Claims extracted
16
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
6%
1 of 16 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
96/100
The Free Press's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Right now, all across America, 2.7 million adolescents are abandoning their families to be raised instead by other adolescents.
asserted
adolescents → abandon → adolescents
We call this Lord of the Flies–like rite of passage “going off to college,” and parents believe it is one of the most exciting and happiest moments of their children’s lives.
asserted
it → call → lives
My wife and I certainly hoped so when, some years ago, we delivered our eldest child to a leafy quad in central New Jersey.
asserted
we → hop → Jersey
“You’ll have the time of your life,” I assured him.
asserted
I → have → him
Despite being an academic of long standing, I don’t have much firsthand knowledge of the freshman experience, having only ever taught graduate students over the past 30 years.
asserted
I → have → years
And neither my wife nor I had anything like a traditional college experience.
asserted
wife → have → experience
(I did my bachelor’s by distance learning in my late 20s, after taking a “gap decade”; my wife dropped out of high school at 16 to sing with a rock band.
asserted
wife → do → band
Still, all of our friends had regaled us with glowing accounts of their freshman experiences: the newfound freedom, the friendships that had lasted for decades, and the new adult identity they gained.
asserted
they → regale → decades
Testimonials aside, some data bear out these positive memories.
asserted
data → bear → memories
According to a survey of college grads by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in 2023, when asked if they would go to college again, 91 percent say they would.
uncertain
they → accord → college
And the older they get, the more graduates feel warm and fuzzy nostalgia for their college experience.
asserted
graduates → get → experience
At my own university, alumni weekends are joyful affairs at which people remember going off to school with unalloyed fondness.
asserted
people → remember → fondness
And yet, as a social scientist, I was—and am—confronted by other data showing that the actual experience for many, perhaps most, of today’s college enrollees is not consistent with those happy memories.
asserted
experience → confront → memories
A Healthy Minds Network study recently revealed that more than one-third of U.S. college students (37 percent) currently screen positive for moderate or severe depressive symptoms.
asserted
third → reveal → symptoms
Among Canadian first-year students, 27 percent have moderate to severe depressive symptoms when they enter university, rising to 33 percent by the following March.
asserted
they → have → March
Not surprisingly, many freshmen in the U.S. end up dropping out almost immediately: About 23 percent now do so in their first year.
asserted
percent → end → year
The Aporia
