Luis Rodriguez

College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be: Bibliography

Andrew Delbanco writes the book College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be with the
purpose of stating what the goal of college should be- a model on how to live life after college.
Todays college experience is centered on the idealization of a job and economic gains. Colleges
are at risk of losing the ability to foster communities of risk takers, due to fear of not gaining the
high grades in order to gain admission to the most selective graduate schools. This takes away
from the goals of creating or counting our democratic society. Delbanco points out a few points
with no order of preference in terms of what a college should provide a student, as in ethical
responsibility, imagine life in others shoes, appreciation of nature, skepticism, ability to make
connections.
The overarching idea in the intro of the book and other reviews revolve around getting
the most out of college. There are ideas of how technological advances as far as they come, still
can not replicate the setting of a physical discussion around a table with present individuals. In
terms of the relation to Delbancos Scandals of Higher Education it relates as a response to
some of the ideas presented in other text as in what one should get out of college and the
accessibility to colleges to those of low income.
The texts genre is in the realm of education and based around on how college works and
the dangers these institutions face of losing what the original intention involved as in promoting
a democratic society.
This book offers some sources referenced by Delbancos introduction include Gladwell
(author), Kerr (author), Amber (author), McNealy (chairman), Bowen (commencement address),
Earnest (author), and Kamenetz (author). All these references on college phenomena are with
desire for improvement but are for the most part a commentary on the subject and not other
sources of academic substance.
Projects that can result from this book are problems with pressure of high grades that lead
people to take easier classes, difficulty paying for college. The concept of what college is even
for? The price of an education along with the importance of community colleges, not only elite
institutions towards the preservation and advancement of America. America losing the global
academic battle in math and science is also part of the problem that could be presented.