There is no denying that over the years college education has been accepted without the slightest doubt. All high school graduates should go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more, become "better" citizens and be more responsible than those who don't go. But college can never work its magic for everyone. Now with half our high school graduates attending college, those unfit for the pattern are getting more. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other's experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the fierce competition for admission into graduate schools. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and consequently have to drop out, which is often encouraged by college administrators. Some observers say the fault lies with young people themselves --- they are spoiled and expecting too much. But that's a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn't explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame our society. Both are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can't absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either. Some campus watchers suggest that college may not be the best, the proper or the only place for every young person after finishing high school. It seems that through the rosy glow of our own college experiences, we may have been looking at those surveys and statistics upside down. Perhaps college does not make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, or quick to learn things--maybe _ . Intelligent, ambitious, happy, quick-learning people are merely those who are attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful even without college education. This is heresy to those who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more... More young people drop out of college because _ . A) they are no longer motivated in their studies B) they can start selling shoes and driving taxis C) they compete for admission to graduate schools D) college administrators encourage them to do so
A