Category: Should Everyone Go To College

Introduction

Is college what it once was? Are college students genuinely happy because they are attending college? Does a higher education mean a bigger salary for everyone? Many might argue, therefore, that this is not technically true. One person who has witnessed, heard, and surveyed college students, professors, and administrators is the person of a woman named Caroline Bird. A traveling lecturer, as well as an author of a book entitled “The Case Against College” (1975), as well as a reading piece entitled “College Is a Waste of Time and Money” (2017), has attended many college campuses to lecture, as well as survey the administration and its colleges professors. Caroline Bird, author of “College Is a Waste of Time and Money” (2017), not only tries to persuade people into believing that college is a waste of time, hard-earned money, and even potential but also focuses on hard facts why one might perceive college as being worthless in all aspects. A deeper look into the reading by Bird analyzes, compares, and concludes reasons and hard cold data of what once was a good reason to go to college and finish what it has now become.

Shifting Perspectives on College: From Promise to Doubt

The beginning of this short reading, “College Is a Waste of Time and Money” by Bird, directly informs everyone of what was once her outlook on college, what college meant for people, and how it has changed. Bird states in paragraph 3., “The Premise-which I no longer accept-that college is the best place for all high-school graduates.” This statement shows where her opinion resides on this matter. Bird has followed this statement with factual information on what was going on in the educational system and how people felt about education during the 50s,60’s, 70’s, and so on. When looking at the numbers, it is shown that the number of those enrolled is far less than it was years ago.

Quote, “The rate of growth of the student population has begun to decline. Bird also stated on p.6., “Many institutions have begun to use Madison-Avenue techniques or to “hard sell” to attract students. This is informing people with facts because it is a fact that is believable. Everyone knows that universities promise and or guarantee that your money won’t be wasted because they offer many unique and great programs, which is just another scheme to get more students to enroll. One might argue that this isn’t entirely true, but when asking potential students or current students, one might agree with this statement because of one’s own experience. Students are going to college for all the wrong reasons.

The Uncertainty of Job Prospects and Industry Oversaturation

As Bird states on p.12, “So we temporarily get them out of the way by sending them to college where, in fact, only a few belong.” This implies that many students, including their own parents, quote, “don’t exactly know what they must do besides send the students to college even though one might not want to be there.” Very rarely, and very few kids, attend college for the right reasons. Many kids are there because they are free and are also free to socialize. Since when was a college goal to just get kids to make friends? Never. That’s why it’s just a waste of time.

When comparing future income to that of what a graduate would earn yearly after ten years to that of any normal person not attending college, saving money as an investment, both would be living an okay lifestyle. Par.26 has stated that (by a respected financial advisor) “A college education is among the very best investments you can make in your life.” Then, Bird mentions that it isn’t that “rosy,” implying that it’s not entirely true. This is certainly not true; that’s why Bird uses this analogy and compares it logically to someone who saves money every year and compares it to a graduate’s income. Par. 30 also mentions that there is no real evidence that a graduate’s high income is because of successfully completing a college degree. The biggest problem that college students face is that of finding a suitable and fulfilling job that will not wear them out.

Statistics show that these jobs are hard to come by. Well, in all honestly, any career field has been shown to offer a lot of competition in obtaining a position. So, why would one go to college just to be stuck with no luck in finding a suitable position? Therefore, it’s not accurate that anything because of a college degree is guaranteed, as stated in paragraph 45, “But there are no guarantees in these professions either.” Par.45 also states that The Department of Labor thinks that there will be an oversupply of graduating students every year. This implies that a job isn’t going to be guaranteed to any graduate fresh out of college. So, how beneficial is that piece of paper? One would have to make their own decision and stand on and about this topic.

Conclusion

During the entire reading, Bird is persuading people to rethink the outcomes that will come after graduating and is also persuading potential students to not only think of college as an option to succeed in this world. College isn’t just somewhere you go for the fun of it. Bird uses many analogies throughout the entire text. College is just another institution. It’s just another piece of paper that doesn’t guarantee you anything. Overall, why not use one’s time wisely and not waste it at an institution that doesn’t guarantee a life? College isn’t technically free, so if one can’t guarantee a graduate with a fulfilling job, why would one go and waste all their money? Why would one make that mistake? Caroline Bird, the author of this piece, has only created more questions for the reader. College shouldn’t be on everyone’s plate, just for the ambitious, of course.

