The story of America’s founding comes with a familiar cast and setting: young white men in powdered wigs, animated by Enlightenment ideals, pacing college greens and tavern floors, debating liberty into existence. 

Colonial colleges emerge as engines of revolution – hotbeds of radical thought that helped give birth to the nation. 

It’s a compelling story. It’s also incomplete. 

In this special America 250 edition of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza pulls back the ivy to reveal how America’s colonial colleges actually worked – and the complicated role they played in the nation’s founding.

Suffolk University historian Robert Allison takes us to the Old Burying Ground just beyond Harvard Yard and describes a far less romantic version of campus life during the Revolution. In 1775, Harvard did not erupt in rebellion, Allison notes, it emptied out.

David Hoeveler, historian and author of Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges, explains that students were wrestling with big questions about liberty, resistance, and self-government – just not in the classroom.

University of Pennsylvania historian Kathleen Brown argues that colonial colleges weren’t just silent on slavery; many were built upon it. And independence did little to sever their ties to the British slave trade. 

Finally, Laurie Patton, president of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, reflects on why a group of colonial college graduates led by John Adams founded the organization in Cambridge in 1780, its enduring mission, and what its history can teach us in this deeply fraught political and social moment.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani, Jennifer Moore and Adeline Sire 

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

Harvard faculty have approved a controversial plan to overhaul the college’s grading system, including new limits on how many A’s professors can award. The goal: make an A mean something again.

But the debate goes beyond transcripts and GPAs. At a moment of deep skepticism toward elite higher education, some supporters say tougher grading could also help restore trust in institutions like Harvard.

In this episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza heads to Harvard Yard, where high-achieving students worried about their futures are pushing back. And we hear from professors divided over a broader question: What are grades actually used for?

Grade inflation has been rising for decades at colleges across the country. Economist Jeff Denning of the University of Texas at Austin explains why easier grading may weaken students’ incentives to study and to truly learn the material.

Meanwhile, a faculty report from Yale’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education argues that grades at elite universities often no longer do what they’re supposed to do: measure and communicate learning. We hear from two of the report’s authors, sociologist Julia Adams and law professor Sarath Sanga.

And finally, The Hechinger Report’s Jill Barshay explains why, in the age of the easy A, parents may be getting a misleading picture of how their kids are actually doing.

Related links: 

Harvard limits number of students who get A grades

With rampant grade inflation, could Harvard make an ‘A’ mean something again?

Easy A’s, lower pay: Grade inflation’s hidden damage

College Uncovered: What do college students learn, anyway?

Parents trust report cards more than test scores — with consequences for kids

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Lisa Wardle

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

Artificial intelligence is booming in Boston and beyond, and economists warn that it could throw thousands of people out of work.

College seniors nearing graduation are often asked what they’ll do next. How will they put their new degree to use? Or will they end up working at their neighborhood coffee shop? 

Underemployment among recent graduates has been a persistent concern. Many degree holders find themselves in roles that don’t fully tap into their education. But tracking exactly how many graduates are underemployed, well, it’s complicated.

Jeff Strohl, who directs Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce, says the data is murky. Colleges don’t consistently track where graduates land, or how long it takes them to get there. That uncertainty feeds the familiar stereotype of baristas with diplomas living in their parents’ basements.

“We dump all these graduates into the labor market — often three million at the same time — and then we’re telling them to go swim, and it takes a while to find a good match,” he said. 

Even without precise numbers, many in higher education agree that the rate of underemployment is too high, especially given that only about 60 percent of students in the U.S. complete a four-year degree on time.

In this episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza visits a job fair at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, where college seniors, particularly computer science majors, are feeling the pressure of a shifting job market.  

Then, Bentley University president Brent Chrite explains how his school measures outcomes through a “knowledge rate,” a verified snapshot of what graduates are actually doing.

And finally, Carapezza reflects on Hampshire College’s planned closure, and what it signals about the changing value and future of higher education.

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Lisa Wardle

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

GBH recently took College Uncovered on the road to the University of Massachusetts Boston, in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood, about eight miles from some of the nation’s well-known Ivy League institutions. 

We chose UMass Boston not just because it’s in our backyard, but because campuses like it represent where most students in the U.S. actually go to college. Roughly 80 percent of students attend public universities and colleges, and most of them don’t graduate on time. When it comes to navigating shifting demographics, serving students, and meeting workforce demands, UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco says institutions need to start by connecting with their own backyards. 

