The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be

Wendy Fischman is a Project Director at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lead author of Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work. Howard Gardner is Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the author of A Synthesizing Mind: A Memoir from the Creator of Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT Press) and many other books.
 

Introduction ix
Part I What We Did, Why We Did It, and How We Did It
1 The "What" Question: A Campus Visit 3
2 The "Why" Question: Background and Context for Our Study 13
3 The "How" Question: Our Methods 39
Part II The Individual Learner 
4 Higher Education Capital: What College Should Achieve 73
5 Mental Models of the College Experience: Learnings, Earnings, and Yearnings 119
Part III The Campus Culture
6 A Pervasive Finding: Mental Health Issues 171
7 On Belonging and Alienation 201
Part IV What's to Be Done
8 Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: From Is to Ought 237
9 Feedback to Colleges 251
10 Messages to Various Constituencies 285
Epilogue: The Authors Reflect 321
Acknowledgments 337
Appendix A: List of Schools and School Features 343
Appendix B: Sample Questionnaire 347
Appendix C: Aligned Programs for the 21st Century 355
Notes 361
Box Sources 373
Index 375