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Chris Matthews's Essay 'Why College Isn' T For Everyone

956 Words4 Pages

The word Alumni stems from the Latin word “Alumnus” which means “foster son.” Alumni are created after certain individuals graduate from college or a University. While some agree and others disagree on the importance of a graduate degree; articles such as “Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say,” by David Leonhardt and “Why college isn’t for everyone, explained in a single chart,” by Chris Matthews both demonstrate opposite view points on whether college is a smart decision for students or not. Depending on an individual and the path they choose to pursue after high school will determine whether a person will make the decision to go to college or not and whether college is the right choice for them. Leonhardt’s article “Is College Worth …show more content…

While Leonhardt wrote mainly about financial worth of going to college, Matthews wrote about certain students’ mindset after high school and why going to college in this century is not as important. Although Matthews does understand the importance of a degree and how it pays off, he states that “many more workers today would have been better off not going to college at all.” Matthews states this due to the Annual Wage by Education chart that demonstrates the amount of money the 25th percentile of degree holders make compared to non-degree holders. Students don’t know their abilities and drop out of college because “the problem is the fact that students usually don’t have a great idea of how they are going to fare in college, or what sort of degree or career they will pursue.” Setting goals, and knowing the life that one wants to live will limit the college drop-out rate and increase the quantity of graduate students. However, students should decide what profession and college or University that is best for them before attending to prevent the drop-out rate and waisted

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The authors do a fantastic job of presenting these opinions fairly. The authors always present data or figures supporting college degree benefits. They also never undermine the quality or credibility of the data. However, the authors do a poor job of reacting to the opposing evidence. The authors usually react by stating that “for a given individual, the benefits [of going to college] may not outweigh the costs” (212).

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782 Words | 4 Pages

Clearly, New Data say and Jacques Steinberg, author of Plan B: Skip College each highlight the advantages and disadvantages of earning a degree and the different options if you don’t want to attend. A college education is not the right choice for everyone, but college is worth it. David Leonhardt’s article supports the decision to attend college and earn a degree. He argues that college graduates struggle to find work

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735 Words | 3 Pages

In their essay “Should everyone Go to College,” Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill exemplify that despite popular belief, college does not always benefit all individuals who attend. With tuition on the rise, many students are in debt before they have even decided their major or career path. This is because in today society one feels compelled or pushed to go to college in order to be successful in finding a well-paying job. Owen and Sawhill’s explain the importance of planning in their essay stating, “We emphasize that a 17- or 18-year-old deciding whether and where to go to college should carefully consider his or her own likely path of education and career before committing a considerable amount of time and money to that degree” (Owen, Sawhill

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915 Words | 4 Pages

However, in the article, “Why College Isn’t for Everyone”, Matthews describes a diagram taken from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Based on the diagram, the lower quartile demonstrates that students with a four year degree seemingly do not make more money than a high school graduate. While this may sound as if people should not attend college, the root cause of this problem is that individuals are not putting enough thought into their future. In other words, individuals who do not have a future plan for their career or degree is negatively affecting society. They may be moving from one job to another and sacrificing a lower pay for a job, ultimately not knowing what they want to do with their earned degree.

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688 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever felt pressured to go to college before knowing what you wanted to do when you are older? Many believe that college can be essential to one's future success depending on their career path; others believe that college is the only way to be successful in life. College is important to one's future success depending on one's career path. Not every successful profession requires a degree from a typical 4-year college, and for someone in this situation, going to college would be a waste of time and money for them. In Robert Reich’s article, “Why Collage Isn’t (And Shouldn’t Have to Be) For Everyone” he writes that a typical 4-year college is not the right choice for everyone.

