Your argument is that colleges are failing to educate students? I only skimmed the links, but it seems resources were available and students just didn’t access them. Maybe you are trying to figure out how to create conscientious students?
I’m afraid we have basic philosophical differences. I don’t see education as a competition to get as far up the pecking order as possible, but rather to create good neighbors, citizens, and individuals who have the potential to put some good out into the universe. And it just makes life more interesting and worth living. Getting into college or getting a job is a side effect, not the goal.
I also don’t think it is possible to force people to be conscientious about their studies. It is possible to create an educational environment for children that provides opportunities and facilitates growth, but encourages children to be as self-directed as possible. It is much more difficult to create an environment where children learn music because they want to acquire mastery for their own self-satisfaction than to insist on a certain number of hours practice a day. I believe children educated the first way have a greater potential to be conscientious students.
In my world, by the time a student gets to high school or college that student can identify educational goals and figure out how to accomplish those goals. They may need to consult adults but they are pretty much taking responsibility. If they want to work for a consulting firm, go to law school, med school, grad school, act or paint or write, they seek out the opportunities needed to reach that goal. And they are pretty successful in achieving goals.
Of course, this is a pretty privileged view of education, the view of the “dreamers” Coates describes in Between the World and Me. I am not sure it is relevant for the students profiled in Paying for the Party or the women in Unfinished Business by Anne Marie Slaughter, dealing with “sticky floors,” and I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. However, when you talk about best practices at top consulting firms, I don’t think you are really considering those individuals either, though perhaps I am completely wrong about that.