Should Colleges Leave Students Unprepared For The Future?

Growing up, parents, teachers, and elders always emphasize the importance of an education to the younger generations. High school students are pushed and encouraged towards college for the next big step in their life. By the time kids step into high school it’s drilled into their heads that to make something of oneself they need to pursue a college education. In reality, are high school graduates even prepared for the challenges that they will soon face? High schools are not preparing their kids for the “college experience” that in turns leaves them lacking the know-how they will need for the workforce.

In the twenty-first century, there is heavy competition between colleges. Unfortunately, the ideal theory of the free market economy does not exist in the real world, because no one actually values quality. Most consumers never care about quality nor do they have the time to inform themselves; they only care about convenience. In other words, they will likely prefer inferior products. As a result, colleges have been competing in a downwards spiral of education quality. In his essay, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” Brent Staples criticizes colleges for inflating grades through comparing and contrasting, exemplifying, analyzing cause and effect, and making an argument.

When you think of college, you think of all the classes you will be taking, the amount of homework the professors butcher you with and how you might not have time for any outside activities. What people do not think about, is that a college degree will provide them with a job that will provide money for their bills and needs. Robert T. Perry wrote, On “Real Education” and he says that “His pessimistic view of people’s ability to learn ignores not just good evidence to the contrary but the real pressures the American economy is facing. Removing some 80-90 percent of our students in my state or just about any state would interrupt the pipeline of skilled working, making it nearly impossible to meet

Does college really give graduates the tools and knowledge required to succeed? In the article “Where College Fails Us”, author Caroline Bird attempts to argue that college may not be worth as much as people are led to believe. Bird believes that with the rise in college graduates being well above the Department of Labor Statistics anticipated job needs, college is quickly becoming a waste of time. Moreover, several reasons listed depict colleges many shortcomings, including the stress it puts on students and the unrealistic expectations it gives them combined with huge financial burdens. The author believes that the successful college graduates would have been successful regardless of their education, and that the majority of students felt forced to attend. Finally, she states that before wasting your money on a college education the reader should reflect on her article and determine if there is still value in a college experience. Although Caroline Bird presents many persuading arguments against the college experience in her article, I believe her logic to be outdated and generalized, and her content lacking of discrediting information. I disagree that all college graduates are taking dead-end jobs, and universities have withdrawn from the social side of their educational experience.

In the article “We Send Too Many Students To College,” Marty Nemko feels as though people who are not fit for college attend simply because they feel they have something to prove whether that be to themselves or to their families. He states that people who do not do well in high school should not expect to succeed in college, using the statistic stating that if you were among the bottom 40% of your class, 76 out of 100 will not earn their diploma. Nemko explains how colleges operate as a business, not caring about the success of their students. This explains why colleges result in taking cheap routes to educate their students, including large lecture classes. It is completely understandable that the quality of education does not always match the cost of

In 1976, the average cost to attend a four year public university was $2,175; today, the average cost to attend a four year public university is $25,000 (Snyder). This means it is 1150% more expensive to go to college in The United States today than it was 30 years ago. This obviously would create a problem on how we as people are going to pay for our higher education. Today college has become almost a necessity to have a satisfactory life, and with these rising prices some individuals believe student loans are the only option. There are many reasons as to why the prices have risen, but the one undeniable fact is that this has created a problem within our country. Which, is known as the student debt crisis, and it has been on the rise the past couple years. This problem is affecting people all around the United States, and is causing multitude of problems for them all because they wanted to pursue higher education. Wanting to better your opportunities by bettering yourself is not something that needs to be punished, and sadly that is what is happening. This problem is something that needs to be fixed for the sake of Americans and our economy, but will also take time and a multitude of steps to correct.

A job requires skill and knowledge. Murray says, “ The increase in wealth in American society has increased the demand for all sorts of craftsmanship… work of specialized skills in stonework, masonry, glazing, painting, cabin making, machining, landscaping, and a dozen other crafts” (Murray 236). Murray says that college will not provide the skill set for these jobs. College is where. Murray wants these type of people with low academic ability to shoot for one job and not move from that occupation or move up the ladder. Sanford J. Ungar in “The New Liberal Arts” makes a counter argument saying “It is far wiser for students to prepare for change and the multiple careers they are likely to have than to search for a single job track that might one day become a dead end ” (Ungar 191). During the economic recession, many workers in the manufacturing industry were laid off without a guarantee that they would be rehired in the future or that their positions would still be available. Unfortunately some of these jobs will never come back because the positions have been modernized. Non-stop robotic arms have replaced humans in the assembly line, which have financially benefited the companies. The advancement in technology has brought the world to a state where skilled labor jobs are not needed as much as others such as jobs in computer information systems or computer networking. Ungar brings up Geoffery Grain, president of the Hart Research who says that the responsibility of higher education today is to prepare people “ for jobs that do not yet exist” (Ungar 191). Higher education will always be beneficial now or in the future, it will never be a

