0:14:41.116 and it's buying many different things than one human's human 0:14:41.196 --> 0:14:45.236 being skill. In your analogy, your article isn't going to 0:14:45.276 --> 0:14:50.076 be any better, even though maybe you'd get some incentive 0:14:50.116 --> 0:14:50.836 to work more. 0:14:51.436 --> 0:14:54.876 Oh right, all right, For the purposes of this thought experiment, 0:14:55.316 --> 0:14:58.916 let's stipulate, as the lawyer say that more money is 0:14:58.916 --> 0:15:01.996 better than less money and simply proceed with the question 0:15:02.276 --> 0:15:05.236 of what would happen if Walter kimbro were to wake 0:15:05.316 --> 0:15:08.396 up one morning and decide to do things the US 0:15:08.436 --> 0:15:12.316 News way. Let's further stipulate that after this change of heart, 0:15:12.556 --> 0:15:16.676 a miracle occurs and someone gives Dillard University a lot 0:15:16.676 --> 0:15:20.796 of money, Let's say two billion, a nice round number. 0:15:21.436 --> 0:15:25.556 What happens in the real world If you gave Walter 0:15:25.636 --> 0:15:28.876 Kimbroke two billion, the first thing he would do is 0:15:28.956 --> 0:15:32.516 make Dillard bigger, give more students the benefit of a 0:15:32.556 --> 0:15:37.076 Dillard education. The problem is that yet another of the 0:15:37.156 --> 0:15:42.356 categories employed by the US News algorithm is student selectivity. 0:15:43.236 --> 0:15:47.636 How academically, elite is the freshman class you admit each year, 0:15:47.996 --> 0:15:51.516 And the fastest way to an elite freshman class, of course, 0:15:52.116 --> 0:15:54.876 is to let in as few freshmen as possible. 0:15:55.436 --> 0:15:56.116 So I give you. 0:15:56.076 --> 0:15:59.156 Two billion, you would that would improve your scores on 0:15:59.196 --> 0:16:01.836 their ranking. But if your goal is to get bigger, 0:16:02.356 --> 0:16:04.276 then they would. They would ding you for that. 0:16:04.396 --> 0:16:05.716 They would hurt me, they would hurt you. 0:16:05.756 --> 0:16:08.516 They don't want you to get Bigger's right, But that's 0:16:08.676 --> 0:16:14.516 Walters nuts. Yep, that's right, Yes, it's nuts, of course 0:16:14.516 --> 0:16:17.876 it is. And if you're confused right now, join the club. 0:16:18.476 --> 0:16:20.916 But let's put all that aside for a moment. We're 0:16:20.956 --> 0:16:24.036 doing a thought experiment here a product Dillard, and we're 0:16:24.036 --> 0:16:30.716 going to play by every rule for Dillard to rise 0:16:30.756 --> 0:16:33.796 in the rankings. It's pretty clear that the school needs 0:16:33.836 --> 0:16:36.836 to attract a different kind of student, the kind who 0:16:36.876 --> 0:16:39.196 is wealthy enough that they give lots of money to 0:16:39.236 --> 0:16:42.916 the endowment once they graduate. The kind who isn't worried 0:16:42.916 --> 0:16:45.196 about when they're going to eat and where they're going 0:16:45.236 --> 0:16:48.636 to sleep, the kind who checks all the US news boxes. 0:16:49.516 --> 0:16:53.316 And how do you attract that kind of student amenities? 0:16:55.316 --> 0:16:57.876 The big part of this is that in order to 0:16:57.956 --> 0:17:00.476 raise their ranking, this little black school in the South 0:17:00.796 --> 0:17:05.116 has got to start attracting more rich white students. So 0:17:05.236 --> 0:17:06.596 my idea is, well, the only way they're going to 0:17:06.636 --> 0:17:10.516 attract rich white students is if they have fanciers. I 0:17:10.596 --> 0:17:13.916 called up my old friend Vanessa, she's in the luxury 0:17:14.196 --> 0:17:15.516 real estate business. 