Is Higher Education Worth The Price?

Summary: Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus questioned if colleges are really giving good value to the investments they receive, what are families exactly paying for, and what are individuals -and our society as a whole- gaining from higher education. Andrew and Claudia where determined to answer these questions. They examined studying institutions and interviewed higher-educations leaders, policy makers, and students from various colleges. Andrew and Claudia came to the conclusion that colleges were engaging in too many roles and showed lack of performance. Andrew and Claudia claim these colleges are staffed by casts of thousands and dedicated to everything from esoteric research to vocational training- and have lost track of their basic mission to challenge the minds of young people. They came up with ideas that could help reform such as universal enrollment, Andrew and Claudia state that for that to happen, professors must make an effort to reach their students. Also Andrew and Claudia propose that students should become more thoughtful and interesting people and should choose impractical studies for a wiser use of college. Andrew and Claudia give the idea that unlike a textbook, software can pose interactive questions, review answers, and tell students to try again, offering hints on where they may have gone wrong. Despite the colleges not doing their job well, Andrew and Claudia discovered some colleges they thought were exceeding their objectives. Colleges that had free tuitions, tripled african american enrollment, and even colleges that allowed you to contribute to labor 10 hours a week to substitute for tuition fees. In conclusion most colleges need some sort of reform to accomplish their roles well.

Response: I agree with Andrew and Claudia concluding that most colleges engage in roles and lack performance. I also agree that the majority of students waste their college investments and graduate with six figure debts. I believe the staff in colleges need to really engage with the students when class is in session. I believe students should read an abundance and receive some sort of interactive presentations. I believe students should have more fun and critical thinking lectures then long and boring lectures. So students actually want to learn new things and discover who they truly are as a person. I feel like college students now a days have a lot of built up stress because of their school’s lack of performance. I agree with Andrew and Claudia some reformation should be done to better shape our future generations.