<p>....create an educated citizenry
....provide vocational training
....be centers of research and development
....provide a 'rite of passage' experience for young adults
....be economic engines for the communities they are a part of
....be centers for the arts and culture (through museums, concerts etc.)
....provide 'athletic entertainment' (March Madness, football Bowl games etc.)</p>
<p>Any more?</p>
<p>Are there any other institutions in American society that are expected to do as much?</p>
<p>k-12 education is expected to do much more. In addition to all of the above, k-12 education is expected to nurture and mentor kids, feed them, provide them with basic needs, etc.</p>
<p>I like your thought-provoking list, skrlvr. Perhaps another item on it should be. " … help dissolve social barriers."</p>
<p>Many colleges–and the more “elite” institutions in particular–enable students from humble origins to interact with the progeny of the world’s wealthiest and/or most celebrated families. Many friendships, marriages, and career paths are forged at such institutions and bring together those of very diverse backgrounds.</p>
<p>Good one, Sally. I think about my own experience at an elite college and totally agree. We had the working class kid from a local suburb down the hall from the kid whose father sat on the board of a stock exchange.</p>
<p>In the past, when I’ve done college-admissions presentations at parents’ nights at high schools, etc., I always address this “What do you expect from college?” question. Some parents view college as largely vocational training. They may see little point in having a child go far from home … or even leave home at all … if job-specific preparation is available on a nearby campus. Other parents, of course, are all about the designer-label schools, hoping that a sheepskin from such places will allow their child to move up the socioeconomic ladder or to have doors open easily in whatever career field he or she pursues.</p>
<p>Others, still, seem to believe that the undergraduate years are a time for Junior to seek new interests–both academic and extracurricular–and to spend four years growing up until it’s time for the real education in grad school.</p>
<p>It can be hard to do such presentations when half of the room is in the prestige-seeking or even the rite-of-passage camp while the other is all about finding a clear-cut correlation between the degree and the job it should lead to.</p>
<p>Of course, there are lots of blurry lines. The parents don’t necessarily fall squarely under one rubric and not another. But, even so, I usually begin these events by devoting at least a few minutes to finding out what the audience members expect from college for their children.</p>