0:17:16.516 --> 0:17:20.996 But why, I'm sorry, stupid question, but why does a 0:17:21.116 --> 0:17:22.796 rich white student raise a ranking? 0:17:24.436 --> 0:17:27.236 Oh my god, such a good question you have asked. 0:17:27.636 --> 0:17:31.476 You have asked the question which is the central question 0:17:31.596 --> 0:17:35.236 all this, which is you're absolutely right, it makes no sense. 0:17:35.556 --> 0:17:38.076 Why does it matter that you have rich white students. 0:17:38.316 --> 0:17:42.036 For some reason, the US News algorithm is calculated in 0:17:42.076 --> 0:17:44.436 such a way that if you have rich white students, 0:17:44.436 --> 0:17:44.996 you do better. 0:17:45.236 --> 0:17:47.436 But I wanted to get rich kids. You have to 0:17:48.596 --> 0:17:50.676 you have to induce them to come to your school. 0:17:51.516 --> 0:17:55.036 And I would like to talk about an inducement, which 0:17:55.116 --> 0:18:00.276 is suppose we were to build at Dillard and incredibly 0:18:00.316 --> 0:18:03.836 fancy dorm the daughter of the hedge fun guy from 0:18:03.836 --> 0:18:06.636 New York. I wanted to walk in and say, Wow, 0:18:06.756 --> 0:18:08.676 how much is that gonna cost? What are we talking 0:18:08.676 --> 0:18:09.076 about here? 0:18:09.236 --> 0:18:11.516 You're saying that you want to provide a dorm that 0:18:11.716 --> 0:18:15.556 looks like a hotel suite that they stay in when 0:18:15.596 --> 0:18:19.716 they're with their parents on a luxurious vacation. Yes, and 0:18:20.196 --> 0:18:23.876 what does that cost? Okay, So the way we calculate 0:18:24.276 --> 0:18:30.836 pricing is cost per key, right, So we spend a 0:18:30.996 --> 0:18:35.636 minimum of two million dollars per key, not including the land. 0:18:36.636 --> 0:18:40.876 Two million dollars per key. That's what the wealthiest are 0:18:40.916 --> 0:18:44.196 expecting in terms of high quality living these days. 0:18:45.916 --> 0:18:50.716 We have very fine materials that we have throughout the rooms. 0:18:50.956 --> 0:18:53.956 You will never see dry wall, for example, no. 0:18:53.916 --> 0:18:55.236 Drywall, so no dry wall. 0:18:55.396 --> 0:18:57.276 A two million per key. 0:18:57.916 --> 0:19:00.796 Dry wall is like the boat dirty word. 0:19:01.396 --> 0:19:05.556 Another example that we're doing is swimming pools on the 0:19:05.676 --> 0:19:11.756 terraces recessed into the balcony. Oh wow, and in every room. 0:19:12.396 --> 0:19:14.036 That's one of our new projects. 0:19:14.316 --> 0:19:16.116 So wait, you could do this. You could totally do 0:19:16.236 --> 0:19:20.116 this in the ORMs. Of course, to go to our college. 0:19:20.116 --> 0:19:22.276 Example, the college came to you and said, I want 0:19:22.276 --> 0:19:25.796 a dorm for two I want a wow doorm for 0:19:25.916 --> 0:19:30.196 two hundred students. You think you could do that for 0:19:30.316 --> 0:19:31.876 four hundred million dollars. 0:19:32.596 --> 0:19:33.596 Yeah, I think we could. 0:19:34.076 --> 0:19:36.076 Yeah, you think you could. The kid, the eighteen year 0:19:36.076 --> 0:19:39.956 old's going to walk in with daddy, and Daddy's going 0:19:40.036 --> 0:19:43.516 to say, okay, you know, little what's her name? I 0:19:43.556 --> 0:19:48.676 don't know, Jenny, Jenny. Jenny. Jenny's going to be happy here. 0:19:49.796 --> 0:19:52.796 Jenny's going to be happy. 