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How College Sold Its Soul To The Market Summary

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In William Deresiewicz’s essay “The Neoliberal Arts- How College Sold its Soul to the Market” he presents an argument that higher education is driven mainly by the market, and that students are pursuing majors that promise future financial gain over knowledge. The essay “How College Sold its Soul to the Market” was published in Harper’s Magazine in September of 2015. Deresiewicz argues that we are living in a neoliberalism environment and that with mass higher education students are interested in becoming leaders and money makers instead of valuing the importance of learning how to think intellectually; neoliberalism is an ideology that reduces all values to money values. Deresiewicz argues throughout his essay that there are three potential purposes for higher education: the commercial (preparation for a career), the cognitive (learning things, learning how to think), and the moral (determining your own beliefs and becoming an independent thinker). …show more content…

The author uses images of embroidered photographs to demonstrate education’s current circumstances while using liberal arts as an additional way to convey his claim. One of the images features an orthodontist with an artistically drawn cage around his head demonstrating how students are limiting their knowledge and passions to instead focusing on money making careers. The overall tone of this essay has authority but also appeals on a personal level to the struggles of a modern day college student; the tone is convincing and formal for those involved in higher education, but remains somewhat casual and personal for the young

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Society has a very skewed opinion of what college is, how it should look, and what each individual type of person should experience while in college. In Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy, she investigates what for-profit colleges are to modern society and how they affect various types of lives. She does this by placing herself into different social roles to put into perspective to her audience the different types of lives that affected by for-profit colleges, the role of for-profit colleges in personal and professional settings, and why she personally understands what for-profit schools are by being in these roles. Cottom takes her societal roles in two directions. The first is

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Samantha Nyborg LEAP Writing 2011-05 September 15, 2014 Critique Draft Megan McArlde is a journalist and blogger who focuses most of her writing on things like finance, government policy, and economics. In her article “The College Bubble,” a magazine article published in Newsweek on September 17, 2012, McArlde writes about how the “Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis” (1). She focuses a lot on the value of getting a college education, and makes an argument that all the time and money spent on earning a degree may not be worth it in the end. McArlde uses several strategies to appeal to her reader’s, and does a great job of effectively using the Logos, Pathos, and Ethos appeals throughout her article.

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People go to college to get a good paying job, have job security, and get a degree. Well at least that’s what it should be about. That’s what Charles Murray believes in his essay “Are Too Many People Going to College.” Murray counters the argument of Sanford Ungar who believes colleges should have a more liberal approach towards its classes and have students actually learn a broad range of real life skills instead of just going into a career just because it pays well. In Ungar’s essay he explains the misperception that Americans have on obtaining a liberal-arts degree and how they believe it doesn’t translate well to the real world.

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397 Words | 2 Pages

In her article “Blue-Collar Boomers Take Work Ethics to College”, Libby Sander, a reporter with the Chronicle of Higher Education, employs all three rhetorical strategies, pathos, ethos, and logos, in informing her audience of the uptick in enrollment of baby-boomers enrolling in higher education. Using the stories of the emotional stories of several baby boomers in heavy labor jobs, Sander begins her article using pathos to argue why there is an increase in boomers enrolling in college. For example, Sander describes the toll that heavy labor jobs have taken on Russel Kearney. Kearney, a former Wonder Bread delivery truck driver, states of the ruptured disk in his back “it felt like my spine was cut in half” adding that he “[just] couldn’t do it anymore.” Sander further explains that while Kearney can not handle the tolls of his heavy labor job, he still wants to work, requiring that he enroll in further education.

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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

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Everyone with different background determines a different field of study and mostly from the area of science or engineering. The essay “Two Years Are Better Than Four” by Liz Addison shows her response to the different perspective of Mr.Perlstein about the matter of colleges and her disagreement with Mr. Perlstein’s statement that “The college experience—a rite passage as it was meant it to be—must have come to an end”(212). In another similar essay called “Why Do You Think They’re Called For-Profit Colleges?” by Kevin Carey, the same opinion has made about the importance decision of colleges and explains the concept of for-profit system. Carey’s opinion about Clifford “He’s an interesting man—sincere, optimistic, a true believer in higher education and his role as a force for good” (217).

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“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.

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Brent Staple’s essay "Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A's" had various elements that helped provided evidence and persuade the readers. The first thing I noticed when reading this essay was the comparison between the marketplace and college. This comparison helps to develop Staple’s argument because it explains something that is unfamiliar by comparing it to something that is more familiar. I can assume that the target readers were business men and women. Since I am unfamiliar with some business terms, I found that this essay explained something that was unfamiliar with something else that was unfamiliar.

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Throughout the essay, Charles Murray stresses the idea that college is the wonderland of finding oneself and to find the career that one would want to follow for the rest of their lives. “College is seen as the open sesame to a good job and a desirable way for adolescents to transition to adulthood. Neither reason is as persuasive as it first appears.” Murray, C (2008) Practically spoken, this is not normally the case. College is a fair amount of work, much more work than one would normally acquire through any course of a high school or secondary school setting.

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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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They realize this is a vicious circle, because everything cost so much they are under more pressure to find a high paying job to have a stable life later, and they forget about dreams they may have at doing something they truly enjoy. Zinsser explains, “Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years-loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation… How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning?” (21). Readers should feel horrible about the unfair pressure that the economy is putting on college students today and want to be able to change it. Another example of how Zinsser uses pathos in this article is the way Zinsser explains how parental pressure is another big issue.

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“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…).

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488 Words | 2 Pages

Editorial cartoons play an important role in shaping today’s society, as a whole. They not only make their audience aware of current events or issues going on in the world, but also allow them to conjure up their own imagination on the matter and think for themselves. To further this concept, cartoonist Gary Varvel, painted a picture of an imperative but also stressful subject, college tuition. This topic has become a major aspect in students’ lives regarding their financial state and most importantly their state of mind overall. Varvel implemented labeling and exaggeration in order to further his argument towards the overwhelming outcome of college tuition.

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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.

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In Charles Murray’s essay “Are Too Many People Going to College,” he believes that the concept of college has changed over the years. According to him, a four-year college is no longer as necessary as it was when it was first created because most jobs requires more on job training. He also adds to his reasoning by mentioning that because of the advancement of internet, physical libraries and the physical proximity of student and teachers is less important. Because of the changes he noticed he believes that people should go to college but not for liberal education. He makes the claim that the basic core knowledge of liberal education should be learned in elementary and middle school and that only people with high academic abilities should be encouraged to go to college.

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