ABOUT THE AUTHORS
of The Early Admissions Game
by Christopher Avery, Andrew Fairbanks, and Richard Zeckhauser

CHRISTOPHER AVERY is Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he teaches classes in microeconomics, statistics, and game theory. He received a bachelors degree from Harvard College, a masters degree from Cambridge University in mathematical statistics, and a Ph.D. in economic analysis from the Standford Business School. He has researched a number of issues related to higher education and college admissions, including college rankings and financial aid policies. In addition, he found the COACH program, which recruits Harvard students to spend one morning per week helping high school students apply to college and complete the forms to qualify for federal financial aid. He is just beginning to write a second book based on the results from the first three years of the COACH program.

ANDREW FAIRBANKS is a managing consultant for IBM Business Consulting Services. He is a core member of the Learning Solution Group industry management team and has delivered consulting services to several colleges and universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, since he became a consultant in 1997. Prior to joining IBM, Fairbanks served as Associate Dean of Admission at Wesleyan University, where he was actively involved in the administration of the school's early decision program between 1990 and 1997. He received a masters degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he focused on economics, analytics, and education policy. While a student, Fairbanks worked as a research assistant for Robert Kuttner on his book, The Virtues and Limits of Markets. He also served as a research fellow at Harvard from 1997 through 2000 under a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

RICHARD ZECKHAUSER is Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His entire academic career--undergraduate, graduate, and as a professor--has been at Harvard, where he teaches economics and analytic methods. Analytic methods include game theory and decision analysis, crucial subjects to understand The Early Admissions Game. In that vein, Zeckhauser won the 1966 United States contract bridge pairs championship, and was a finalist in the 1998 World Bridge Federation championship. He has been elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and as a fellow of the Econometric Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Often working with others, Zeckhauser has authored 190 articles, two prior books and eight edited books. The most recent are Strategy and Choice, and Wise Choices: Games, Decisions and Negotiations. His major research projects address the performance of institutions--ranging from firms and nonprofits to government agencies--confronted with inadequate commitment capabilities, incomplete information flow, and human beings who fail to behave in accordance with models of rationality. All of these are important factors in college admissions.