College students seem to worry too much about their futures and how financially sound they want to be when they graduated from college. Therefore, this unnecessary worry has hindered many students from channeling their positive energy into something they love to do. They think they need to have it all figured out now. Thus, they forget to take creative classes that will aid in open-mindedness. William Zinsser, the author of “College Pressures”, speaks about the four types of pressures on college students. These pressures are economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is however common to see some of these pressures affect college students. I believe that some college students if not all can relate to all of the aforementioned pressures. …show more content…
I realize that I have been so worked-up about maintaining great academic standards in college that have hindered me from participating in social activities in college. Before I started college, I established some academic norms for myself. One of these norms is to attain “A’s in all my classes. Up till now, these norms constantly run through my mind. I found myself so self-indulge in my academic performance that I constantly check my performances in all my classes. Whenever any of my grades falls below 90-percentile, apprehension will set in. Furthermore, I will become perplexed, and I will start envisaging possible solutions to assuage my grade. Sometimes ago, I thought about signing myself up for extracurricular activities such as school clubs and organizations, choir, band, and so on. Unfortunately, I have not been able to join these programs due to self-induced pressure. Therefore, I can relate to the self-induced pressure mentioned by William Zinsser. The intriguing part of this pressure is that it is self-consuming. In addition, many students do not realize the magnitude of the pressure they put on
Zinsser, William. “College Pressure.” The Norton Reader. 13th ed. Ed. Linda H. Peterson. New York: Norton, 2013. 380-388. Print
In the novel, What the Best College Students Do written by Ken Bain, we learn about how college student goes through rough times in their college life. The author brings up a common issue that occurs in the academic life of college students. It is the need of having self confidence and self esteem. Bain believes that if a student loves and admires themselves it will give the student a better advantage of having a well-being lifestyle than all their other peers that are having difficulties. Many college students focus mainly on their grades other than the knowledges that they are learning in class. The idea of having perfect grades in all the subjects are limiting the students from approaching activities that they might be interested.
The multiple choices students have today in college have made the university a party environment, resulting in complacent students. Mark Edmundson raises important questions and makes valid points in this essay that are worth thinking about. If people don’t take a look at our present college system and start thinking outside the box, the college education system will continue on its downward spiral of consumerism. It is fun to graduate high school and go to college to party and to have a comedic professor, but there is so much more to college then having fun. People need to realize that by challenging student, students can then start to recognize their own potential end become better for it. Learning and utilizing the information that is being taught in college is essential. “Everyone is born with their own mind, all that is left to do is break out of the stereotypical college student mold, and use
Going through college should not be as easy as going through a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant. Young adults should be interactive and critically thinking throughout their education, not disinterested of it. Author Simon Benlow, in his essay “Have It Your Way: Consumerism Invades Education,” believes that students are turning to consumerist ways, not thanks to the college’s culture (139). Since my return to community college, there has been a trend with the younger adults: Not caring.
While college times today are faced with more and more peer-pressure there are ways on getting through this. Everyday college students are pressured to either not go to class or leave work till the last minute for a little bit of fun. Surrounding yourself with positive people who share similar values helps a lot in overcoming this. I...
In Jennie Capo Crucet 's essay, “Taking My Parents To College,” Crucet describes her own experience as a freshman college student who was faced with many challenges that were unknown to her, as well as the cluelessness of what the beginning of her freshman year would look like. I felt like the biggest impression Crucet left on me while I was reading her essay, was the fact that I can relate to her idea of the unknown of college life. Throughout her essay, she described her personal experiences, and the factors one might face as a freshman college student which involved the unknown and/or uncertainty of what this new chapter would bring starting freshman year of college. Crucet’s essay relates to what most of us
As the economy evolves and the job market continues to get more competitive, it’s becoming harder to have a successful career without some kind of college degree. This creates a belief in many young students that college actually is a commodity, something they must have in order to have a good life. There’s many different factors that influence this mindset, high schools must push the importance of the student’s willingness and drive to further their education. College isn’t just a gateway to jobs, but it is an opportunity to increase knowledge and stretch and challenge the student which in return makes them a more rounded adult and provides them with skills they might lack prior to
The “push to be perfect” (Thomas) is at an all-time high. Pressure for perfection from peers, parents, teachers and coaches is so unreasonably high that many students don’t think that they will ever be able to achieve it. A student feels that it is impossible to get good grades, be athletic, in multiple organizations, and most of all appear to be happy. Students have turned to cheating, drug/ alcohol abuse, and even suicide to try and cope. They are competing with friends for top spots, and believe that if they don’t beat them, they are a failure. Not only other students, but parents play a big roll, too. Their own parents and the parents of their peers will compare kids. New Trier High School’s Jim Conroy said that the biggest problem about pressure comes from the parents who compare (Robbins). With all...
