Argumentative Essay: Why Minorities Should Go To College

In 2008, Abigail Fisher, a white female, applied for admission at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997, Texas passed legislation which guaranteed all students who graduate in the top 10% of Texas’ graduating class, admission to all Texas state-funded universities, regardless of other factors. Fisher did not qualify for Texas’ “Top 10%” with a GPA of 3.59 and an SAT score of 1180, but applied for general admission in the top 12% of her class. At the University of Texas, about 75% of admissions are comprised of students who qualified as Texas’ “Top 10%”, and 25% of admissions are based on several factors including, but are not limited to, grade-point average, extracurricular activities, and race. When Fisher was denied admission, she enrolled

The oppression of minorities throughout history has been evident throughout the history of this nation starting with the Natives and Africans. This oppression made it harder on non-whites to be successful due to limited resources and opportunities. To me growing up I experienced this first hand, growing up in La Puente I grew up in a mainly minority community, I noticed how other schools early on prepared students for college while we were prepared to simply graduate. Leading me to ask What if my school did the same? Would more of my classmates be in college?.

“You can’t delete racism. It’s like a cigarette. You can’t stop smoking if you don’t want to, and you can’t stop racism if people don’t want to. But I’ll do everything I can to help” ( Mario Balotelli) Racial Justice is a strenuous topic in America.

I firmly believe that i deserve this award granted by the Courage to Grow Scholarship. Education is greatly important to me and my future. No one in my family has ever attended college and I know that I can change that. I may come from a poor family but it is my goal to be successful in the career i choose.

If your heart is set on a certain career and you want or require a degree, you can use those scholarships to pave the way to your dreams of having a lifelong career that you furthered your education for. Even if your plans don’t work out, as long as you have your degree in a field

The Douglas Honors Diversity scholarship will help me achieve my educational and professional goals in many ways. This scholarship will help me continue my education and career path that I am passionate about. I am the first in my family to pursue a higher education. I am also the first in my family to deviate from a “set” path for me. I come from a family that lives off of state help, so we are not able to pay for a higher education.

There are a lot of obstacles students face when trying to college and going to college, sometimes these obstacles involve how counseling and emotional support is out of the question and other reasons are fall into the category of not having too much money to afford school or if they could afford college through scholarships they still struggle with meeting their basic needs. Students lots of minority students face constant oppression because of students face discouragement and this can lead students down two roads, sometimes to regret and misery. Minorities have never really grasp the opportunity of getting a higher education because these students are always discouraged from dreaming of college, making

courses in college that have opened up my mind to the issue. The more information I learn about this issue, the more surprised I am that our society still exhibits bias, because as much as the United States preaches about equality, it appears as if society has segregation in minor ways. Although the debate between whether there are biased questions on the SATs or not seems to favor that there aren’t by popular opinions, there is still biased behavior occurring in school systems that prevent certain groups of students from getting the proper resources needed. Because I would like to work in an low-income area, which most likely would contain minorities, as a teacher I would make the effort to help those students get the sufficient help needed. This motivates me to become a part of the education field, because caring teachers are much needed in area like this.

Another thing that places students of color at a disadvantage in college admissions is the persisting cultural bias in high-stakes testing. “High-stakes” tests are those that are tied to major consequences, such as admission to college, or even high school graduation. Fair education reform advocates have long been citing an extensive record of standardized testing concerns, many of which relate to racial bias and discrimination. As researcher and author Harold Berlak explains in the journal Rethinking Education: Standardized testing perpetuates institutionalized racism and contributes to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. For instance, the deeply embedded stereotype that African Americans perform poorly on standardized tests

Scholarships are highly benefecial to a low income audience.. Many believe that you must have excellent academic skills to obtain one,but on the contrary that is quite wrong. There are many others ways to gain a scholarship. The text depicts,”For a student adept...calling ducks or just being tall (over 5’10)”(Source 1).So the text proves that academic skills are not the only things that can give you scholarships. Also,there are grants that provide you with sufficient income to pursue a college career.

As the school year comes to a close and the only thing on a senior’s mind is how are they going to pay for college? Throughout our high school careers we always get asked what our plans are after high school and never how are you going to pay for that next step of your life after high school. We barely get prepared for the real world in high school we are forced to take classes the school thinks will be good for us not what we think or what will be best for what we want to study for in college. How are high schoolers supposed to be able to pay for college when they don’t get prepared enough in high school to go on to that next level of schooling and have to more than likely go into debt just to be able to pay for it. Colleges should no longer cost an insane amount of money to go there.

Americans tend to believe that going to college is a must to become successful in life. I believe that it is more beneficial to go to college than not going to college because of better job opportunities that are available after college. If you go to college you further your education and job opportunities with better pay and better benefits will be available to you. I’ve always believed that going to college is the only way to get a good paying job. According to The University of North Texas in their article “Why Go to College?”

Why People Should Not Go to College People should not go to college because is difficult to find out what career choice as a result of the inexperience and little information, the potential loans are overwhelming, and the huge necessity to start working immediately after school. In fact, many high school students go to college because it is expected of them, but that is not a good reason to go. If the students are facing pressure from their parents, friends, or teachers to attend college, but they do not feel ready. A person who wants to attend college should not take on such a large financial and time commitment just to please other people. College is expensive, and it does not make sense to spend money on a college degree if they are unsure of their path.

Although college is stressful and time consuming , having your dream career, is a huge life achievement. Having a job isn’t the same as having a career “I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life”(Maya Angelou). If you sell yourself short by not going to college you’ll end up working just to make ends means not because it's what you enjoy doing, it's due to your family counting on it. Those who go to college will end up having a better future than those who don’t. I agree that going to college is more beneficial because my view on the topic states that in order to have a secure and clear future you must go to college.

Racial inequality has plagued our society for centuries and has been described as a “black eye” on American history. It wasn’t until the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1965 that minorities were given equal protection under the law. This was a crucial step on our society’s road to reconciling this injustice. However, the effects of past racial inequality are still visible to this day, and our society still wrestles with how to solve this issue. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.