College Pressures William Zinsser Summary

College is a scary and stressful undertaking. In William Zinsser’s writing “College Pressures” he talks about just that. Throughout this piece his observations and first hand encounters focus upon certain pressures that range from economically induced to self-induced. Mr. Zinsser shares his knowledge of these pressures by telling two stories about students who were affected personally. He also shares how he believes a majority of students take certain courses just to please their parents. The students have to choose between what their parents want for them, or what the truly want to study. Even though some of the students want to pursue their dream, the pressures that Zinsser talks about sometimes holds them back.

In his piece, Zinsser starts

He lives on campus in the Gothic Quadrangle and has gotten to know the students who attend there well. Because of his interaction with the students and being around them quite often, this builds his credibility, or in other terms ethos. Zinsser tells about how the students he talked about in the first part of his writing went to their dean for immediate help, he gets asked by students with a more long term approach. You could assume by what Zinsser writes about, the students who come to him for advice are asking questions about their future and what career path they should embark

Peer pressure is the third thing that Zinsser talks about. He says that peer pressure and self-induced pressure are closely linked, and usually found within freshman year. He believes that when one student sees another student working harder than they are and becoming more successful, the one student will try to work just as hard or more so. Part of the problem he explains is that the students are doing way more than they were even expected to do. They are going above and beyond the original assignment.

In the end, Zinsser says it is the students who have to decide if they are going to live out their parents dreams or make their own future. While trying to decide on this, Zinsser claims the students don’t have as much time for extracurricular activities. It goes along with the self-induced pressure because the students are constantly wanting to get ahead with whatever courses they are in. In the past students might have gone to school and had many different activities planned out. However, with the constant urge to be better and succeed, these activities have been and are getting cut