I'm a big fan of Claudia Dreifus--she is a wonderful and insightful writer. And I'm glad to have read this book, which is a well-researched and sobering examination of the state of higher education in the U.S. today. Dreifus and her co-author Andrew Hacker have asked whether the cost to attend college has exceeded its value, not only in terms of economic payback, but also in terms of teaching a given student anything at all.

Their research into the ways that Academia has protected its own interests, at a terrible cost to students, reminded me starkly of the health care crisis, another system that has run amuck and has become prohibitively expensive for almost all of us. This book drives home the ways that any self-policing, self-governing group of "experts," however much it wants to make good choices, will end up making self-serving choices instead.

I'm a little dismayed at the level of polemics--it seems that no one anywhere is getting a good education--but I really feel the basic arguments are sound and the book is well worth your time to read, especially if you are about to apply to college, or to send your child to one. ( )

This is a good book to read selectively. While Hacker makes some strong points -- especially about big time college sports -- he jumps around and does not substantiate many of his points fully. ( )

Assumes retention is pushed on behalf of the colleges -for income- and not for students. ( )