The study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, is the first study to test graduating students on different types of literacy that are necessary for success in everyday life.
Graduates' skills were measured on simple tasks including the ability to analyze news op-ed pieces, read data off a table and graph and use basic math skills to balance a checkbook and tip at a restaurant.
Significant numbers of college students performed poorly on the test no matter what their major or field of study was. Mathematics was the area in which students performing the tasks had the most trouble.
As a liberal arts institution, Dartmouth prides itself on providing a well-rounded education to help prepare students for a diversity of life experiences.
"The essential question is not whether Dartmouth provides you with practical skills for the real world," Kristin Li '08 said. "Practical skills are not why we come to Dartmouth. We come here for a liberal arts education and to acquire skills to understand the world."
While this study may prove that students with a college degree are better prepared to think abstractly about complex issues, it shows that college doesn't prepare young adults to apply those abstract concepts to everyday situations.
Margot Metzler '05, currently employed by a Boston consulting firm, notes that success in the real world is less dependent on a college degree and more dependent on experience.
"I don't think Dartmouth prepares you; life prepares you," Metzler said. "But Dartmouth is a part of life."
Joseph Zenruffinen '06 adds that while Dartmouth may not prepare students with practical life skills, it does enable students to attain skills that seem important to many employers of today.
"Dartmouth teaches you how to think and how to write," Zenruffinen said. "In a sense, Dartmouth does prepare you for real life, and by real life, I mean a real job."
The increasing specialization of jobs in the modern world calls the study's disturbing ramifications into question. When asked to comment on the failure of college graduates to successfully balance their checkbooks, Chris Leach '06 said, "I just let Citizens Bank balance my checkbook for me."
To many college students, it may seem pointless to insist that they acquire practical skills which, to many, have become outdated. In today's world, the 15-percent tip is already calculated into the bill and banks post all transactions online.
And some Dartmouth graduates, such as Rajiv Menjoge '05, who is now a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, question whether a liberal arts education provides students for enough specialization to excel in graduate programs.
"Dartmouth prepared me less for academia and more for I-banking," Menjoge said.