0:19:54.476 --> 0:19:58.876 We were laughing about this because it's absurd, right, But 0:19:59.156 --> 0:20:02.676 just imagine that Walter Kimbro actually built the dorm that 0:20:02.756 --> 0:20:06.516 Vanessa was imagining, and that little Jenny, the hedge funder's 0:20:06.596 --> 0:20:09.676 daughter and all the other little Jenny's out there, decided 0:20:09.796 --> 0:20:13.316 as a result to come to Dillard. Dillard would start 0:20:13.356 --> 0:20:18.596 to rise immediately in the rankings. Why because those Jennies 0:20:18.916 --> 0:20:22.436 are all going to graduate and the algorithm will love that. 0:20:23.116 --> 0:20:27.236 And after graduation, the Jennies will make generous gifts to 0:20:27.316 --> 0:20:31.356 Dillard's endowment because Walter will give them naming rights for 0:20:31.436 --> 0:20:36.156 the brand new Dillard University students BA. Then the other 0:20:36.276 --> 0:20:40.596 college presidents will google that big endowment number and start 0:20:40.596 --> 0:20:44.196 to give Dillard a higher peer assessment score, which will 0:20:44.236 --> 0:20:48.276 in turn lead to more Jennies taking Dillard seriously, until 0:20:48.516 --> 0:20:51.996 the parents of Beverly Hills and Palm Beach and the 0:20:52.076 --> 0:20:55.516 Upper east Side will casually let it drop at the 0:20:55.556 --> 0:21:00.116 country club. That can you believe it, Little Jenny has 0:21:00.116 --> 0:21:08.596 gotten into Dillard. Remember Kelly McConville of Red College, the 0:21:08.676 --> 0:21:12.156 leader of my consulting band of hackers, A call her 0:21:12.196 --> 0:21:15.076 back in to double check the math run the numbers 0:21:15.116 --> 0:21:18.356 on a Dillard full of Jennies through her simulated US 0:21:18.396 --> 0:21:19.796 News algorithm. 0:21:20.076 --> 0:21:24.716 So Williams is the top ranked liberal arts college with 0:21:24.796 --> 0:21:30.276 an endowment of over two point eight billion dollars. So 0:21:30.356 --> 0:21:33.676 if we take Williams financials and put them in for Dillard, 0:21:34.156 --> 0:21:38.876 Dillard goes from one sixty one to being tied for 0:21:39.116 --> 0:21:39.836 one oh three. 0:21:40.276 --> 0:21:43.636 So wait, this is positives is interesting. Yeah, So we 0:21:43.716 --> 0:21:50.276 haven't changed any of the fundamentals in the classroom. We 0:21:50.356 --> 0:21:53.956 haven't changed the enthusiasm of the teachers. We haven't changed, 0:21:54.756 --> 0:21:57.996 you know, the spirit of the students. We haven't changed. 0:21:58.036 --> 0:22:01.196 All we've done is that we have plunked a very 0:22:01.276 --> 0:22:05.836 large amount of money in the bank account of Dillard exactly. 0:22:06.236 --> 0:22:09.716 That vaults them from the bottom of the pass to 0:22:09.916 --> 0:22:13.236 essentially the middle. Yep, Okay, okay, let's keep going. 0:22:13.956 --> 0:22:17.476 Yeah, so next you gave us a slightly trickier one 0:22:17.516 --> 0:22:19.516 where we're now going to layer on top of all 0:22:19.636 --> 0:22:20.836 that the test scores. 0:22:21.396 --> 0:22:26.076 Oh I nearly forgot test scores another key US news factor. 