I saw my life’s timeline stretching out before me, full of possibility. I stopped feeling like, “It’s all over,” and starting wondering, “What’s next?”
U.S. News & World Report announced changes to the methodology of its controversial Best Colleges rankings to emphasize the success of diverse students and to remove the influence of alumni giving and class size, the media company said in a statement.
Listen more than you speak. Cut yourself some slack. Don’t become numb to suffering. And please, clean up the mess your elders made. Congratulations and Godspeed to the country’s newest graduates. This year’s commencement speakers were blunt in describing the country’s bleak state of affairs, but they also shared poignant personal reflections, messages of hope and words of inspiration—none of which were attributed to ChatGPT. Inside Higher Ed reviewed only a small share of the season’s speeches—plenty are still to come, after all—so this sampling does not claim to be comprehensive or even representative. Think of it as a snapshot of the commencement addresses delivered to the Class of 2023, excerpted and edited for clarity and space.