“What we have is a rapidly aging population below replacement fertility rates,” Suárez Orozco says. “And we have a new dynamic in that the sectors of the population that are growing are the sectors of the population that we, UMass Boston, serve. These are of immigrant origin mostly, and second generation."

In this special episode, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza moderates a panel discussion between Suárez Orozco, Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA: The Association of International Educators, and Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. The higher ed leaders discuss challenges and opportunities created by the so-called demographic cliff, and how colleges are responding to sustained political pressure on American higher education. 

In the episode’s second half, education reporter Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Reporter explains how colleges are trying to recruit and retain adult learners and why a growing number of schools are trimming the traditional bachelor’s degree to three years.

"The new kind of three-year degree only requires 90 credits, and that's increasingly being approved by accreditors who are under political pressure and by states who recognize the consumer demand for work-oriented bachelor's degrees," Marcus says. 

Related links: 

The Demographic Cliff

The Student Trade Wars

Colleges are reconnecting with students who left before earning their degrees

Faster, thinner: Colleges are swiftly trimming a B.A. degree to three years

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Lisa Wardle

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

Millions of Americans have left college before earning their degrees. Some schools are trying to re-engage those so-called “stop-out” learners to bolster their classes amid growing uncertainty about enrollment.

In this episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza explores how local institutions are partnering with national organizations like ReUp Education to reconnect with former students.  Advocates are hopeful about these partnerships because most schools don’t have sufficient resources to reconnect with adult learners, who may need dozens of calls and individualized support before re-enrolling. 

Kirk also speaks with Elliot Felix, author of The Connected College, who believes re-engaging adult students is critical to fulfilling higher education’s promise. “College is still our best instrument for economic opportunity and mobility and helping students find their people, their place, their purpose, and their path forward,” Felix says. 

And if you’re an adult student who stepped away from college before finishing, we’ll outline the key questions to ask before deciding to return. 

Links:

Colleges are reconnecting with students who left before earning their degrees

Graduation Frustration

The Real Cost of “Free”

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Lisa Wardle

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

Recent graduates are facing a tough job market. Young people – and even colleges – are asking fundamental, existential questions: What does it mean to be educated? And will an expensive college education help set in motion a future career? 

As enrollment declines, costs rise, and political pressure intensifies, some colleges and universities are rethinking the liberal arts. They’re restructuring and rebranding programs to emphasize applied humanities, weaving career preparation directly into the curriculum.  

In this episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza visits Brandeis University and Clark University to learn how two liberal arts schools are responding to some of the biggest challenges the higher education industry has faced in decades. Can this model survive? 

Kirk also speaks with Scott Carlson, a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education and author of the new book Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn’t Matter and What Really Does. Carlson argues that colleges need to “systemize serendipity.”

“I think colleges and universities need to take a more deliberate role in helping students figure out this is how the college game is played and these are the various directions you can take these degrees,” Carlson says. 

Links:

Brandeis bets big on rebuilding the liberal arts around real-world skills

Clark University braces for a harsh new reality as higher ed recession looms

From Robin Hood to resumes: The humanities get a job market makeover

The Revenge of the Humanities

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Lisa Wardle

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

College football bowl season is underway, with wall-to-wall games on TV, packed stadiums and multi-million-dollar broadcasts dominated by a few dozen powerhouse programs.

In Amherst, Massachusetts, it’s quiet. That’s because the University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen just finished the 2025 season without a single win, the only team in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision to do so. Over the past 13 seasons, since joining the FBS, UMass has stumbled to a stunning 26-130 record.

Their collapse has turned McGuirk Alumni Stadium into a concrete, empty symbol of a bigger problem: public universities pouring tens of millions into athletics just as American higher education is facing both a financial reckoning and a demographic enrollment cliff.

“It’s a disastrous enterprise,” said Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who has repeatedly used his weekly column to criticize UMass’s investment in football. When teams like the Minutemen can’t compete, he argues, pouring institutional dollars into football looks especially bad for a public university.

“We’re sending these kids out there to take these beatings and to possibly get hurt and it’s just not right,” Shaughnessy said. “Don’t blame the athletes when you see those scores because they shouldn’t be put up against these teams.”

In this episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza talks with Amy Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which finds nationwide severance pay for fired football coaches has hit a record high. Public universities now owe more than $228 million in buyouts for just 15 fired head coaches.

