One of the co-authors of that Atlantic article is Richard Sander, who&#x27;s the leading proponent of the mismatch hypothesis and routinely overstates the evidence for it. His original study is based on outcomes for law students who started law school in 1991 -- not necessarily applicable, I&#x27;d argue, to undergraduates starting college in 2015 -- and his methodology has been pretty much discredited anyway (see the amicus brief that doctorpangloss cites).<p>This is off-topic from the original post, but I think the whole mismatch controversy has been kind of a scary illustration of how one determined academic can shape the narrative around an issue: because he&#x27;s a professor, and because media outlets trust professors (and like controversy), he can easily find a platform to represent the debate in a way that&#x27;s favorable to his side (e.g. [0]). I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a crazy hypothesis or anything, and it&#x27;s definitely worth debating, but I&#x27;d be skeptical of claims coming from someone who&#x27;s staked so much of his career on its validity.<p>&lt;&#x2F;rant&gt;<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;volokh-conspiracy&#x2F;wp&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;10&#x2F;an-emerging-scholarly-consensus-on-mismatch-and-affirmative-action-ideologues-not-welcome&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;volokh-conspiracy&#x2F;wp&#x2F;201...</a>