May is the month high-school seniors choose their college of choice.

Graduating from college has been seen as essential for financial success. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, full-time workers with bachelor degrees earn, on average, $20,000 more per year than those with high-school diplomas. This fact helps to explain why college remains a largely unquestioned advantage.

The average annual cost for a four-year institution is now more than $21,000. Yet, in a recent study chronicled in the book Academically Adrift, sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa show that students spend 40 hours a week socializing or hanging out with their peers and only 13 hours studying.

This is disturbing news considering that student debt has now passed the $1 trillion mark. Four million students, or nearly 15 percent of borrowers, are in default on their loans, according to the Wall Street Journal. Student loan debt is now larger than the American credit card debt. These facts have caused a growing number of people and experts to question the value of college.

Having studied the survey responses, transcript data, and standardized testing of 2,300 college students at 24 institutions, the two sociologists state, “They might graduate but they are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that is widely assumed college students should master.”

The two go on to say, “The U.S. higher education system has in recent years arguably been living off its reputation.” They contend that America’s academic system is broken. In many large lecture halls the attendance barely reaches just 55 percent.

This means that little is being learned on campuses.

Several questions need to be answered. If students are not learning much at college, why are Americans willing to pay such high tuition? And, why do parents strive to get their children into the best schools?

Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University and author of soon-to-be-released book The Case Against Education, explains that colleges are more about certifying their students than teaching them useful skills, according to the Wall Street Journal. He believes that the primary function of colleges is to provide “signals” of intelligence and competency, which is why they put students through a variety of mostly arbitrary and useless academic hoops. Caplan writes: “When a student excels in school, then employers correctly infer that he’s likely to be a good worker.” This implies that the value of a college education has little to do with learning and more to do with a college’s application process.

There exists a missing dimension in our modern education system. There is a true education which is a life-long process that prepares young men and women to be a lasting success in all areas of life. Read our inspiring booklet Education With Vision.