References

1. “The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money” by Bryan Caplan
2. “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life” by William Deresiewicz
3. “The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere” by Kevin Carey
4. “Vocational Education and Training in Times of Economic Crisis: Lessons from Around the World” edited by Matthias Pilz
5. “The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness” by Todd Rose

Introduction

Is college worth it for students coming from low-income families and parents without a college degree? A student going to college is a new chapter in one’s life. The start of college can be a tough transition for someone who may be the first person in their family to attend a college or university.

Challenges in Pursuing College Education

In an article written by Paul Tough for the New York Times, a young adult by the name of “Vanessa” grew up with her college, career, and life goals planned out. She knew what she wanted to do with her life, and her parents always told her and her siblings “ to believe they could accomplish anything” (Tough). Vanessa’s parents were unable to go to college due to the pregnancy of Vanessa; her parents got married and started their lives with jobs to be financially stable with baby Vanessa coming into the world. They later divorced when Vanessa was almost a teenager. Vanessa did well academically, and her excellence in school allowed her to have the opportunity to attend her dream school, The University of Texas at Austin, known as U.T.

Once Vanessa began college, she was quickly nervous about being there, and “ People had warned her that U.T. was hard. “But I thought: Oh, I got this far,” Vanessa told me. “I’m smart. I’ll be fine.” (Tough). As Vanessa began taking classes at the university, she realized it was a big change from high school; she failed her first test in a class that was needed for her major, Nursing. Failing a test was not normal for Vanessa, and she was bummed. She contacted her mother for help because she was stuck in what would be an unusual situation for her. Vanessa’s mother made comments to Vanessa regarding the decision to attend her dream school; she did not know if it was the best choice.

Academic Struggles and Graduation Rates

Vanessa did not like what her mother had to say, and she began wondering if what her mom said was right. According to Tough, many students who attend colleges from low-income families struggle harder than students who do not. Tough said, “Some don’t know how to choose the right college, so they drift into a mediocre school that produces more dropouts than graduates” (Tough). Many students go to college not understanding that it will be a big change, become overwhelmed and do not seek assistance, and some eventually drop out due to the level of stress and difficulty. Paul Tough included two trends in his article on earning a college degree. The first mentioned is, “More than 40 percent of American students who start at four-year colleges haven’t earned a degree after six years” (tough).

Many students do not earn a degree within the first four years of college, mainly due to dropping out or, overall, just not doing well in classes and getting behind by having to retake them. The second trend spoken by Tough is that graduation rates are lower for students who come from parents with low income. Students who come from these families tend to take a longer amount of time to graduate as a student coming from a high-income family.

A professor at the University of Texas at Austin named David Laude understood that some of his students would not be great in his class, as when Laude was in college, he became confused and overwhelmed just like Vanessa did, as well as some of his students.

Professor Laude told writer Paul Tough, “I was completely at a loss on how to fit in socially. And I was tremendously bad at studying. Everything was just overwhelming.” He spent most of his freshman year on the brink of dropping out” (Tough). When Laude began teaching at the University of Texas at Austin, he quickly noticed over time a range of students who were not doing well in his chemistry class and scored low on the first test. He quickly began pulling records of the students and found out the students who were not doing well were coming from low-income families, and many of their parents did not attend college.

Laude began trying to find a way to help the students instead of having his students go into the university’s remedial classes. He began a program the following semester where he invited about fifty students based on their records to his program known as TIP, shortened for the Texas Interdisciplinary Plan. “ Students who were placed in the program were just put into a smaller lecture class for his Chemistry class. Laude wanted to still cover the same information as he was teaching in his larger classes; the only difference was the background of these students.

He wanted to do the most he could to help the students with the problems he was dealing with as a college student. “ He offered TIP students two hours each week of extra instruction; he assigned them advisers who kept in close contact with them and intervened if the students ran into trouble or fell behind; he found upperclassmen to work with the TIP students one-on-one, as peer mentors” (tough). Laude began seeing changes in his students’ academic performance, and they were doing just as well as his larger lecture class students. The graduation rates and return rates increased after Laude started this program at the university.

Conclusion

As a student coming from a low-income family of a single mom of triplets and having parents who did not attend college, I can relate to Vanessa in many ways. The transition is very difficult and overwhelming. Professor David Laude’s realization of the reasoning behind why students were not doing well is very relatable in my case. Last semester, I was in a chemistry class of 380 people, and I did not do as well in that class as the other classes I was currently taking; although I did not fail the chemistry course, I also did not do as well as I wish I had, especially for my major, nursing, just like Vanessa.

