For those who go to college because they don’t know what else to do or are pressured into it, 59 percent later say that college was a waste of money, a researcher at Harvard’s graduate school of education, Michael Horn, has found. University administrations are caught up in a costly “academic arms race,” Ms. Klein says, “to hire the biggest name in a particular field, without necessarily worrying about whether that’s going to mean a better education for the students.”

A four-year degree doesn’t necessarily train students to succeed in the real world — even though many expect it will increase their earning potential. “The ability to network, to lead, to work within a team, to find mentors — these are incredibly important and no one ever teaches students how to do it,” Ms. Klein says.

By no means should Americans do away with higher education, the author says. Neither should it pursue the tuition-free model of German universities, which contain outsized classrooms and struggle to produce high-quality research. A liberal arts education is essential in its teaching of writing and analytical skills and critical thinking.