In the essay, “Are Colleges worth the Price of Admission?” Andrew Hacker, professor at Queens College, and Claudia Dreifus, professor at Columbia University, discuss the rising price of college admission, while the quality of the education declines. They propose several ways to make the price of college worth what students get out of it. Their first proposition is having professors be more accessible to students (180). They urge the universities to better praise the professors and spend university money wisely-using it to keep the original goal of educating students (183). Hacker and Dreifus urge universities to make professors more accessible to students. They believe that schools need to mandate worthy teachers that are attentive to all students in their classroom. This being said, the authors also believe that professors should be helping students use their graduate years to find what they really want to do, rather than go straight into vocational majors only thinking about the payoff they will receive from it. They advocate the idea that students “should become more thoughtful and interesting people.” (180). This connects back to the authors point, that for the price of college, professors should better attend to the students.
Another proposal the authors make is for universities to improve on the way they distribute the funds they have. The authors suggest a better way of distributing money among professors. Not only a better distribution of money, the authors also suggest replacing tenure with multiyear contracts that would encourage and motivate teachers to provide an education that is worth the price of tuition for students (183).
In sum, Hacker and Dreifus believe that providing students with an education that is worth the price could be done by having professors become involved with students and by issuing funds to motivate better teaching.
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