Sweeping changes to how colleges select accreditors and access financial aid aim to cement the Trump administration's higher ed agenda.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon asked all university presidents and governing boards to address a series of questions and "describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research and national service."

For years, the college essay prompts have asked for a far too familiar story: a challenge you overcame, a person who shaped you, a belief you challenged and so on.

The liberal arts have never been about accumulating isolated bodies of knowledge. They have been about helping students recognize relationships among ideas.