Then economist James Koch, former president of Old Dominion University and the University of Montana, explains his new statistical analysis that argues big-time college sports don’t benefit students and graduates at all and may actually leave them worse off.

Links:

After an abysmal season, UMass Amherst’s football program faces scrutiny

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Jenifer McKim

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

Artificial intelligence is still new on college campuses, but it’s already transforming how professors teach and how students learn. Surveys show most students now rely on generative AI for everything from applying to college to getting through it. Some educators are leaning in, treating AI as a teaching partner. Others are leaning out, doubling down on in-person, discussion-based learning. Either way, one thing is clear: AI isn’t going anywhere.

This new technology is also reshaping the job market. Young workers are seeing fewer openings in fields most exposed to automation — software development, social media, coding. That’s why colleges are racing to future-proof their programs.

In this bonus episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza visits campuses to hear directly from professors and students who are adapting in real time. Harvard physicist Greg Kestin has built a custom chatbot — an “always-on” tutor that mimics himself. Boston College English professor Carlo Rotella, author of What Can I Get Out of This?, sees his unplugged, device-free classes as cutting-edge, urging students to slow down and do the work of building something together themselves. At Wentworth Institute of Technology, faculty are designing a new applied AI degree to give graduates a kind of surfboard to ride the coming digital and labor tsunamis. And Kerry McKittrick, co-director of Harvard’s Project on Workforce, explains what students and families need to know right now about AI and college and how colleges are using AI to boost completion rates and align what they teach with what employers actually need.

Additional links: 

With AI common on campus, some educators are leaning in (GBH)

Rather than AI, this professor chooses a chalkboard and old-fashioned books (GBH)

Colleges hope to ‘AI-proof’ their offerings as new tech changes job expectations (GBH)

Crossing the Great AI Divide (Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce)

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Jenifer McKim

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Isabel Hibbard

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

Across the country, public universities are being flooded with requests for syllabi, reading lists, course materials, and data on international students. One company is behind many of those requests - Metric Media. Part of a growing network of conservative-led groups, Metric Media says it’s enforcing civil rights laws and holding taxpayer-funded institutions accountable. But critics see something very different: a coordinated pressure campaign emboldened by the second Trump administration that threatens academic freedom and seeks to intimidate scholars. Now some universities are pushing back.

In this bonus episode of College Uncovered, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza talks with Brian Timpone, CEO and founder of Metric Media. In a rare interview, Timpone says there’s great public interest in what public universities are teaching students and he thinks America’s public colleges have lost sight of their mission.

“Some of the names of these courses, they’re almost like The Onion,” Timpone says.

Dan Kennedy, a Northeastern University journalism professor, argues that groups like Metric Media are weaponizing public records laws to pressure and silence professors. We also hear from two faculty members who’ve been targeted: Christopher Petsko, a business professor at the University of North Carolina, and Jennifer Ho, a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado–Boulder.

And as the Trump administration threatens to withhold federal research funding unless universities sign its proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” some schools have already declined.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, tells us why he believes the compact would be disastrous for colleges and the country and why you should care.

“This is nothing short of a government attempt to make institutions creatures of the state,” Mitchell said. “That’s so antithetical to what higher education is and does. Higher education is about inquiry-based research, discovery-based teaching, and to deprive institutions of the ability to do that is really tantamount to just making them propaganda engines.”

The New College Compact explores the escalating battle over academic freedom, political pressure, and the future of higher education in America.

Additional links: 

Local colleges targeted amid growing campus culture wars

Zombies, Garbage And Vampires? It's Not A Nightmare, It's Your College Course Catalog

Un-Welcome to College

DEI Backlash

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editors: Azita Ghahramani and Jenifer McKim

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News 

The government rescinded billions in federal research grants during Trump’s first few months in office — cutting fellowships, scholarships, and postdoc programs that support the next generation of scientists.

A federal judge recently ordered the restoration of some National Institutes of Health grants. A battle over National Science Foundation funding is still playing out in court.

So what do these cuts actually mean for higher education and scientific discovery? And if the United States gives up its global lead in innovation and research, what does that mean for the rest of us?

In this episode of College Uncovered, host Kirk Carapezza and reporter Craig LeMoult visit one public university hit especially hard — and explore what’s really at stake for American science.

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Host and Producer: Kirk Carapezza 

Editor: Jenifer McKim

Executive Producer: Lee Hill  

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News