Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
What makes the college experience so transformational? Is it the courses students take? The interpersonal conflicts students resolve? The financial and logistical hurdles graduates overcome?
Students this year are facing a litany of vexing challenges: Campus politics, like national politics, have sharply polarized. Financial aid is no longer enough. AI has been a remarkably disruptive — and quite possibly transformational — force. And admissions offices are still navigating the end of affirmative action, and the suspicions of the Trump administration that race is still a factor in determining who gets in at selective colleges.
In this special issue, our reporters explore how administrators, professors, and students are navigating these challenges. Read more: chronicle.com/package/students-issue-2025
What makes the college experience so transformational? Is it the courses students take? The interpersonal conflicts students resolve? The financial and logistical hurdles graduates overcome?
Students this year are facing a litany of vexing challenges: Campus politics, like national politics, have sharply polarized. Financial aid is no longer enough. AI has been a remarkably disruptive — and quite possibly transformational — force. And admissions offices are still navigating the end of affirmative action, and the suspicions of the Trump administration that race is still a factor in determining who gets in at selective colleges.
In this special issue, our reporters explore how administrators, professors, and students are navigating these challenges. Read more: chronicle.com/package/students-issue-2025