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186 Words | 1 Pages

“Is Collage Worth It? Clearly, New data Say” by David Leonhardt calls upon students to understand the high price of higher education as an investment in the future that will bring a large return. Leonhardt states, based on research from the Economic Policy Institute, that higher education is necessary because of the economic benefits after. The author reveals that a four-year college degree absolutely worth our time and money relative to a high school diploma – in wages, employment prospects, and even health. Leonhardt writes, “Americans with four-year college degree made 98 percent more an hour on average in 2013 than people without a degree” (103).

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794 Words | 4 Pages

Giving examples like if someone who gets a college degree will earn more money than someone who doesn’t go to college. Also, explaining many college students are not in school because they want to and they want to learn. The author accurately explains college may not be for everyone, because of the pressures, cost, and qualities you can gain. Bird argues that

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252 Words | 2 Pages

Essay 2 “College Calculus” is an article written by John Cassidy, a staff writer at The New York, talking about the real value of higher education. This article supports the idea that getting a college education is fundamentally the key to enhancing yourself mentally and economically. The material in this article can determined that college education can be a huge risk not knowing the result of your education. For millions of Americans it works out well, they get their degree and acquire a job in their career path, but millions of other college graduates have found themselves completely unable to get a high paying job in this economy. Yet they are still trapped in student loan debt that need to be pay back fully, without a job it becomes

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312 Words | 2 Pages

Author Larry Cublin believes that students in high school should know about this topic “ Why everyone shouldn’t go to college” due to the fact that students don’t know how many years they want to go to college, hot they are going to pay for college, and they realize college is not for them. They way that I see it is that everyone may not want to go to college because they already have a mindset on what they want to do. For instance, most students think they know what they want and what to do but they don’t realize that there are alternatives like taking a vocational program that is only two years which is less time to waste in college and you are able to work quicker after those two years, but the downfall is that you won’t get paid much

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1110 Words | 5 Pages

This started because of the many articles and public figures influencing the thought that college is not worth it. He claims his stance is flawed and wrong, “The analogy is flawed and wrong but if college students are the customers of colleges, assuming

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949 Words | 4 Pages

Recently, higher education in the United States has been attacked and degraded. 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). These claims against higher education have caused several people to question if college is even worth going through and paying for. 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 or not college is a good investment.

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1356 Words | 6 Pages

As a college student who is currently spending thousands of dollars to further my education and achieve a career goal, it was, at first, disheartening to read Caroline Bird ’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money”. However, after thoroughly examining her points, I now see that her essay is illogical. In her piece “College is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird argues against the idea that “college is the best place for all high-school graduates” (1); in other words, college isn’t for everyone. Throughout her writing, Bird supplies her readers with evidence that explains how, for some individuals, college is a waste of not only time and money, but of intellectual effort, as well.

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694 Words | 3 Pages

Kumar uses his ethos to persuade adults and students to continue to earn a higher level of education, even if they don’t attend college. College isn’t always a fit for everyone, but a higher education can help people to receive a more exceptional paying job. The University of Chicago and The Wall Street Journal conducted a study and found that “56 percent of Americans feel that a four-year college degree isn’t worth it” (Kumar). Americans have realized that a four-year college degree comes with competitiveness in securing a higher paying job, along with the college tuition being high. The long turnaround times for earning a degree and the debt that travels with students years after graduation, students don’t want to have that problem (Kumar).

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1200 Words | 5 Pages

If the mind is not fully concentrated, one could find themselves on a downward spiral and failing their classes. Many students cannot accept and see themselves as failures. They drop out because many opportunities offered to them may have a better advantage than college. Blake Boles implies in his novel, that although many jobs require a college education, there are other careers that are primarily based off of ambition. There is a plethora of ways to earn money without pursuing college.

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475 Words | 2 Pages

In discussions of higher education, one controversial issue has been whether it is needed to obtain a degree in order to succeed. Mike Rose argues that higher education is not a way to define a person. Similarly, Jonathan Kozol contends that we shouldn’t force children to conform to a certain educational plan. My own view is that with a higher education, there are greater possibilities for the future. Having a higher education creates greater opportunities.

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