0:22:26.516 --> 0:22:30.276 In all likelihood, our Jennies had private tutors to help 0:22:30.316 --> 0:22:33.476 them raise their SAT scores. They went to private prep 0:22:33.476 --> 0:22:38.316 schools that take standardized tests. Really seriously, this is a 0:22:38.396 --> 0:22:41.676 variable with Jenny's name written all over it. So what 0:22:41.716 --> 0:22:45.476 if Walter Kimbro told all of his lower achieving students 0:22:45.476 --> 0:22:49.156 to go home and rebuilt all of Dillard around only 0:22:49.596 --> 0:22:54.236 the highest test score Jennis? What would that do for 0:22:54.316 --> 0:22:55.116 the school's rank? 0:22:55.916 --> 0:23:00.276 Now, they went from one to oh three to forty three, 0:23:01.676 --> 0:23:05.876 So that went up sixty slabs just by adjusting those 0:23:05.876 --> 0:23:06.876 two variables. 0:23:07.316 --> 0:23:12.036 Just like, to hell with this antiquated notion of trying 0:23:12.076 --> 0:23:15.636 to educate a large swath of students who want to 0:23:15.676 --> 0:23:20.396 come to New Orleans to attend a HBCU. We're just 0:23:20.596 --> 0:23:23.916 cream skimming from now on, right, Okay, can we get 0:23:23.956 --> 0:23:27.796 them higher than forty three? She said, sure we can, 0:23:28.316 --> 0:23:30.796 and began going through the remaining items on the US 0:23:30.836 --> 0:23:34.556 News checklist, and lo and behold, this was a test 0:23:34.636 --> 0:23:40.596 our shiny New Dillard. Haste. I mean, teach your student ratios. 0:23:40.756 --> 0:23:43.996 They're tiny. Now we told half our students to go home. 0:23:44.676 --> 0:23:48.396 Faculty resources ginormous. We're loaded. 0:23:49.156 --> 0:23:51.996 I mean, I don't know what school we're looking at now, 0:23:52.356 --> 0:23:56.076 but this school, after we Jared cranked all of those things, 0:23:56.116 --> 0:24:00.716 turned all of those dials, means this New Dillard is 0:24:00.836 --> 0:24:01.756 ranked third. 0:24:02.756 --> 0:24:03.156 Wow. 0:24:03.756 --> 0:24:06.516 So that is how we can get Dillard into the 0:24:06.596 --> 0:24:09.836 tippy top tier of the liberal arts colleges. 0:24:11.276 --> 0:24:20.436 So it's williams Amherst Dillard swarthwarw Yes project. Dillard has 0:24:20.476 --> 0:24:23.836 given us a new school with a very different soundtrack. 0:24:24.716 --> 0:24:28.316 Can we convince Yale to lend them the Whiffin poofs. 0:24:30.156 --> 0:24:32.236 Are a latche who. 0:24:32.156 --> 0:24:37.196 Have a preacher's kid like Walter Kimbro, would know the 0:24:37.196 --> 0:24:42.356 Biblical lesson here Mark eight thirty six. For what shall 0:24:42.396 --> 0:24:44.876 it profit a man if he shall gain the whole 0:24:44.876 --> 0:24:51.996 world and lose his own soul? God have mercion. 0:24:51.356 --> 0:24:52.716 Such as sweet. 0:25:06.316 --> 0:25:08.996 When Walter Kimbro gave me his tour of the Dillard camp, 0:25:09.796 --> 0:25:12.756 he talked about the things that made Dillard special. 0:25:13.356 --> 0:25:15.196 We have certain things. When I got here, I realized 0:25:15.196 --> 0:25:17.596 that we have this physics program and people then talk 0:25:17.636 --> 0:25:21.116 about it that at the time I think was number 0:25:21.116 --> 0:25:23.716 two in the country for producing African Americans who get 0:25:23.836 --> 0:25:26.476 undergraduate degrees in physics. I think right now we rank 0:25:26.596 --> 0:25:28.836 number three, but if you do it per capita, we're 0:25:28.916 --> 0:25:30.636 number one. We've been number one for a while. 0:25:31.996 --> 0:25:36.996 In twenty nineteen, Dillard produced thirteen African American physics grads, 0:25:37.396 --> 0:25:42.236