Mount Holyoke College is a small liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts. (Jim Gipe/Mount Holyoke).

High school seniors across the country are anxiously awaiting college acceptance or rejection letters. The experience can be excruciating, especially for those who are hoping to become the first in their family to go to college. But Lynn Pasquerella, president of Mount Holyoke College, wants to take the time this admissions season to think about those students who did not apply.

On Campus recently spoke with Pasquerella about how colleges recruit low-income students, and how their message might be all wrong.

Pasquerella recently authored a commentary about the true value of higher education.

Listen to Pasquerella's commentary here:  

As more families demand a return on their tuition investment, Richard Perez-Pena, higher education reporter at The New York Times, writes that colleges are becoming fluent in the language of business.

Graduate students are forming unions, or trying to, at a growing number of universities. The new vogue in college ratings compares them by graduates’ incomes, and publications are full of debate about the price and value of college. Bookstores carry shelves of volumes on wringing more aid from schools and maximizing return on investment.

We want to hear from you. How do you measure the real value of higher education?