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Every year, thousands of high school students get ready for the SAT by using The Princeton Review's test preparation services.
But few, if any, realize that the prices for The Princeton Review's online SAT tutoring packages vary substantially depending on where customers live. If they type some ZIP codes into the company's website, they are offered The Princeton Review's Premier course for as little as $6,600. For other ZIP codes, the same course costs as much as $8,400.
One unexpected effect of the company's geographic approach to pricing is that Asians are almost twice as likely to be offered a higher price than non-Asians, an analysis by ProPublica shows.
% Asian population, ZIP codes charged higher prices % Asian population, ZIP codes charged lower prices
The gap remains even for Asians in lower income neighborhoods. Consider a ZIP code in Flushing, a neighborhood in Queens, New York. Asians make up 70.5 percent of the population in this ZIP code. According to the U.S. Census, the median household income in the ZIP code, $41,884, is lower than most, yet The Princeton Review customers there are quoted the highest price.
The Princeton Review said in a statement that its pricing is based on the "costs of running our business and the competitive attributes of the given market," and that the company charges the same price everywhere in New York City. Although the test prep service markets its service as "24-hr Online Tutoring," the company says the tutoring is done in one-on-one sessions in person or online and that the tutors typically live in the same areas as their students.
"The areas that experience higher prices will also have a disproportionately higher population of members of the financial services industry, people who tend to vote Democratic, journalists and any other group that is more heavily concentrated in areas like New York City," The Princeton Review's statement said.
These types of price differences are not illegal, and the consequences are not intentional, but researchers say they are likely to become more common in the age of services like Uber, which set prices by computer algorithms. The Princeton Review says its prices are simply determined by geographic region.
Last year, a White House report on "Big Data" cautioned that the "algorithmic decisions raise the specter of 2018redlining' in the digital economy 2013 the potential to discriminate against the most vulnerable classes of our society under the guise of neutral algorithms."
In 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that the online office retailer Staples was varying prices by ZIP code. Staples appeared to be calculating prices based on the user's distance from a rival store, but the inadvertent effect was that people in lower-income ZIP codes saw the higher prices.
In 2014, researchers at Northeastern University found that top Web sites, such as Home Depot, Orbitz and Travelocity, were steering some users toward more expensive products. And this year, another study found that users who were identified by Google as female received fewer ads for a high-paying job.
Offline, the practice of offering different prices for the same product in different places is fairly common 2013 gasoline or a gallon of milk can be priced differently just a few blocks apart. But as long as there is no intent to racially discriminate, it is generally legal, says Andrew Selbst, an attorney who co-authored a paper on the biases that can be inherent in Big Data.
"If you are open for business, you can't discriminate against certain protected classes," Selbst said.
Unintentional racial discrimination is illegal in housing and employment under the legal doctrine known as "disparate impact," which prohibits inadvertent actions that hurt people in a protected class.
But the disparate impact doctrine does not apply to the online world, where it's often difficult to determine how and why different prices are being offered.
Earlier this year, Harvard undergraduate Christian Haigh stumbled on The Princeton Review's variable prices doing research for a class he was taking called "Data Science to Save the World."
Haigh had been looking for price differences in hotel rooms if he booked from different locations around the world. But he wasn't finding much. So he looked for websites that required entering a ZIP code.
"We thought maybe if you have to put in the ZIP code, they were trying to discriminate," Haigh said. Today, Haigh and three fellow students are publishing their findings that The Princeton Review's higher prices correlate to areas with higher income.
ProPublica reviewed the code that one of Haigh's fellow students posted on a public web site and collected its own data in July, and again on Monday. The data showed that The Princeton Review offered four different prices for the same "Premier Level" online tutoring package.
Many of the prices are regional. For instance, the entire New York City area, including Long Island, receives the highest possible price, $8,400. Much of California, except San Diego, is offered the second-highest price, $7,200, while ZIP codes in San Diego are charged the lowest price.
Because the pricing regions are large, sometimes spanning multiple states, they are different than the personalized tech algorithms used by some web sites, which make real-time decisions about which advertisements to show to a particular visitor.
ProPublica tested whether The Princeton Review prices were tied to different characteristics of each ZIP code, including income, race and education level. When it came to getting the highest prices, living in a ZIP code with a high median income or a large Asian population seemed to make the greatest difference.
The analysis showed that higher income areas are twice as likely to receive higher prices than the general population. For example, wealthy suburbs of Washington D.C. are charged higher prices. But that isn't always the case: Residents of affluent neighborhoods in Dallas are charged the lowest price, $6,600.
Customers in areas with a high density of Asian residents were 1.8 times as likely to be offered higher prices, regardless of income. For instance, residents of the gritty industrial city of Westminster, California, which is half Asian with a median income below most, were charged the second-highest price for the Premier tutoring service.
