Do you wanna be a College Student?
Deciding whether to go to college is a question many adults of all ages ask themselves and if it is worth it? In “Are too many people going to college” by Charles Murray and “Colleges Prepare People for Life” by Freeman Hrabowski, the author’s discuss the opportunities in going or not going to college. Charles Murray is the W. H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He focuses on only a certain group of people should go to college: ones that are considered college ready referring to the research done by The College Board. Freeman Hrabowski was the president of the University of Maryland; also President Obama named him chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. His main belief is college should be available to everyone, because it better serves society to have more people educated. These essays will clarification why going to college will benefit people and how these authors feel college systems should be today. Both authors discuss the worth of college, but have distinctive ideas on who should go.
These essays are coming from different ideology views points. Hrabowski comes from the starting point of
He says, “For a society of immigrants such as ours, the core knowledge is our shared identify that makes us Americans together” (Murray 236) he is implied that we must have this to be functioning society. He criticizes the system of teaching being used now; that it should not be taught is a way that “forces children to memorize boring facts… The facts can be fascinating (if taught right)”. (Murray 236) Murray also uses college readiness as a factor of who should go, “10 percent of American 18-year-old would achieve if they all took the SAT, in an age when more than 30 percent of 18- year-old go to college.”( Murray
To go to college or not to go? Is the question many ask themselves before making a life changing decision. Anthony P. Carnevale “College Is Still Worth It” argues that people should go to college and not rely on faulty data on the worth of postsecondary education. Carnevale is a well-known authority on education and was appointed by President Clinton as Chairman of the National Commission on Employment Policy. While Richard Vedder respond to Carnevale with “For Many, College Isn’t worth it” and claims that college is worth for some people, but it’s not suited for all. Vedder is an economist, author, columnist, and now a distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University and senior fellow at The Independent Institute. Vedder is able to convince his audience on why college is not always worth it, unlike Carnevale, who was unable to convince his audience.
Throughout Murray’s article, he highlights many points about how education standards are slipping. For example, in his article, he says, “Saying “too many people are going to college” is not the same as saying that the average student does not need to know about history, science, and great works of art, music, and literature. They do need to know—and to know more than they are currently learning.” Murray is saying that many people are going for their liberal studies degree because they did not learn enough in grade school. Had they learned it previously, they would have no use for the degree. He also states, “K–8 are the right years to teach the core knowledge,
In recent years, many have debated whether or not a college education is a necessary requirement to succeed in the field of a persons’ choice and become an outstanding person in society. On one hand, some say college is very important because one must contribute to society. The essay Three Reasons College Still Matters by Andrew Delbanco shows three main reasons that students should receive their bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, many question the point of wasting millions of dollars on four years or maybe more to fight for highly competitive jobs that one might not get. Louis Menand wrote an article based on education titled Re-Imagining Liberal Education. This article challenges the main thought many americans have after receiving a secondary education. Louis Menand better illustrates the reasons why a student should rethink receiving a post secondary education better than Andrew Delbanco’s three reasons to continue a person’s education.
In the early 1600s, America was given the opportunity of higher education. As decades flew by universities grew and flourished to a point where it’s no longer a struggle to be admitted into a university, and it’s also more accessible to pay for, such as student loans, federal loans, scholarships and grants (Kirszner). Since attending university has become an essential to most high school graduates, universities have welcomed larger classes. A common argumentative debate when it comes to college is whether every American should attend. An example of someone who believes college is only for a handful of individuals is Charles Murray. Murray wrote, “What’s Wrong with Vocational School?” an article published in 2007 for the Wall Street
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?”
Murray’s view on college is more practical; if college education became wide spread, and less people went to vocational schools, there will be a significant change in the current job market, and a significant hit to taxes.
It should not be a surprise that many people believe that a college degree is a necessity in today’s world. We are taught to believe this at a young age. The average citizen will not question this statement due to how competitive the job market has become, yet does graduating college guarantee more success down the road? Peter Brooks is a scholar at Princeton University and publisher of an essay that questions the value of college. He obviously agrees that college can help securing a job for the future, but questions the humanities about the education. He uses other published works, the pursuit of freedom, and draws on universal arguments that pull in the reader to assume the rest of his essay has valid reasons.
