“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6.

For more than 17 years, I’ve served as a department chair and professor at a range of colleges and universities up and down the East Coast. In that time, one trend has remained heartbreakingly consistent: students arriving on campus with ambition—but little direction. They’re often unclear about what college is for, what their majors actually lead to, or what career paths lie ahead. They’re not unmotivated. They’re just lost.

That’s not a college problem. That’s a guidance problem. 

Much of the national debate on higher education has focused on affordability, relevance, and outcomes. But blaming universities for the underperformance or disillusionment of incoming students is like faulting a physician for not treating an illness you never disclosed. The symptoms are real—but misdiagnosed.

Data from the Educational Data Initiative and the National Center for Education Statistics confirms the crisis: 23.3% of first-time, full-time freshmen drop out within their first year, and roughly one-third of students change their major before earning a degree. Even more concerning, 10% change their major more than once in the first 12 months.

Behind these numbers lies a deeper issue: students are being told to go to college, but not taught how to understand or navigate it.

According to a Gallup survey, 86% of high school students say they feel pressured to pursue higher education. Yet only 5% use private educational consultants to help chart that course. Most students are flying blind—encouraged to take off, but without any training in how to land.

My years in academia back this up. I’ve worked with students from small towns and big cities, from community colleges to mid-tier universities. For many of them, college was a leap into the unknown, driven more by societal expectation than informed choice. They borrowed money, changed majors repeatedly, and in some cases, dropped out entirely—feeling like failures in a system that never really helped them understand what success looked like.

The story is different at the top.

At Harvard, about a quarter of incoming freshmen used private counselors, according to TIME Magazine. Among students from families earning over $500,000 a year, nearly one in two had hired professional advisors to help them prepare. The upper class, it seems, already knows that guidance matters—and pays for it.

What if the middle class had access to the same resources?

Research from the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford suggests that students who receive college coaching are 15% more likely to remain enrolled after one year. Meanwhile, a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that low-income female students at a Texas community college tripled their graduation rates when given personalized mentoring.

That’s not just an academic boost. It’s an economic one. Imagine what we might save on student loan defaults, deferments, and calls for forgiveness if more students were placed in institutions—and majors—that truly fit them.

It’s time for a national conversation about funding personalized guidance—not just for those who can afford it, but for everyone. Congress could help launch a new generation of students who aren’t just attending college, but thriving in it.

If we want better outcomes from higher education, we need to start earlier—and guide smarter.