Bright College Years: Inside the American Campus Today

It would be hard to avoid concluding from this impressionistic report that learning and the life of the mind are all but irrelevant these days to the big business known as higher education, especially among pre-laws and premeds, who are highly competitive but ""not very interested in ideas."" Matthews, who teaches journalism at New York University, spent four years compiling the data for her book, interviewing more than 400 people at campuses across the country. Her observations are perceptive, and she doesn't miss the financial ironies of universities such as Vanderbilt, where students' allowances are often greater than faculty salaries. Interesting facts and observations abound here. Although getting into the Ivy League is as difficult as ever, the author reports, ""95 percent of American colleges are not at all selective."" We also learn that one-fourth of all college students major in business, 85% of undergraduates live on campus only for their first year and ""nearly half of all American college students now qualify as binge drinkers."" The author's anecdotal account generally sounds on target except for the occasional sweeping generalization, e.g., that male alums donate to preserve their alma mater and females donate to change it. (Apr.)