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Is college really worth it? Have you ever questioned, as you were walking busily between classes, whether the education that you were getting was really worth the investment—money, time, and effort—that you are putting into it? This book, cowritten by a former United States (U.S.) Secretary of Education and a liberal arts graduate gives readers the newest—and the sharpest—insight into the current situation of higher education.
Is College Really Worth It: A Former United States Secretary of Education and A Liberal Arts Graduate Expose the Broken Promise of Higher Education is co-written by William J. Bennett and David Wilezol. One of the first things that may appeal to readers is that a former secretary of education, Bill Bennett, is one of the authors. This gives readers an immediate trust and interest about what the book has to say about increasing tuition and the decreasing quality of college.
The book may exceed readers’ expectations in many ways. The authors do not give a simple answer to the question the book’s title raises. Their answer is that “It depends,” and what they write is that it depends on the school and the financial situation of individual students. The authors say outright that college is often not worth it for students who go to less prestigious schools and have to depend on student loans to pay for school tuition fees.
This suggests that the authors are saying that college is only for rich elites. However, with further reading, it becomes clear that the expression was made to criticize the current higher education system that forces such conclusions as the above when attempting to equate success with a bachelor’s degree. The authors point out the danger of the orthodoxy which believes that going to college guarantees success when reality shouts otherwise.
That going to college does not always end in success may not be news to many because we see, first hand, so many cases around us that tell us otherwise. The book helps those who feel that way acquire a sharper insight into why this happens. For instance, the authors explain, in easily comprehensible language, how the government’s monopoly of student loans only increases debts that grow to a size beyond redemption.
Furthermore, the authors explain how the number of A’s in Harvard transcripts has increased dramatically over the past few decades, a phenomenon with its cause in the silent agreements between professors and students. On websites such as Ratemyprofessors.com, professors become “good scholars” if they give easy A’s while those who decide to assign more demanding workloads get rated poorly. The authors state that the compromise between the two parties gives rise to more A’s and poor course quality as a consequence.
This tendency of students to favor easier classes is often seen at Korea University (KU) as well. On the website Kuklue.com, recommendations for a class are often dependent upon the lower cost of an A in the bargain, between students and professors. It cannot be said with certainty that the quality of classes is affected at all by this “bargain,” although Bennett and Wilezol tell us otherwise.
For Korean university students—amidst the turmoil of sky-rocketing tuition, the unsatisfying quality of education and the uncertainty of the future—this book gives a new perspective. The book allows the students to take a step back and better see the logic behind the higher education