References

1. Tough, P. (2014). Who Gets to Graduate?. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to-graduate.html
2. Laude, D. (n.d.). University of Texas at Austin – Department of Chemistry. Retrieved from https://cns.utexas.edu/directory/item/5-chemistry/238-chemistry/26532-david-laude
3. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497-529.
4. Perez, W., & McDonough, P. M. (2008). Understanding the college choice process of disadvantaged students. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2008(139), 43-55.
5. Lee, J. J., & Bowen, W. G. (2016). The shape of the river: Long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. Princeton University Press.
6. Hossler, D., & Gallagher, K. (1987). Studying student college choice: A three-phase model and the implications for policymakers. College and University, 62(3), 207-221.
7. Scott-Clayton, J., Crosta, P., & Belfield, C. (2014). Improving the targeting of treatment: Evidence from college remediation. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 36(3), 371-393.

Introduction

For a lot of people, traditional college can be a hassle. School tuition is skyrocketing, people are in mountains of debt, and balancing other life factors can be stressful when it comes to going to a traditional college. Let’s say a college student has a child, a sick grandmother who needs constant care and attention, or the commute to school every day is painful because they have to take a two-hour bus ride to school or wake up extra early in the morning and walk long distances to class. For these reasons, a lot of people turn to bachelor’s degrees online for their education. Here are a few perks of getting a bachelor’s degree online.

Recommendations

1. Spend more time with your family. Are you pregnant or have children? Going to college while pregnant or having kids can not only be extremely stressful but time-consuming as well. By taking classes online, you can spend more time at home with your children and save money on childcare costs since you will be at home for a longer time. This will also be ideal if you have a sickly family member who’s dependent on care from you.

2. More flexibility. If you decide to get your bachelor’s degree online, you will be surprised at how flexible it is. You can work anywhere you want. You can work at a friend’s house, you can work while lying in bed, or even while you’re traveling out of state. As long as you have a computer and internet access, you can technically work almost anywhere. Also, you can work any time of the day you want. If your instructor is doing a lecture, and you don’t or can’t show up, they can record it, and you can save and play it on your device. If you are more of an afternoon person than a morning person, the flexible schedules that online schools provide will be very beneficial to you.

3. Less interaction with others.
Are you shy and have social anxiety? While it’s not recommended that you run away from your fears, online colleges can greatly limit your interactions with people, but they can also help you get your feet wet when it comes to social interaction. For example, if you are afraid of talking to people face to face, texting them might be a better option for you. If you are afraid of having people see your face, you can talk to them through a microphone instead. Online schools can slowly help you get used to being social, and it’ll be less scary for you because you will be in the comfort of your own home.

4. Work at your own pace.
Here’s one of my favorite benefits when it comes to working online. You can keep a steady pace and work on your own time. You can finish as fast as you want or as slow as you want. Some people finished an online bachelor’s degree program in two years! Unfortunately, you’ll still have to reach some deadlines, but they are often flexible, and the penalties are lower.

Conclusion

What other benefits do you know about online programs that this article didn’t cover? What schools are you now considering that are online? Tell us in the comment section below, and don’t forget to share us with others!

References

1. “Online Education: Global Questions, Local Answers” by Kjell Erik Rudestam and Judith Schoenholtz
2. “The Online Student’s User Manual: Everything You Need to Know to be a Successful Online Learner” by Diane Hamilton
3. “The Power of eLearning: The Essential Guide for Teaching in the Digital Age” by Shirley Waterhouse and Saira Kewley
4. “Online Education for Dummies” by Kevin Johnson, Susan Manning, and Hetal Thaker
5. “The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout” by Beth Kanter and Aliza Sherman

Introduction

We, as humans, all went to school. Seven hours a day, five days a week. Many people in my classes, myself included, complain about going to school all day. It seems like everyone felt as if it was a duty, not a privilege. But since I included being forced to go, it’s a chore for me. If college was a right, there wouldn’t be an emphasis on finding your path and working hard to achieve what you desire. If college was a right, there would be many financial implications, debt, and not earning things the right way.

The Complexities of Making College a Right

But beyond that, the financial implications of this free college plan are more complex than they seem. If the Democrat Party was elected to the executive branch, they would have wanted to impose a higher tax on the portion of the population whose income is higher than a certain level. But if that higher class is paying for our college educations, what motivation do we have to work to pay for it ourselves? All the higher classes worked hard to be where they are today, and we should have to work hard to get to the same level as them.

The federal government is under no obligation to assure that any person can attend any college they desire. Most hard-working people further believe that college is a place for those with the minds and dedication to profit from it, not for just any person who somehow manages to barely pass high school and go to a superior university. Today, it seems that college is not for everyone, and not everyone is for college. This may seem an obvious truth, but it’s one we’ve long since lost sight of in our insane race to wrap every American in a cold lie.

