What College CAN Do

It can't fix "modernity," it can't give you a soul. But (I say) it can make you more spiritual and soulful (depending on what you mean by that, of course; I mean more alive, more sensitive to the natural conditions and possibilities and preciousness of life) and it can make you smarter about things you never would have considered. That goes for the Ivy League, for Tiny Liberal Arts College, and for Enormous State University alike.

But it's true: you've got to do the reading.

"Part of the value of a humanistic education has to do with a consciousness of, and a familiarity with, the limits that you’ll spend the rest of your life talking about and pushing against. So it’s probably natural for college students to be a little ironic, a little unsettled. It’s time, meanwhile, to admit that the college years aren’t for figuring out some improvised “sense of purpose.” They’re more like a period of acclimatization—a time when realizations can dawn. If you’re feeling uneasy about life, then you’re doing the reading."

What College Can’t Do - The New Yorker