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The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be
Why higher education in the United States has lost its way, and how universities and colleges can focus sharply on their core mission.
For The Real World of College , Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner analyzed in-depth interviews with more than 2,000 students, alumni, faculty, administrators, parents, trustees, and others, which were conducted at ten institutions ranging from highly selective liberal arts colleges to less-selective state schools. What they found challenged characterizations in the students are not preoccupied by political correctness, free speech, or even the cost of college. They are most concerned about their GPA and their resumes; they see jobs and earning potential as more important than learning. Many say they face mental health challenges, fear that they don’t belong, and feel a deep sense of alienation. Given this daily reality for students, has higher education lost its way? Fischman and Gardner contend that US universities and colleges must focus sharply on their core educational mission.
Fischman and Gardner, both recognized authorities on education and learning, argue that higher education in the United States has lost sight of its principal reason for not vocational training, not the provision of campus amenities, but to increase what Fischman and Gardner call “higher education capital”—to help students think well and broadly, express themselves clearly, explore new areas, and be open to possible transformations. Fischman and Gardner offer cogent recommendations for how every college can become a community of learners who are open to change as thinkers, citizens, and human beings.
For The Real World of College , Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner analyzed in-depth interviews with more than 2,000 students, alumni, faculty, administrators, parents, trustees, and others, which were conducted at ten institutions ranging from highly selective liberal arts colleges to less-selective state schools. What they found challenged characterizations in the students are not preoccupied by political correctness, free speech, or even the cost of college. They are most concerned about their GPA and their resumes; they see jobs and earning potential as more important than learning. Many say they face mental health challenges, fear that they don’t belong, and feel a deep sense of alienation. Given this daily reality for students, has higher education lost its way? Fischman and Gardner contend that US universities and colleges must focus sharply on their core educational mission.
Fischman and Gardner, both recognized authorities on education and learning, argue that higher education in the United States has lost sight of its principal reason for not vocational training, not the provision of campus amenities, but to increase what Fischman and Gardner call “higher education capital”—to help students think well and broadly, express themselves clearly, explore new areas, and be open to possible transformations. Fischman and Gardner offer cogent recommendations for how every college can become a community of learners who are open to change as thinkers, citizens, and human beings.
- GenresEducationNonfiction
408 pages, Hardcover
Published March 22, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 23, 2022
This book is well worth reading, but it feels anticlimactic for such a major research project. Fischman, Gardner, and their team spent 10 years conducting thousands of interviews and analyzing their data, and they ended up concluding that... college works but there are some problems and ways it could work better, different constituencies have somewhat different goals, and mental health—primarily stress and anxiety—is an issue on campuses.
Duh?
To be fair, mental health was receiving a lot less attention in 2012, when they started this work.
And I mean, there are useful things in this book. Depending on your role, different things will resonate with you, but their discussions of misalignment and projectitis were important for me. If key players on campus are not aligned in goals and how to achieve those goals, the results will not be good. Obvious, you might say, but often forgotten in the daily grind of campus work. As for projectitis, it's well worth reflecting on how easy it is to start initiatives and how hard it is to intentionally stop them. But a plethora of initiatives wears out your employees, while also contributing to a loss of understanding what your mission is. And if the employees don't know what the college's mission is, or if the missions are too numerous (more than two, and even that's pushing it), then the students will have no idea why they should attend your school instead of a different one.
It's just that this book is a lot of words compared to how much content it has. It's not a slow read, but it's much longer than it needed to be. It's odd that such senior scholars fell prey to the tendency usually reserved for theses and dissertations, which is describing all the work you did, including the things that didn't work out. You really care, but your audience really doesn't. They just want to know the results (and enough about the methods to judge trustworthiness). The unnecessary parts of this book include a substantial fraction of their footnotes, descriptions of project names they considered using but didn't, the two co-authors "interviewing" each other and talking about their kids, etc.
This would have been a very good 200-page book, but instead it's 384 pages.
That said, what's really valuable is that Fischman & Gardner (et al.) did their homework. This isn't an uninformed hot take on a topical issue, like most of what fills the pages of The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed. This is an extensive examination of 10 colleges spanning the gamut in size, selectivity, geography, etc., and a detailed look at what these people really found important.
Everyone involved in college leadership should read it. We all need that prompting to step back from the fad think pieces and immediate troubles of the moment, and really reflect on what our institutions are and what they could be.
Fischman & Gardner introduce mental models that students have of higher education: inertial, transactional, exploratory, and transformational. One could, in a bit of a stretch, apply these categories to institutions themselves. All too many campus players taken an inertial view of the future of their institution, and while some leaders love using the language of exploration and transformation, few put enough thought and care into their visions to effect real and good change. We need to be intentional about the future of our institutions of higher education, because the years of growth simply because we exist are over.
Duh?
To be fair, mental health was receiving a lot less attention in 2012, when they started this work.
And I mean, there are useful things in this book. Depending on your role, different things will resonate with you, but their discussions of misalignment and projectitis were important for me. If key players on campus are not aligned in goals and how to achieve those goals, the results will not be good. Obvious, you might say, but often forgotten in the daily grind of campus work. As for projectitis, it's well worth reflecting on how easy it is to start initiatives and how hard it is to intentionally stop them. But a plethora of initiatives wears out your employees, while also contributing to a loss of understanding what your mission is. And if the employees don't know what the college's mission is, or if the missions are too numerous (more than two, and even that's pushing it), then the students will have no idea why they should attend your school instead of a different one.
