Francie Diep

I'm a senior reporter at ​The Chronicle of Higher Education.

I cover rankings and other ways that colleges try to build their reputations with the audiences they care about, including students, lawmakers, and each other. I've also covered some of higher ed's hottest topics of the day, including the Trump administration's deals with colleges and conflicts over donor money.

Contact me at one of the ways listed here.

Stories

Photo of a university student in a campus study space, working on her tablet

Life After the Deal

The Chronicle of Higher Education
In Fall 2025, I visited Columbia University to see what teaching, research, and student life were like after two years of unprecedented upheaval, and a deal with the Trump administration.
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Photo illustration with Bernie Machen, Rick Scott, and the University of Florida campus

The Rules of the Game

The Chronicle of Higher Education
How U.S. News rankings helped reshape one state's public colleges.


Illustration showing a man in a suit, sitting on a column, in a cloudy landscape full of columns of different heights

Where the Rankers Meet the Ranked

The Chronicle of Higher Education
An annual conference illustrates college rankings' enduring dominance.


Portrait of David Egilman, wearing a lab coat and standing in front of fileboxes

Does the SAT Really Help Colleges Find ‘Diamonds in the Rough'?​

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Brand-name colleges are returning to requiring standardized tests for admissions, arguing that they help identify underrepresented students who might otherwise be overlooked. Do they really?


Photo of a seating area for UC Berkeley students branded by Bank of the West

Welcome to the Sponsored Campus

The Chronicle of Higher Education
More parts of the college experience are up for sale than ever before, experts say.

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Photo of the Wilbur Cross building on the University of Connecticut campus

The Sacklers Gave Millions to Higher Ed. Here’s How Scholars on One Campus Feel About Taking the Money.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
The University of Connecticut has received millions from the family foundation of an opioid manufacturer. Faculty members are wrestling with the moral calculus.

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Photo of a patient at a methadone clinic, getting his dose through a window

There's a Gold-Standard Treatment for Opioid Addiction. What Keeps Treatment Centers from Using It?

Pacific Standard  
A quest through California to find which addiction and recovery centers aren't using medication-assisted treatment—our country's best bet for beating the opioid crisis.


Photo showing an abandoned railroad bridge

Confronting My Cyberbully, 13 Years Later

The Atlantic
Between ages 13 and 16, she sent me emails, from my own account, "reminding" me to kill myself. Well, I didn't—I grew up, and so did she.


See my past work in...

​• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Pacific Standard

• Popular Science
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 About Me 

Photo of Francie Diep standing in a pool of water at the Ein Gedi oasis in Israel
I'm a senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, based in Washington, D.C. I write about rankings and what reputation means to colleges. I've also covered some of higher ed's hottest topics, including the Trump administration's deals with institutions, colleges' public-health decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic, and conflicts over donor money.

Before the Chronicle, I was a science and health journalist. I wrote about how federal funding agencies responded to reports that lead scientists on grants had harassed subordinates. I also spent years covering opioid addiction, during which I worked with sensitive sources and wrangled large datasets to understand the state of addiction treatment in California. I still frequently work with sensitive sources and data — there's a lot in higher ed — today.

​My work has been supported by the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. It's been cited in policy proposals by the Drug Policy Alliance and Senator Elizabeth Warren. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Pacific Standard, and more. You can find my resume here.

Contact me via my Chronicle author page

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Photo Credits

If you're looking at this page on a large enough screen, you'll see a grainy grayscale image at the top. That's an electron micrograph of the interior of a cell, made by members of this National Institutes of Health lab. The favicon is an illustration of changes that the uterine lining undergoes during a menstrual cycle, which I had taken from an NIH site years ago. Credits for the rest of the photos are as follows: Michael Theis of The Chronicle, Chronicle illustration with photos by Alamy and AP Images, Jess Suttner for The Chronicle, Michelle Kondrich for The Chronicle, Noah Berger for The Chronicle, Chris C Chen/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0), Salgu Wissmath, bobistraveling/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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