Andrew Simmons

Recently, many have begun to attack and degrade higher education in the United States. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). So is college even worth it? Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether college is a good investment. Bird argues that although some students would benefit from college and succeed, many fall short, wasting

Kaitlyn Johnson English, 008 September 29, 2015 Inequality Inequality has been a major problem all over the world. Not just with race or gender, but now ones' income puts them aside from others. and they are catorgarized. Gary S. Becker, a Noble laurete in economics, and Kevin M. Murphy, a professor at the University of Chicago and a recipient of a 2005 MacCrthur "genius" fellowship, believe that a higher education equals higher income. Paul Krugmam, a teacher of economics at Princeton and the city University of New York, uses people who have had an impact on America.

Conner Stripling Lowe Paper 5 Why Benjamin Barber's Argument in "America Skips School" Trumps William Henry's Argument in "In Defense of Elitism" In today’s society, it has become the norm for adolescents to choose where they would like to go after they graduate, seeking further education.

3, “The liberal arts are particularly irrelevant for low-income and first-generation students” (228). Sanford J. Ungar, President of Goucher College, which is a small liberal arts school, believes the reasoning behind this statement is that they feel like students from low-income families should pursue a major that’s practical rather than attempting to pursue something that maybe is not as guaranteed to get you a good paying job, like literature or physics. He points out that this is prejudice, and that it’s making the insinuation that people in the lower class are merely bodies that carry out the ideas of the wealthier, upper class. Ungar says, “It is condescending to imply that those who have less cannot understand and appreciate the finer elements of knowledge” (228). He proceeds to let the audience know that in his experience, he has found that “people who are the newest to certain ideas and concepts, are usually the people who approach the job with a more open and creative mind”; we should respect what everyone has to offer.

Today, you either get educated or you get stuck in a dead-end job without much prospect for the future. The gap between those with a higher education and those without one is becoming wider with advancements in technology and the growing competitiveness of the job market. There are many dangers of this gap. One such danger is the people who have a higher educations having the leisure to ignore those who are less educated. Joy Castro in her essays “Hungry” and “On Becoming Educated” discusses her life and educational journey.

The fact that not everyone needs to go to college is the main point that Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill write about in great detail throughout their essay. Even though the authors do say that people that go to college usually earn more, they state that this is on “average,” and that the key focus of their essay is to focus on those that the benefits are not greater than the cost of going to college. (Page 211, Paragraph 1). They also include a graph right under the text that shows how “on average” people with a college degree earn more than those that are just high school graduates. (Page 211, Figure one).

Studying at university is an expensive investment. Tuition fees have a disincentive effect on the students who from the lower and middle-income families. As Bruenig states the statistice of the college students from the poor and rich families “ At age nineteen, only around 20 percent of children from the poorest 2 percent of families in the country attend college. For the richest 2 percent of families, the same number is around 90 percent. ” Also, most of those students want to achieve better lives so they attend the higher education.

The United States has become more and more of a capitalist society, meaning that they are more focused on money. They pressure students to go to college and look down on those who decide not to and make it appear that the only way to a higher social-economic status is to get into a good school. In the story Why College Isn’t (And Shouldn’t Have to Be) For Everyone, The author, Robert Reich uses comparison to support his claim that college isn’t for everyone, he relies on perspective to convince his audience that we should provide alternative ways to get good jobs. To support his claim that college isn’t for everyone he explains that not every student’s dream is to have 4 more years of education after high school, that they would prefer to do other things. He compares this to the pressures that are put on them to go to school anyways when he states,” They feel compelled to go to college because they’ve been told over and over that a college degree is necessary.”

Going to college for many students is just a normal part of life. It is what will enable them to get an education that eventually will lead to get a well-paid job and the resources and the status to live a comfortable life. But for college professor, Andrew Delbanco, the American college has a higher purpose. In the article “College at Risk”, Delbanco states that colleges should be promoting critical thinking among students, through knowledge of the past and the interaction with each other; as well as, help them discover their talents and passions and figure out what they want to do in life. This type of education is called liberal arts and for Delbanco, it represents the ideal education.

There is many people that go to college, but because of the cost they don't get through college. The elevated costs of college cause not only students to struggle paying for college, but also to struggle financially paying for college when they are done. In many cases, after graduating, young adults who don’t find a job will become poorer, increasing the gap between the rich and the

“On average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetime than those without a degree… What gets less attention is the fact that not all college degrees or college graduates are equal. ”(pg.208 para. 1) Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill are senior researchers at Brookings’ Center on Children and Families, Sawhill is also a senior fellow in economics study at Brookings’. Owen and Sawhill authored the essay, “Should everyone go to College?” The authors use a wide variety of rhetorical devices in the essay, including ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audience to take another look at whether college is the right choice for them.

“3 Reasons College Still Matters” by Andrew Delbanco 3) “Surely, every American college ought to defend this waning possibility, whatever we call it. And an American college is only true to itself when it opens its doors to all - the rich, the middle, and the poor - who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance to think and reflect before life engulfs them. If we are all serious about democracy, that means everyone.” 4) In this part of the writing Andrew Delbanco tries to persuade his audience by using the pattern of logic that agrees with the overall argument but also considers another striking point of view to strengthen the argument (While these arguments are convincing, they must also consider…).

Forgiveness of Student Loan Debt On a global scale, there is a large amount of people who are unfortunate in the sense that they are all regrettably faced with the issue of the struggle to pay for a proper education. Seeing as those who struggle are unable to pay on the spot, whether it be because they are financially independent adolescents or their families have low financial income, a majority of said strugglers resort to applying for student loans. This allows them to receive an education for the time being, but it still must be paid for eventually. As a result, every student who takes a loan for schooling will be in debt until everything that has been borrowed is paid off.

A rising issue in today’s society is deciding whether or not college is worth the cost. There is an extreme amount of pressure that is forced upon high school students by parents, teachers, and peers to further their education and attend college. However, there is research that challenges the thought that college is the best possible path for a person to take. College may be a great investment for some people, but it is not meant for everyone. This is supported by the arguments that colleges are expensive, jobs do not always require a college degree, and students are forced to choose a lifestyle before being exposed to the real world.

If a person’s parent or guardian drilled the idea of college into your head, or if they told you ‘do what you want’ or ‘I don 't care’, or ‘You’re not going’. While college is great, there are other means of education. The value of college is a low because there are people who do not qualify for a college education, and also because there are other ways of post-secondary education other than college. College is not valuable because many people will not make it into a 2 or 4-year college, much less graduate from one. To support this, in the article Why College Isn 't For Everyone, it says, “As a general rule, I would use graduates in the top quarter of their class at a high-quality high school should go on to a four-year degree program, while those in the bottom quarter of their classes at a high school with a mediocre educational reputation should not.”