Another Review of What’s Plaguing America’s Colleges
Posted on October 27th, 2005
(Source: Amherst College)Last week's New York Review of Books featured an essay chronicling the ills of higher education. Titled "The Truth About the Colleges," the piece elucidates what many already know: the social pressures to get into the "right" institutions; data showing little correlation between going to these "right" institutions and career success; commercialization and the facilities arms race; social stratification and the preponderance of the affluent at top schools; the unfairness of legacy admissions; professors ignoring undergraduates and undergraduates ignoring their studies; and the decline of liberal education. As you can surmise by this laundry list, the article focuses primarily on elite colleges, which enroll a small fraction of students nationally but attract the most attention and scrutiny.
Nonetheless, it's worth a read, especially if you're interested in any of the books mentioned in the piece:
– Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (by Ross Gregory Douthat)
– I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom (by Patrick Allitt)
– What the Best College Teachers Do (by Ken Bain)
– University, Inc.: The Corporate corruption of American Higher Education (by Jennifer Washburn)
– The Best 357 Colleges: 2005 Edition (by the Princeton Review)
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