Show Notes

To start off the New Year, I had a fascinating discussion with Mr. Sahaj Sharda.  Sahaj is the author of an upcoming book entitled "The College Cartel".  He brings surprising data and a keenly felt passion to his analysis of recent trends in higher education.  The results are an indictment against elitism that challenges educators and institutions of higher learning to simply do better.  Given the support schools receive from taxpayers and a growing need for quality education, in an increasingly complex world, Sahaj's work is a plea that we ALL do what we can to ensure that education is as good as possible, 

In "The College Cartel", Sahaj Sharda is starting an essential debate about the monopolistic greed and irresponsible business practices of Ivy League colleges and other elite schools. It brings to light the practices of these institutions, that have led to elite colleges being sued for price-fixing and discrimination in admissions, as well as scandalized by debacles like "Varsity Blues". Sahaj's book is both an exploration of these scandals and an analysis of the underlying force creating them: an artificial
scarcity of elite seats.

A graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, America's top-ranked high school, and Georgetown University, Sahaj noticed early on that plenty of intelligent students who can obviously handle the rigor at elite colleges are rejected every year. Having been an undergraduate student at Georgetown when the Varsity Blues scandal broke out, Sahaj further witnessed a fellow classmate's parents sentenced to jail. Seeing these things, Sahaj was forced to question why. His book is an attempt to answer the question and explore the reasons behind the answers with both objective data and personal anecdotes.