Percentage of students who rated themselves as very or extremely proficient in critical thinking last year: 80% National Association of Colleges and Employers
Percentage of employers who agreed with that assessment: 56% National Association of Colleges and Employers
Percentage of students who rated themselves as very or extremely proficient in technology: 65% National Association of Colleges and Employers
Percentage of employers who agreed: 80% National Association of Colleges and Employers
Record low percentage of applicants accepted to Harvard College Class of 2026: 3.19% The Harvard Crimson
Percentage of students admitted to the Harvard Class of 2026 who are eligible for Pell Grants, typically awarded to low-income students: 20.5% The Harvard Crimson
Number of “high-ranking” New England institutions among the top 10 nationally in percentage of first-year students who identify as Black: 5 The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (The New England institutions are: Amherst College, 19.5%; Middlebury College, 11.2%; Bates College, 10.7%; Wesleyan University, 10.3%; Bowdoin College, 9.9%.)
In the past 28 years, number of years when Amherst College has led America’s “high-ranking” liberal arts colleges by this measure: 13 The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Rise in applications for U.S. colleges the year after their men’s basketball team appeared in the NCAA Final Four, from 2005 to 2020: 8.1% Student Loan Hero
Similar rise in applications for all colleges nationally during that time: 4.6% Student Loan Hero
Of 153 women’s athletic teams across 18 colleges in Maine, number that have a female head coach: 73 Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram
Average annual compensation for new UMass men’s basketball coach Frank Martin under a five-year contract that makes him the highest-paid public employee in Massachusetts: $1,650,000 Daily Hampshire Gazette
Approximate annual compensation of University of Rhode Island men’s basketball coach Archie Miller: $2,300,000 GoLocalProv
Approximate annual compensation of University of Rhode Island women’s basketball coach Tammi Reiss: $425,000 GoLocalProv
Percentage of male U.S. faculty and staff members who report feeling they were passed over for a promotion or opportunity at work because of their gender: 11% Gallup
Percentage of female U.S. faculty and staff members who report feeling they were passed over for a promotion or opportunity at work because of their gender: 28% Gallup
Approximate number of people killed by police each year since 2013: 1,100 Mapping Police Violence
Rank of Maine among New England states in rate of fatal police shootings since 2015: 1st (The Times Record citing Washington Post data.)
Share of state police barracks in Vermont that have an embedded mental health crisis worker to ride in cruisers with troopers and interact with the public alone while the trooper stays in the car when it’s safe to do so: 9 in 10 Burlington Free Press
U.S. ranks of six New England states in percentage of Irish ancestry among citizens: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th U.S. Census Bureau (New Hampshire, 20.2%; Massachusetts, 19.8%; Rhode Island, 17.6%; Vermont, 17%; Maine, 16.6%, Connecticut, 15.2%)
Average 2021 sea surface temperature for the Gulf of Maine, stretching from Cape Cod to the southern tip of Nova Scotia: 54.14 °F Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Increase over average from 1982 to 2011: 4.17 °F Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Percentage of the world’s ocean that the the Gulf of Maine is estimated to be warming faster than: 98% Gulf of Maine Research Institute
John O. Harney is executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.
Painting of “Still Life with Old Sunflowers” by Montserrat College professor Timothy Harney.
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