The Real Value of What Students Do in College

AP Photo/Jessica Hill

Today in the United States, more than a third of adults have a college degree, compared to fewer than five percent of adults at the time of World War II, representing a dramatic change in what people do when they reach adulthood.1 This year alone nearly two million people in the United States will earn their bachelor’s degrees.2 Our country’s success in promoting a college education would be something to celebrate, if not for one big, embarrassing blemish: those who are already privileged are the most likely to get to and through college, while the underprivileged do not.