Another important aspect of the college plans that Americans want is to lower interest rates for current college students. They also want the ability to, if they have any debt, just let the taxpayers pay for them and not work for what they need to pay off. The focus of the college is to help students help themselves and teach people how to be hard-working, honest people. Would you like it if you had to pay for someone else’s college just because they think they deserve it?

Conclusion

In conclusion, we as Americans need to step up and pay for ourselves, work hard to achieve what we want in life, and should not be taken as a right but as a privilege. Do you really want to be living in a world where you have to get someone else to pay for you and not have the chance to say, “I earned that by hard work and dedication?”

References

1. Smith, A. (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Metheun & Co Ltd.
2. Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2012). Do better schools lead to more growth? Cognitive skills, economic outcomes, and causation. Journal of Economic Growth, 17(4), 267-321.
3. Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., & Rockoff, J. E. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633-2679.
4. Acemoglu, D., & Autor, D. (2014). Skills, tasks and technologies: Implications for employment and earnings. In Handbook of Labor Economics (Vol. 4, pp. 1043-1171). Elsevier.

Introduction

In our country, having a college degree is the currency of validation. A college education is one of the most effective ways to increase your lifetime earnings and life expectancy over time. In the wake of the economic downturn, welders will be out of work, and major manufacturing jobs will be lost very quickly. To stay in the workforce, you need a college education. We are differentiated from other living organisms on earth by our education. In other words, it makes man the most intelligent creature that exists on the planet today. Even though it is harder for people who are less privileged than others, that doesn’t mean that they can’t achieve the same goals. This paper will shed light on why college degrees are important and the impact they can have on an individual, especially those who are not wealthy and come from under-resourced backgrounds.

College facts vs. College determination

College graduates enjoy better health and a longer life expectancy, according to the author Alex Bernadotte. According to the Census Bureau, those with a college degree earn 18% more than those with a high school diploma and 62% more if they have a 4-year degree. She explains that the real question is not if college is for everyone but if it is for under-resourced students or those from environments like her own. She came from a family of no collegegoers, but they stressed the importance of education to Bernadotte, and we’re committed to getting her into an Ivy League college. Upon graduating from college, Bernadotte founded an organization that added 31 new jobs to the US economy and hired 50% of first-generation college students. According to Bernadotte, colleges and universities are broken systems that place more emphasis on whether you can afford them than whether they are accessible, inclusive, and affordable. ?

According to Ana Hernandez Kent, children follow in their parents’ footsteps when it comes to their education. It has been shown that family education can affect how much income and wealth a family has, and when at least one parent has a college degree, a family has a higher level of income and wealth. Approximately 23 percent of families in the United States were headed by someone with a four-year degree in 1989, but by 2016, that number had increased to 34 percent of families because of the increase in higher education. The place you’re from can affect your educational achievement, and parent education affects your college graduation rate, explains Kent. There is a strong correlation between children mimicking their parents, and breaking the intergenerational cycle is difficult. Only one in four family heads achieves the goal. According to Kent, parents of college graduates are more likely to have an active role in the education of their children, they have more financial resources, and they have extensive networks.

Conclusion

Alex Bernadotte, born in Haiti, came from a family without a college education, but she became the first member of her family to attend college. In addition to graduating from Stanford at the top of her class, she became the founder and CEO of Beyond 12, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing college graduation rates. Ana Hernandez Kent studies economic equity at the Federal Reserve Branch of St. Louis. Advising on economic equity and systematic barriers, Ana Hernandez conducts research and analyses data.

A TED talk by Bernadotte about whether college is for everyone and Kent’s article on Why college graduates earn more money both make valid points about why earning a degree is beneficial and can increase your opportunities in life. In my opinion, however, I do not agree with Bernadotte’s or Kent’s opinion that students who College facts vs. College determination come from less privileged homes and are not going to have the same success in college as their peers who come from more affluent families. In my opinion, what is meant for you will be for you, and where you come from has nothing to do with where you can go.

References

1. Bernadotte, A. (n.d.). Beyond 12. Retrieved from https://beyond12.org/
2. Hernandez Kent, A. (n.d.). Ana Hernandez Kent – Economic Inclusion at the St. Louis Fed. Retrieved from https://www.stlouisfed.org/authors/ana-hernandez-kent
3. TED. (n.d.). Alex Bernadotte: The dream we haven’t dared to dream. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/speakers/alex_bernadotte
4. United States Census Bureau. (n.d.). Educational Attainment in the United States: 2019. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2019/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html