<p>My cousin gave our daughter, who was just accepted ED to her first-choice college, the book “Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money And Failing Our Kids and What We Can Do About It.” Anyone read this? Do we dare? Sounds like a book aimed at parents that should be read well before embarking on a college tour, never mind sending in a binding deposit. Is this worth a read or will we be completely disheartened? I really don’t know what our cousin was thinking, except perhaps that he wasn’t.</p>
<p>If you already have the book, it certainly won’t hurt to look through it. Colleges and universities, like most organizations do some things well and others less so. Knowing what to look for can help you avoid some of the pitfalls even at a school where you have already accepted. For example, one of the criticism is the “amenities arms race.” Schools are competing increasingly on the size of bathrooms, the variety of food, etc. But some of those “amenities” may also include free tutoring and other academic options that many students fail to access. I’m not endorsing the book per se, just the idea of going in with your eyes wide open and knowing how to get the most out of the system. </p>
<p>Good point, @storiestotell. I did sneak a peek and it took a scathing view of some “elite” colleges. </p>
<p>What would be the point. Since your child is in, let her talk to current students and revisit. She’ll see the school from a different perspective now that she’s in. There are so many books out there for and against liberal arts education, paying high dollar for scoops,etc. I’m assuming if she applied ED then you all are past all that. </p>
<p>Spend your time (and her time) finding out about the school from those that matter. Are they on CC? Go talk to current students and parents. </p>
<p>Full disclosure, you can tell by my name where I fall on this topic. But, everyone has to have their comfort zone. </p>
<p>I would return the book. If you really want to read it, borrow it from the library.</p>
<p>With the ED acceptance you are committed to a path that was already well thought out. I’d send in your deposit and return the book.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear this, Laurie. Well, you know what they say. Jealousy is the sincerest form of flattery.</p>
<p>Oh, no, we weren’t at all thinking of changing our minds! Our D is thrilled with her ED acceptance and so are we. I just find it a very, very odd choice–unless he just grabbed it at Barnes & Noble in the “Education” section without really looking at it. Relatives really are strange sometimes! (I’ll give the book back to him in 17 years, when his now-infant daughter is going through the process.)</p>
<p>Give it to him on his next birthday with a note “I liked this so much that I thought you might want it too.”</p>
<p>Very odd choice! I can see giving a college-bound student one of those “guides to surviving college life,” but not a book like that! I just got my D (at her request) a book called “Adulting” which is kind of the same schtick as she moves into grown-up live.</p>
<p>Did he know she was already accepted? Someone not going through the process may not realize just how early in the yr applications are due and decisions are coming in. I could see my brother thinking that would be a good gift for a high school senior b/c he would be thinking “college” but clueless about the entire process.</p>
<p>Hey, at least he didn’t give her a dead horse’s head or something.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is odd at all. I’m not familiar with this particular book, but I think it would be fair to assume that a bright, motivated student would be interested in a critical analysis of the system they are about to join. Many books with titles like, “How To Get The Most Out of Your College Education” contain critiques of the institutions they are promoting, advising kids, say, to view college as a time to broaden their intellectual horizons by taking difficult classes outside their fields as opposed to trade-school-with-football-games. Or whatever. No one would suggest a book like that would be inappropriate.</p>
<p>I guess what I am trying to say is that I see nothing odd or weird about giving an incoming college student a book that critiques and analyzes the system, and in fact I could see why someone would think it was appropriate.</p>
<p>I don’t know your cousin but I have the same vibe as you about this gift. Even so, I would take the high road and assume it was given with good intentions. I’ve read some of the book and it was not very enjoyable. Lots of anecdotes and also generalizations, and weirdly not convincing. Also pretty short on the “What we can do about it” from the title. One of the authors is a sociologist at Columbia, and I can tell you it reads like a lot of sociology class articles I read in college!</p>
<p>"I’m not familiar with this particular book, but I think it would be fair to assume that a bright, motivated student would be interested in a critical analysis of the system they are about to join. "</p>
<p>There’s a time and a place for everything, and I don’t think that this is the right time and place to give this kind of book. This is a poor analogy, but it would be as if someone’s loved one died, and instead of giving them a book on managing / coping with the grieving process, you gave them a book on the funeral or the hospice industry and how it sucks money out of grieving families. Just not the right moment. </p>
<p>Another analogy might be giving someone a book critiquing the “wedding industrial complex” as a wedding gift. Even if it was useful information, it would be kind of late to give it to them on the day of the wedding and it comes across as being vaguely critical.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that the gift itself is useless. There’s nothing wrong with reading it and seeing if there’s any useful information in it (although honestly you can find hundreds of articles complaining about college costs on the Internet for free; a book full of them probably doesn’t add much value unless it has some real meaty analysis that went beyond, “back in MY day, we didn’t HAVE Olympic swimming pools”-style whining). </p>
<p>Well, if you’re having any second thoughts, I dont feel that sending my son to a private college was a waste of time. He experienced life in a large city, got away from small town life and in the end, learned to appreciate both. He is a good student, on the deans list each semester, and has learned a vast amount of knowledge he wouldn’t get elsewhere in four years except college. He’s majoring in business, has had an internship for over a year, soon to graduate. The book your daughter received was an odd choice and sounds more like the relative wants you to know where he stands on the collge issue. Oh well.</p>
<p>IDK- maybe if he knew where she was going there is a comment section about the college?</p>
<p>I love all these comments! Thank you. My D has no intention of reading the book, at least not at this juncture. She sent her cousin a nice thank-you note and told him that she would wait awhile to crack open the book. She and her cousin are close and I don’t think he meant any harm–I’m going to chalk this choice up to lack of sleep as a result of life with a newborn baby!</p>
A college admissions counselor, Brennan Barnard, wrote a piece for the Washington Post last summer compiling summer reading recommendations for parents and students. Higher Education is on the list. Maybe your cousin did some research and came across the article. There are several books I’m now adding to my own reading list!