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Lowering the cost of tuition
Lowering the cost of tuition
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College was once seen as the only way to better your life, and immensely increase your income. But now that is all the past. Caroline Bird states in her narrative “College Is a Waste of Time and Money” that “A great majority of our nine million college students are not in school because they want to be or because they want to learn” (Pg. 373). Sadly the author has a good point, and goes into detail what makes college, so obsolete in our day and time. In particular Caroline Bird mentions that students nowadays see college as something sad and depressing. She then goes on saying that most kids go to college to please their parents, or a way to get away from intolerable home situations. Today I will be talking about why I think is a waste of time and money, and will be elaborating on questions like, is college even worth it, and is it becoming obsolete.
To begin with college used to be known as a sacred place where knowledge was sought out and pursued. Now it has become the norm. Therefore one may think, what’s wrong college becoming the norm? Isn’t that a good thing? However, what most people are blind being that the quality of education has changed dramatically. Author Caroline bird mentions in her narrative
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If anything I want my readers to take one thing from my essay, and that is know what you want to do before you attend college. It will save you a lot of money and time in the long run. In conclusion I think college is a waste of time and money if you don't know what you want from it exactly. I also think that college is worth it only if you know how to use it in your favor. And last but not least I think college is becoming obsolete, however don't let that stop you from reaching your dreams and ambitions. At the end of the day knowledge is a precious gift and college can give you that if your willing to play your role and not take that gift for
Many people find the higher education a child receives, the higher the amount of money he or she will earn. Others find it is a waste of time and money to go to college after high school because of all the loans they would have to make up for after college. Many people have different point of views regards to the importance of college. In the articles Is College Worth It? and Why College Isn’t for Everyone, Leonhardt and Matthews have different opinions on the importance of college. Leonhardt argues that college is worth it because one who earns a college degree will be financially stable in the end, while Matthews believes that college isn’t for everyone because of the high-cost teenagers and adults will encounter when it comes to tuitions and fees.
As David Leonhardt states in his article, It College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say, “ When experts and journalists spend so much time talking about the limitations of education, they almost certainly are discouraging some teenagers from going to college...”. In spite this argument, I believe the purpose of college is to prepare me for a good, well- paying job when I graduate. Since I came from a family background in which girls are always on the bottom and can’t get out of the tradition in boys zone.
Society instills today's youth with that without a college education they will not be successful. But then again what defines success? Success is a wide-ranging term that has different meanings to different people. Some people believe that making money defines success, while others believe that success is having a loving family. Still, society seems to demonstrate and even promote that success is portrayed by making money. The general public states that in order to be a successful person one must make a heavy salary out of college. The problem with this philosophy is that some people are not meant for college. In Bird's article, she writes that college is not been effective for everyone. Half of all high school graduates attend college and the pattern of dropouts is becoming more and more obvious showing that some students don't fit the mold (305).
In previous times it has been thought, by some, that with a college degree a person could have any job and would be very successful. In Colonial America, colleges were mainly founded by the wealthy. The goal of college at this time was to “produce Christian gentlemen who would inherit their family business” (Thelin). After a “college boom” so many state colleges were built and some became co-ed, adding “special” courses for women. The goal of college attendance still was not completion of a bachelor’s degree. College during this time was mainly primary learning so students could eventually move onto college-level higher learning. “Students sometimes took two years of courses in order to earn an LI (license of instruction) certificate to teach public school” (Geiger). Recently there has been debate over whether or not a college degree is really worth it anymore. Some people think getting an education isn’t worth the money. It can be argued that with a college degree you can get a better job. Going to college, seems to be the obvious next step for many high schoolers. Getting a college degree and education is worth it. Students will come to find that the benefits of having a degree outweigh the negatives. College helps prepare students for the future and exposes them to life experiences.
When debating higher education, it could be considered rare to find someone who feels college, here in the United States, is being perceived and applied in the absolute most beneficial way it can be. Generally, many people feel there is at least one thing, and probably many more, that they would change about the way college is either functioning or being perceived by parents, students, or educators. In a climate where so many people feel change needs to come, many opinions on what needs to change and how and why these changes should take place have the opportunity to surface. The two articles to be mentioned in this, one written by Charles Murray and the other by Gerald Graff, tell seemingly opposite approaches, in the specifics, to bettering
Many individuals went to college, not for the education, but to continue a tradition set forth by generations of family members. They did not take college seriously, for it was simply the next step, in order to follow through along the path that their family members had paved.
Charles Murray was able to pose and answer the question about whether or not too many people are going to college. In his essay,"Are Too Many People Going to College," he argues that most students should not be going to college to attain a bachelor 's degree when their skills and interests lie elsewhere (240). Murray 's argument on this topic is felt strongly by him, he believes that going to college is helpful for those who have the academic ability to absorb a college-level education, it is the appropriate thing to push a student in that direction since they are likely to gain wisdom (238). On the other hand, there are students in America that learn their core knowledge from kindergarten through eighth grade and are set for their future.
My opinion on this essay is that it is very well written and informative. The essay provides me the pros and cons of college that I didn't realize when I began my education. The essay did what it was meant to do which was help me and many other students think carefully about our future and what's really best for us. I guess you can say the essay did its job because it made me think about what if my decision to go to college wasn't the best for me, maybe I was meant to do something else.
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
I once wrote in one of my papers that one of the keys to the American dream is College. College provides many benefits and opportunities for us. Everyone has a different meaning for the American Dream. To me the American Dream is having the opportunity for success and prosperity. If you want success than I believe that you have to go to college in order to accomplish it. I read two essays that were both about college. One of these essay is asking us if college is still worth the price of admission today. The other one give us reason why the author thinks that the American college experience is still alive in community colleges today. The article “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus tells us how to fix what wrong they think is with colleges. In “Two Years Are Better Than Four” by Liz Addison, the article told us how the
In the article "College is a Waste of Time and Money", Caroline Bird explains why higher education may not be the best choice for high school graduates. Bird writes that students do not attend college because they want to, but because of what others expect. College is merely the trend in today's society. It is an escape from the real world. Students may be shuffled into a system that is neither financially nor academically beneficial.
...order to get better jobs and earn more money, to get to the good life, yet influenced by what colleges want them to learn and what employers want them to know: these all may or may not be the same thing. What employers want out of college graduates is also based on money: who can do the job the fastest and best, who can save or make money for the business. What is clear is that the university or college which is purely a "meeting of the minds," a place for people to gather and learn for the sake of learning, seems to be becoming a thing of the past. It is being replaced by an increasingly commercialized system of higher education: one that costs more and more each year--with the cost rising much faster than the rate of household incomes, and one that is being altered by the needs of an increasingly diverse student population and the needs of the business world.
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.
A college degree is one of the ways for upward mobility in American society. Nonetheless, “students are denied the opportunity to engage with the principal ideas and events that are the source of any civilization” (Wingspread Group on Higher Education, 1993, p. 18). The Wingspread Group on Higher Education was a think-tank board of 16 individuals, mostly educators, and government officials, business executives, and authors created in 1993 to examine what the nation needed from colleges and universities. The Wingspread Group on Higher Education (1993) maintained that the original purpose of a college education had been pushed to the margins.