The Princeton Review said it would be a mistake to call its pricing practices discrimination. "To equate the incidental differences in impact that occur from this type of geographic based pricing that pervades all American commerce with discrimination misconstrues both the literal, legal and moral meaning of the word," the company said in its statement.
The company said the prices of its online tutoring services are based on the prices of local tutors, which vary "just as virtually every good or service does, be it gasoline, rent or eggs."
Even if the price differences were unintentional, the Harvard students said they found them disturbing. Haigh, the student who discovered the variations, is an economics major and said he's not generally against price differences unless particular demographic groups are affected.
"It's something that makes a very small impact on one individual's life but can make a big impact to large groups," Haigh said.
Lauren Kirchner contributed to this report.
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If you’ve ever Googled “how to sleep better” or “why can’t I fall asleep," the search results would suggest that you practice something called "sleep hygiene." Sleep hygiene is the idea that to sleep better, you have to drink less caffeine, less alcohol and other rules. But, according to Dr. Michael Perlis, Director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at University of Pennsylvania, “sleep hygiene” is actually not useful, and mostly not even tested.
Everybody has bouts of insomnia, and it is generally seen as a bad thing. Here are some things you should know about sleep, or lack thereof.
Insomnia is not always bad.
Acute insomnia is mostly brought on by stress. This is our body’s way of telling us we have something important to do or that we’re forgetting something. According to Dr. Perlis, “acute insomnia is probably something that comes to us all to keep us active and to allow us to do whatever we’re supposed to be doing.”
If you miss sleep, don’t try to catch up on it.
It’s normal to miss sleep and then feel like you need to sleep in or go to bed earlier to make up for it. Dr. Perlis says this just messes up your sleep schedule even more. If you miss sleep, the best thing to do is nothing. If you have to do something, caffeinate wisely, he says.
Women are more likely to battle insomnia.
According to Dr. Perlis, “women are given to chronic insomnia about 2-1 to men.”
Acute insomnia will usually go away in 3-5 days.
Perlis says that if you’re a good sleeper, your chances of getting a good night’s sleep within three days of insomnia are 90 percent. Even if you’re a bad sleeper, you’re most likely to get a good night’s sleep within five days.
College students can suffer from insomnia and not even know it.
College students are more likely to get less sleep due to many factors, some of them being parties, studying, etc. Typically, college-aged students don’t even know that their bodies are sleep deprived. According to Perlis, younger bodies can handle the affects of sleep deprivation better, but it still has long-term negative affects, including psychological well-being and performance.
There’s help for insomnia.
“If any kind of sleep disturbance lasts for more than a couple days, you should go talk to somebody,” Dr. Perlis said. People struggling with insomnia can visit the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine to find a specialist.
Even with tens of thousands of people expected to flock to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway this weekend for the Made In America festival, post-event breakdowns will not interfere with preparation for Pope Francis' visit.
Everett Gillison, Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor of Philadelphia, spoke to the media Friday regarding the fourth-annual Labor Day weekend concert, and assuaged fears surrounding a potential overlap between production for the two events.
"We know how to host big events well," said Gillison.
The deputy mayor noted that the city has been working with production companies for both the festival and the World Meeting of Families, and that creating a schedule for breakdown of the festival grounds left very little overlap with the vast amount of setup required to ready the parkway for the pope.
Gillison also spoke to the increased security measures at this year's music festival, an expansion of a successful program from the previous year. The grounds are divided up into a grid system, with each section corresponding to a letter-number combination, such as M1.
"If you need to call for help, you can give your grid location so people can get to you easily," he added.
With temperatures this weekend in the upper 80s, Gillison urged all festivalgoers to stay hydrated and drink lots of water.
Philadelphia Police are searching for two tow truck riders who were caught on surveillance video beating a man outside a Juniata liquor store.
The beating happened August 17 outside the Fine Wine and Good Spirits shop along the 1300 block of Erie Avenue, city detectives said Friday.
The 60-year-old victim was about to walk into the store when two men jumped out of a black tow truck and approached him. He was hit in the head from behind with an unknown object and then punched and kicked several times after falling to the ground.
The man was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital for a laceration to his head, police said.
Detectives believe the assault was random and are looking for help in identifying the suspects.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Philadelphia Police tipline at 215.686.TIPS.
Organizers faced an outcry this week over a ticket plan keeping most of Pope Francis' audience at his two biggest Philadelphia events several blocks away. A map added to some confusion over the size of the ticketholder-only zone.
Here are answers to some key questions:
DO I NEED TICKETS TO ATTEND THE POPE'S PUBLIC EVENTS IN PHILADLEPHIA?
It depends on the event. The pope is holding three major public events in the city: a Sept. 26 speech on immigration and religious freedom in front of Independence Hall, an appearance at the closing festival of the World Meeting of Families on Sept. 26 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and a celebration of Mass on Sept. 27 on the same boulevard.