College has long been a bastion of hope for those not fortunate enough to inherit a business or fortune from their predecessors, on the other side of the coin; it has also been the site of major controversy and debate, especially surrounding the ever-growing cost of attendance and the rewards that a degree realistically gives onto its holder. The debate is not a new one, but with the recent economic downturn, and the vast sums of new college graduates entering the world without the chance of finding a job, more fuel was added to the fire, and the debate began anew. In order to present new arguments on both sides, articles have been written and published in major newspapers like The Economist and The New York Times, with some varying data and conclusions. David Leonhardt, author of the article published in the NYT by the name of, “Is College Worth?
(Owen and Sawhill 208) After all, if our country’s leader is preaching about college being a good thing, it should reflect the views of a majority of people in this country. They then continue to try to make connections with the audience by emphasizing that this is a “we” problem and by recognizing that the decision to go off to college is not an easy one for everybody. These first words in the essay demonstrate a call to the ethos of President Obama and clear cut pathos to bring the authors down to the same level as their audience; However, the rest of the essay is absolutely dominated by
The author Charles Murray says there are too many people going to college without really saying it. The essay is written in a way that his audience will understand by the time they finish reading that he has many valid points. He Persuades his readers with facts and counters arguments to false stereotypes involving college and success. By questioning whether college is for everyone makes "you" the reader want to rethink if your time spent in college was really worth it in the end.
Society tells almost every high schooler that they need to go to college in order to be successful, but that is not necessarily true. Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill question whether attending college is essential to being successful in their article, “Should Everyone Go to College?”. Owen and Sawhill discuss how even though college may be very helpful for many people, for some the benefits of a college education do not outweigh the costs. In discussing this, they compare statistics on the costs of college and general student success. Overall, this article does a very good job showing ethical appeals with statistics and showing logic with factual evidence, but only does an average job appealing to emotion.
When it comes to the topic of college, Martin Espada, the author of "Why I Went to College," argues that college is a must and that if you do not attend college there will be consequences. In comparison, David Leonhardt, author of "Is College Worth it? Clearly New Data Say," also argues that college is very important to get a higher paying job than those who do not attend college. In contrast, Leonhardt also argues that college may not be the best idea considering the substantial amount of debt provided with college. My own view is more with David Leonhardt because I understand both sides of attending or not attending college with the positives and the negatives of the dilemma. This discussion is important in our society today because we constantly push the idea of college on to kids that may not even be ready for college or the fact that the debt may not be worth it; also the rise in the wage gap between college students and non-college students.
“Why should one go to college? One important answer to this question is more opportunity. As opposed to generations of the past, high school graduates today are unable to obtain the number of high-paying jobs that were once available. The U.S. has been transformed from a manufacturing-based economy to an economy based on knowledge, and the importance of a college education today can be compared to that of a high school education forty years ago. It serves as the gateway to better options and more opportunity”(College View). After high school, it is the standard for students to become matriculated. With most people under the impression that college is the only way to achieve a higher education people find themselves discouraged from taking the
It seems that the ultimate function of a high school student is to get their diploma and then go straight into the workforce. The mindset behind this has people questioning “Is a College worth it?”In today’s society a college education is vital to live a sustainable life in America. Many people would subject to that statement, but yet they’re stuck at a low paying job living from paycheck to paycheck struggling to support their family. Although most people have argued that a college education is meaningless but with closer examination shows that a college education is the key to opening the door to success.
When I began my senior year, the number one thing which people asked me was where I was going to college. Whether they actually knew me or not, that would be the first thing they asked once they found out I was in the final stretch of my high school career. Now, I obviously had a pre-planned answer for them, since I had answered the question so many times, but I always found it to be peculiar that people didn’t actually care at all about what I was going to do with my life; they just wanted to know where I was going to get my expensive piece of paper from.