Students go to college in search of knowledge, a new lifestyle, and the hope of a job after graduation. For many young adults, college is a rite of passage into an independent, mature new lifestyle. Not only is higher education a rite of passage, for some, it is also an opportunity to have a better life. Overall, college is a wonderful part of many people’s lives, yet the way the college education system is conducted wastes students time and money. College is basically composed of two parts: general education classes and major specific classes. General education courses are the source of wasted time and money, and should not be required of students. A few of the problems associated with general education classes are that they are basically a repeat of high school, unfortunately they can be the demise of students, they are costly, and they waste time.
The transition from high school to college is supposed to be freeing and exciting for students, yet general education requirements make it the opposite. Jaime Wandschneider, writer for Iowa State Daily, says, “From the start of our first semester, general education classes fill the credit count towards our graduation. These courses are supposed to turn young, fresh college students into well-rounded adults”. General education classes do exactly what he says: they fill: they are fillers: somewhat educational and very pointless. Many of the first and second year courses feel like a repeat from high school. As a freshman, I am taking algebra, and I can attest completely that this class is absolutely pointless to me. Does it makes sense that a freshman in college would be taking the same math as a freshman in high school? No, absolutely not, but that is the case for me, and unfor...
... middle of paper ...
...eat of high school, potentially detrimental to a student’s study plan, and a waste of money and time.
Works Cited
Anderson, Nancy. “13 Ways College Students Waste Money and Opportunities.” Forbes. Forbes.com, 8 August 2013. Web. 24 March 2014.
Pracz, Alyssa. “General Education Courses are a Waste of Time and Money.” Northern Star. Northern Star Online, 13 April 2011. Web. 24 March 2014.
U.SDebtClock.org. Durst Organization, n.d. Web. 25 March 2014.
Wandschneider, Jaime. “General Education Requirements Waste Students' Time.” Iowa State Daily. Iowa State, 29 January 2014. Web. 24 March 2014.
Welt, Bill. “Gen Eds Waste Time and Money.” The Western Courier. Western Illinois University, 30 January 2013. Web. 24 March 2014.
Zavislak, Alyssa. “Are General Education Requirements a Waste?” The Cornellian. Cornell University, 10 October 2013. Web. 24 March 2014.
Bruni begins by describing the golden promise of college as it appeared for baby boomers. In that time getting into college and completing a degree was enough to be successful. He acknowledges that this idealized vision of college may be inaccurate, however, he asserts that the issue is far more “complicated” than it once was. Bruni makes use of a recent (2012) debate over student loan interest rates in the U.S. to explore the issues surrounding college education today. While rising student debt is certainly part of the problem he suggests that the issue extends beyond that. College is now a “luxury item with newly uncertain returns” (Bruni). While rising costs make college a luxury item that not everyone will be able to afford, even those who can and do manage to go to college are not guaranteed success.
Luigie Olmos Instructor: Danielle Panto English 105 November 28, 2016 Reaching For A Better Education Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (2016). Mandela’s says that education is very powerful, you can use education to change the world or your life. This means that education is important in life and we all need a good education to succeed in life. In our society education is failing because schools demand too much for a great career. For example, schools take too much time to graduate and after we finish school there is no guaranteed employment. Therefore, students are dropping out of school and are going to the workforce or military. We could make education better for students
The argument about if college is worth it or not has been one of the biggest arguments throughout the media for decades. Students suffer a lot from the debts that they get from college and also the amount of studying that they do in college and when they graduate they ask themselves “is graduation from college really worth all the money that we paid and all the work that we have done?”
Hart, Jeffrey. "How to Get a College Education." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 126 - 131.
Wonacott, Michael E., and Career, And Vocational Education, Columbus, OH. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult. Everyone Goes to College. Myths and Realities. N.p.: n.p., 2003. ERIC. Web. 21 Sept. 2015
Parsons, Btuce. “Budget Cuts Multiply Students Debts.” The Trail Blazer Online. 18 February 2004. Morehead State University. 18 February 2004. <www.trailblazeronline.net>
Bird, Caroline. "College is a Waste of Time and Money." The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Expository Prose. 9th ed. Ed. Linda H. Peterson et. al. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 481-490.
American’s education system has been entering crisis mode for a long time. Throughout the past few years, the overwhelming question “Is college needed or worth it?” While it is an opinion, there are facts that back up each answer. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” mentions that the enlightened must help the unenlightened and further their knowledge. The problem with America today is that high school students are given the option of college and that makes for less enlightened people. While it is possible to learn in the work force or Army, college is a better option. Mary Daly wrote the article “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” which talks about the statistical value of attending. Michelle Adam wrote the article “Is College Worth It?” which mentions the struggle young people are going through to even get into college. Caroline Bird wrote the chapter “Where College Fails Us” in her book The Case Against College where she
Pharinet. ""Is College for Everyone'"." Practical Argument: A Text and Anthology. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 635-636. Print.
General education classes are focused on expanding the intellectual horizon of students. Many of the classes for general education don’t have anything to do with specific career choices but are required regardless. While this seems to be nice and good on the surface, it has problems. If colleges only cared about letting students expand their horizons instead of helping people graduate in a timely manner, there would be many more “college surfers”. Those people go to college aimlessly in order to pass the time. They do not have a definite goal and are not able to get a degree in order to graduate and contribute as a member of society. This would mean that taxpayers are wasting millions of dollars for nothing. Although it is important to keep learning as you grow older, there also needs to be a bigger purpose to life than just class cruising. Also, as stated before, if college was for everyone to learn and grow and there wasn’t a focus on grades then the college degree would have no
First of all, many high school graduates cannot handle college. Isabel V. Sawhill and Stephanie Owen describe college as a place, “one can obtain a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree”. The work load outside of the classroom could be compared to working a full time job. For example, if a student is enrolled in four college courses and is in class a minimum of four hours the student should spend at least four to six hours of studying. This may be extremely agitating and stressful to a student that is not good at studying. The new college student may realize that the schoolwork is too much for him to handle and instead drop out. In Pharinet’s blog post, Is College for Everyone? He states that “…it is estimated that in the U.S., approximately 50% of students who begin college never graduate. There exist students who are not yet ready for the academic and financial challenges of college. There exist students who do not have the desire for college or learning.” This statement is important because if 50% of students that begin college never gradua...
Secondly, college is where a person goes to discover him/herself. This is one of the many goals of the college system, and that discovery process is hindered by unneeded, mandatory classes. Students should be able to try many different classes to discover what interests them the most, not to be fed knowledge that they very well might know already (and is perhaps of no interest to them). If required courses were eliminated, it would free up much time that students could then use to pursue their own interests. College exists to help people become unique individuals, not to put every person into the same standard mold.
In “College Is a Waste of Time and Money,” Caroline Bird, a college lecturer makes very good and valid points that college is wasting time and money. She describes how society has pushed students into getting higher education right out of high school. Leaving us with the question, are students getting a higher degree of education to better their future or to keep them busy and paying an institution.
In Caroline Bird’s “College is A Waste of Time and Money”, it’s argued that there are many college students who would be better off if they were to begin working after high school graduation. Colleges and universities can no longer ensure that one will go on to get a better job, getting paid more than they would have without a higher education. However, high school seniors still stress about where they will be attending college, how they’re going to pay for it and what they’re going to study for the next four years. Bird points out how college has changed over the past few decades and how, in turn, it has set many young adults up for disappointment, if nothing else.
Rumberger, Russell. “Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It” (Dec 19, 2012)