Numerous college students today feel as if they are not adequate enough. So much is put on their plate, and above it all, in order to maintain moving forward academically towards a career, they must showcase themselves. This idea is explored in “College Pressures” by William Zinsser. He discusses why students are driven to try so vigorously in order to earn a step ahead, yet the reasoning is arguable.
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
For many college students, the only time the relation between learning and wisdom becomes evident is when an exam is placed before him or her, and the nature of the college experience abruptly changes from passive learning to the conveyance of that learning, under the constraints of time, pressure, and the endurance of the muscles in the hand. There is, however, an alternative to passive learning, one that many students shy away from out of fear of embarrassment or scorn, and, to be truthful, out of sloth. These students attend college without purpose, without direction, and with only a vague notion of what they truly possess a passion for. They attend class and that is all. When the class proceeds, they do not speak, they do not question, they simply exist, as stones do, and listen in rock-like silence. And they learn. In the most painful, difficult way possible, they learn.
Imagine having the pressure of your parents to succeed in something you are not interested in. It must be difficult to succeed in something you don’t like. When Zinsser writes, “Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They’re paying all this money and…” (453), the reader can agree that parental pressure still affects the students today. Many students are pressured by their own parents so succeed they follow a path where they find themselves tangled in guilt and stress. Guilt for not succeeding in what their parents want and paid for, and stress for being overwhelmed over passing classes, trying to keep a high GPA, and passing classes with nothing other than A’s. When Zinsser states, “Poor Students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt” (453), the reader can sympathize with Zinsser because as a son/daughter they want to make their parents proud and as a parent they want the best for their
Education is a lifelong endeavor, but it’s during our formative school years where we learn our most important lessons. These lessons, while learned when young, stay with us for the rest of our lives. As college students, we can call on these lessons to help us when adversity presents itself. Being prepared can be the difference between failing or passing a final exam. Learning to question authority could someday lead us to challenge something we know is incorrect. Learning from our failures and understanding our shortcomings, is crucial to our success as college students. Consequently, we can apply these lessons to other areas of our lives, after all, life will never stop overwhelming us.
Being in college, writers and directors make it seem so marvelous in the movies. With everybody singing and dancing, having a blast with their friends, going out every night, and living a stress free life. When in reality, it is like stepping onto a battlefield. You have to fight hard if you want to come back home safe and sound. When in college, students who believe they are smart and prepared survive. The students who are careless will fail, and some will merely cross the finish line missing a limb or two. It is important to know what category of students you fall into; your future depends on it. One way to classify college students is through their attitude towards school.
Living up to my resolution, I joined several clubs, both in and out of school and academic and recreational. I also met some of my very best friends in high school. Achieving all of this, friends, memberships to academic clubs and good grades, made up my first successful experience in high school. I was driven by the years in middle school and the promise that I made to myself at the end of eighth grade. Throughout my under classmen years I exceled in all subjects and thoroughly enjoyed the clubs I had joined. I think my downfall for the last two years of school was that I took for granted my good grades and as my classes got more rigorous I didn’t change the way I learned the material, but continued on the same path that I had been following my entire academic career, even when my grades were slipping slightly. Halfway through my senior year, I realized I needed to change the way I was learning the curriculum my instructors were teaching. I’ve always been the type of student to take good notes or listen to a lecture and understand everything the first time around, as was the case in elementary school and middle school. But my more rigorous classes proved to be a challenge for me and I did not know the proper way of learning the material on my own. I started by asking more questions in class and then going to my friends for help on subjects I didn’t understand. After many questions and after school tutor