This then causes students to shy away from the mission, thus affecting their overall performance of acting or learning in class and public. According to Hacker and Dreifus, “...professors must make an effort to reach their students...they must become conscientious, caring, and attentive to every corner of their classrooms” (Dreifus and Hacker 180). While this may be true, colleges are definitively becoming overly involved in satisfying students through specific programs and activities, which results in little concern of actual student welfare and education. If colleges have no concern for their students, then why should students be expected to pay and not receive an acceptable education? Though students have significant qualms towards the expected payment for tuition, they are more focused on

The problem, of course, is that the cost of college tuition has skyrocketed. Students and their families are getting buried deeper and deeper in debt trying to pay for college. Public universities, once havens of affordable, quality college education, have been hit the hardest. Almost every state in America has cut, and/or is cutting funding for higher education (Ortiz 1). It’s a problem that has quickly become a national crisis. The cost of college is very high compared to how the economy has been and how wages and financial aid have not risen with the cost of tuition. This makes it harder for students to graduate and brings a lot of stress to their lives. Without the funding that is needed many students drop out or take a longer time finishing

In " Free College Doesn't Fix Everything,” Richard Reeves, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Said that Community colleges in the United States can, in theory, provide an important service. not everyone has the same opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree. Most high school students from rich families will end the university, some of humble origin will join them. At this time, the system of institutions in the United States serves to reinforce inequality from generation to generation, rather than reduce it. However, some students do not get into college, or do not finish their studies, and this is not only economically-financial situation is also due to the weakness that has America in education. However,

I agree with the author that the ranking of the school has become the most important thing for students to consider when applying for university. Since the students also believe it that way, colleges try to increase their ranking by using these students. The author says, “Colleges are increasingly deploying huge marketing machines that flood students’ mailboxes with glossy brochures whether or not those students are qualified.” To earn a higher ranking, the college must have a lower acceptance rate. Therefore, colleges are creating a false hope for families in order to receive more applications, so they can reject more and directly increase their acceptance rate. Other than that, the students also suffered a lot in order to get into the top college. Because of the low acceptance rate, the applicants need to be perfect in high school. They need to take almost exclusively AP and accelerated classes, participate in many clubs, serve the communities and sleep an average of four hours a night. This might affect the students’ mental physical health. For example, Kathleen developed extreme migraine, scoliosis, and ovarian cysts when she tried to get into the university she

In the status quo there are numerous problems worth debating. However, one current issue of society seems to always be in the national conversation- college education. To demonstrate, this subject has never been more relevant than it is now because of the copious amount of people affected. While there may be temporary financial drawbacks in getting a college education, most will still benefit in the long run from the outweighing advantages.

We have not been able to contain the ever-rising cost, simplify needlessly complicated financial aid forms or protect lower-income aspirants from the for-profit colleges that want to fleece them. Then there are all the media stories questioning the worth of a college degree.

Today, many computer programmers without college degrees get jobs by presenting examples of their work. With a little imagination, almost any corporation can come up with analogous work samples”(Murray 2). Although not everyone has the intellectual ability to do college work but that doesn’t make them not have the skills for a job. Twisting percentages in education would be a good idea for students who are not up to college level. In generally, many of college students drop out and clearly many of them get on campus without gaining the skills and knowledge in their freshman and sophomore years to succeed. Jobs and education aren’t always related. Education shouldn’t always be the reason for getting a well payed job but rather your skills, not everything you study in college is remembered and a research by Murray supports his point which states that, “About 10 percent to 20 percent of all 18-year-olds can absorb the material in your old liberal arts textbooks. For engineering and the hard sciences, the percentage is probably not as high as 10.” (Murray 1). In my community, most of the Americans say that the higher education system in the United States fell and didn’t provide students with good value for the money. In addition, even at times college presidents not only rated the quality of higher education lower than before, but also rated students lower as well. According to Adam, “About 60 percent said high schools

     Finally, a college student is a consumer with a demand for a product, an education. The teachers are the producers. Who wants to pay thousands of dollars for something, and then be regulated on when, how, and where to get it? Nobody. Which is probably why Texas Tech has a freshman dropout rate of 21% for the Fall 1999 semester according to Roger Terry, an author of the "Fall 1999 Retention Summary" produced by the Texas Tech Institutional Research department. According to Mr. Terry, this dropout rate is one of the highest in the Big 12 Conference and is a problem over-looked by many school officials. It is true that in a job situation the