ABSTRACT
In addition to the stresses associated with the risks of identity societies faced by all young people, those designated as the academic cream of the crop are now showing signs of serious adjustment problems to higher educational contexts. In spite of having the best opportunities for personal fulfillment in all of human history, the scientific evidence shows that the majority of students are floundering in terms of matching their inner potentials with the opportunities provided by colleges. At the same time, universities themselves are currently under strain trying to accommodate so many struggling students. The traditional functions of these schools are changing as a result, especially how students are sorted and weeded. Many students lose their way through this beleaguered system, never completing or taking much longer to earn a degree. Among those fortunate enough to make their way to graduation, only a minority evidences a flourishing of their personal and intellectual potentials from the opportunity in their subsequent careers. When we dig deeper into the reasons for this widespread floundering among students, we find multiple paradoxes that place them in numerous institutional cross-pressures and contradictory situations, including grade and credential inflation, and the disengagement compact.
