The Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Howard Gardner is the author of 30 books, including A Synthesizing Mind, The App Generation, and Responsibility at Work. He is the recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, honorary degrees from 31 colleges and universities, and the Brock International Prize in Education.

A project director at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Wendy Fischman has written about development and learning for several scholarly and popular periodicals. She is the lead author of Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work, co-developed a classroom curriculum for teachers and students, and has consulted on school reforms.

In The Real World of College, Gardner and Fischman utilize more than 2,000 interviews with students, faculty, parents, alumni, and administrators from a variety of colleges and universities to examine why students consider learning secondary to their résumés, job prospects, and earning potential.