The main theme of the book is the true purpose of higher education. Deresiewicz focuses on elite education but he makes it clear he is referring to education for all students. After noting that so many people are concerned with the return on their “investment” in college, he poses some rhetorical questions about value:

You need to get a job, but you also need to get a life. What’s the return on investment of college? What’s the return on investment of having children, spending time with friends, listening to music, reading a book? (79).

His concern is that higher education does not turn into just another transactional entity, devoid of any but financial value. He answers his own questions when he writes, “What’s at stake, when we ask what college is for, is nothing less than our ability to remain fully human” (79).

The three chapters in Part 2 most extensively deal with this. The situation is made worse, Deresiewicz says, because colleges themselves no longer know what constitutes a good education. Throughout the book, he makes it clear that he believes the purpose of education is not to learn a skill, trade, or set of information. It comes as no surprise when he states that the main purpose is to learn how to think.