American universities, we are often told, are the best in the world. Rankings of schools worldwide done by organizations in both China and Great Britain consistently are dominated by U.S. institutions. More than half of the top 100 schools (and eight of the top 10) in the Shanghai rankings, for example, are American schools. A huge portion of Nobel Prize award winners are individuals with close associations with American universities. Foreign students flock to America to derive the benefits of U.S. institutions of higher education. College graduates, on average, command significant pay premiums over those with lesser education. On the surface, it seems like we have a great high education system that works beautifully. But below the surface, there are a large number of flaws in the system. In this paper, the author addresses what can be called the "12 inconvenient truths about American higher education." These truths are: (1) High Costs; (2) Not Engine for Growth; (3) College Degrees Don't Guarantee Success; (4) College Students Work and Learn Little, Party Hard; (5) Undergraduate Students Are Often Neglected; (6) Most Students Do Not Graduate On Time; (7) Colleges Hide Vital Information from Consumers; (8) Freedom of Expression Is Curtailed; (9) Colleges Are Not a Force for Income Equality; (10) Colleges Are Run to Benefit Staff, Not Students; (11) Federal Student Financial Aid Doesn't Work; and (12) Intercollegiate Athletics Is Costly and Corrupt. (Contains 2 tables, 5 figures, and 14 notes.)