It's just that this book is a lot of words compared to how much content it has. It's not a slow read, but it's much longer than it needed to be. It's odd that such senior scholars fell prey to the tendency usually reserved for theses and dissertations, which is describing all the work you did, including the things that didn't work out. You really care, but your audience really doesn't. They just want to know the results (and enough about the methods to judge trustworthiness). The unnecessary parts of this book include a substantial fraction of their footnotes, descriptions of project names they considered using but didn't, the two co-authors "interviewing" each other and talking about their kids, etc.
This would have been a very good 200-page book, but instead it's 384 pages.
That said, what's really valuable is that Fischman & Gardner (et al.) did their homework. This isn't an uninformed hot take on a topical issue, like most of what fills the pages of The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed. This is an extensive examination of 10 colleges spanning the gamut in size, selectivity, geography, etc., and a detailed look at what these people really found important.
Everyone involved in college leadership should read it. We all need that prompting to step back from the fad think pieces and immediate troubles of the moment, and really reflect on what our institutions are and what they could be.
Fischman & Gardner introduce mental models that students have of higher education: inertial, transactional, exploratory, and transformational. One could, in a bit of a stretch, apply these categories to institutions themselves. All too many campus players taken an inertial view of the future of their institution, and while some leaders love using the language of exploration and transformation, few put enough thought and care into their visions to effect real and good change. We need to be intentional about the future of our institutions of higher education, because the years of growth simply because we exist are over.
March 1, 2023
This is an excellent, exhaustive study of the state of higher education in the United States. It's also a wonderfully written study that exemplifies what good methodological research looks like. I love the way they detail their process of how and what they studied and, more importantly, how they emerged from this project with very different outcomes than they had envisioned. The extensive analysis of student feelings of alienation on campus was particularly revealing. Their straightforward plans for universities to re-align themselves is also practical and critical. Anyone involved in higher education in the US should read this book!
February 19, 2023
Compared to most modern media depictions of college, this book surprised me with a refreshing take on what college "should be" - namely a place that encourages students to explore different disciplines and get out of their comfort zone. Fischman and Gardner are able to put statistical relevance behind concepts that we can all anecdotally understand (i.e., administrators are often completely out of touch with the student body, students often worry more about building a resume than building a diverse perspective) and highlight how a variety of factors may influence what students take away from their college experience. As college seems to be increasingly under a microscope for completely different reasons often tied to the political climate (wokeness, failure to match students to jobs, endowments, etc.), this book stands out as something worth reading, and the insight (even when fairly obvious) is often interesting to contemplate.
That said, if the purpose of the book is to convince a reader who doesn't desire these "transformational" experiences to re-evaluate how they view higher education, the presentation of the book completely undermines that purpose. Make no mistake - this book is not short. Coming in at 384 pages, in many ways, it's an extremely extended research paper you'd expect to read for a college class - ironically, the exact type of paper someone who DOESN'T already have this mental schema would likely skim due to its length. Fischman and Gardner are clearly very passionate about the topic and excited to present their research in its entirety, but the structure of the book essentially requires a reader to buy in to the importance before they are convinced by the study - notably, we see this in the plethora of references to later parts of the book that fill the first few chapters. Put simply, while I'd like to believe that this research could be convincing, I struggle to believe that it will actually have the opportunity to convince anyone who isn't already aligned with the idea.
That said, if the purpose of the book is to convince a reader who doesn't desire these "transformational" experiences to re-evaluate how they view higher education, the presentation of the book completely undermines that purpose. Make no mistake - this book is not short. Coming in at 384 pages, in many ways, it's an extremely extended research paper you'd expect to read for a college class - ironically, the exact type of paper someone who DOESN'T already have this mental schema would likely skim due to its length. Fischman and Gardner are clearly very passionate about the topic and excited to present their research in its entirety, but the structure of the book essentially requires a reader to buy in to the importance before they are convinced by the study - notably, we see this in the plethora of references to later parts of the book that fill the first few chapters. Put simply, while I'd like to believe that this research could be convincing, I struggle to believe that it will actually have the opportunity to convince anyone who isn't already aligned with the idea.
December 25, 2022
This was denser than expected--more toward an academic paper than a popular book. But it laid out interesting ideas about how liberal arts colleges can do a better job of supporting their students. As a parent, I found valuable insight into the mindsets and priorities that I think can help my student have an excellent college experience. If you're willing to skim through the minutiae to get to the substantive frameworks and recommendations, there is much of value to discover.
November 21, 2025
The hard thing about books is that often the information is already outdated by the time it is published...such is the case with some of this book. However, it is well researched and I did find the different types of students and colleges identified very interesting and relevant. Also, things that should/could be done to make a college better were helpful. I recommend if you're in higher ed.
August 6, 2023
A book that should be foundational for discussion on all liberal arts campuses. I’m not recommending because this is groundbreaking but it provides the scaffolding for ALL higher ed interest groups to discuss the campus culture they want to create.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews