Abstract
Evidence points to the importance undergraduate students attach to two "big questions"–"What should I do with my life?" and "What does 'higher' education have to do with my life?" Recent changes in American higher education, while individually desirable, have had the unintended cumulative effect of making it more difficult to deal with such questions. These and similar questions are not subjective issues appropriate only for "bull sessions" but require very high order cognitive capacities–post-formal reasoning or reflective judgment. The article ends with five specific suggestions about how such questions can best be addressed in colleges and universities. This paper is based on a presentation given at the 2008 Institute on College Student Values in Tallahassee, Florida.
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