DO I NEED TICKETS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE HALL SPEECH?
Yes.
On Sept. 8 at noon, 10,000 tickets will be made available on the World Meeting of Families website, on a first-come, first-served basis, to the general public. Individuals are limited to four tickets.
Thousands of other tickets are being given out to parishes with large immigrant communities in an effort to assure a diverse audience.
DO I NEED TICKETS FOR THE TWO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PARKWAY APPEARANCES?
No, if you don't mind standing at least 2.5 blocks, or a quarter-mile, away.
Francis' appearance at the closing festival of the World Meeting of Families on Sept. 26 is expected to draw 750,000 or more people, his celebration of Mass on Sept. 27 up to 1.5 million.
If you want to stand in the 2.5 blocks closest to the stage on Sept. 26 or the altar on Sept. 27, you will need a ticket.
WHO GETS TICKETS FOR THE TWO BIG EVENTS?
Tickets are being distributed primarily to parishioners in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, plus surrounding dioceses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
The thousands of people attending the World Meeting of Families, the triennial Catholic conference attracting Francis to Philadelphia, are automatically receiving passes. Passes also are being given to event sponsors and members of other faith communities and church social service programs.
There are also 10,000 tickets for each day that will be made available to the general public. They will be distributed Sept. 9 through a website on a first-come, first-served basis; details have not yet been announced.
Papal visit planners decided to make that last batch available after a backlash over the announcement this week that several blocks up front had been set aside for ticket holders and that tickets were largely reserved for parishioners in the city and four surrounding counties.
IF I DON'T HAVE A TICKET, WILL THERE STILL BE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THE POPE?
Yes. Organizers also announced that Francis will parade along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway before the Sept. 26 and 27 events, giving many an opportunity to see him up close. They said the parade the first day would likely be longer than the one before the Mass.
Papal events will also be broadcast on 40 huge screens throughout the city for crowds to watch all his appearances during his two-day visit to Philadelphia, including those that are not public.
The Red Paw Emergency Relief Team is hosting an adoption open house next weekend to find new homes for over a dozen animals displaced by fire.
Red Paw will be at Central Bark Doggy Day Care in Philadelphia on Sunday, Sept. 13 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Both dogs and cats are available for adoption.
"Red Paw's mission is to reunite pets with their families once they recover from a disaster," said Red Paw founder Jen Leary. "Unfortunately, that's not always possible, so that's what this event is for."
There are currently 16 pets up for adoption as Red Paw hopes to find loving homes for all the rescues before another wave of animals inevitably gets rescued. The animals are currently in foster homes.
Leary added, “We have close to two dozen animals up for adoption and we need to find them homes before we head into fire season.”
Central Bark Doggy Day Care is located at 2501 Wharton St.
A male harbor seal that was partially paralyzed after suffering lacerations on its neck and puncture wounds on its back has been rehabilitated at a Jersey Shore marine rescue and will soon make his way to an aquarium.
The seal was found on Valentine’s Day in Deal, New Jersey — about 50 miles north of Long Beach Island. MMSC took the seal back to their headquarters in Brigantine for treatment.
Because of the injuries, the seal has partial paralysis in its rear flipper, meaning the seal will not be able to live in the wild.
According to Bob Schoelkopf, founding director of the MMSC, it would be impossible for the seal to hunt for food.
After spending seven months at the MMSC, the seal be relocated Wednesday to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach. The aquarium already houses four other male harbor seals.
Police on Saturday morning continued to investigate a deadly shooting outside a popular music venue on Philadelphia's South Street.
Gunfire erupted as a crowd waited outside the Theater of Living Arts -- commonly called the TLA -- concert hall on South Street between 3rd and 4th about 8:20 p.m., police said. Rapper Lil Durk had a concert scheduled at the venue at 7 p.m., but the show had not started yet. One man, whom police have not yet identified, was badly wounded.
That man died of a gunshot wound to his abdomen a short time later at Hahnemann University Hospital. Police estimated that the victim was in his 20s.
Chief Inspector Scott Small tells NBC10 officers heard a scuffle happening near the theater before the gunfire. Witnesses said they heard three gunshots and saw the victim lying on the ground bleeding.
Small said the suspected shooter jumped into a limo and fled the scene. Officers caught up with the vehicle a few blocks away along Christopher Columbus Boulevard. Three men were taken into custody for questioning by homicide detectives, Small said. A handgun was also recovered. No official charges had been filed Saturday morning.
An often popular section of South Street, the thoroughfare was packed with people when the shooting happened.
Police said the tour bus belonging to rapper Lil Durk was struck by gunfire, but it was unclear if the shooting had anything to do with the concert. Small said hundreds of people were on the sidewalk when bullets began flying. Videos posted to social media sites show people hiding in shops nearby following the shooting.
