Martin Estrada

English 1102
Professor Hughes
May 12, 2016
College Education & Success
Whether to Pursue A College Education or Not Too?
Depending on the circles you run in, a person without an education today is
looked down on, stigmatized as uneducated or low class. The more open-minded among
us understand that the richness of a persons mind or life is not necessarily related to their
possession of a college diploma. While it may appear obvious to some that a college
education is connected to a successful life, research shows that there is not a relationship
between the two. Claims have been made that college is not what it is made up to be,
leaving students unprepared for the real world (Bird). While in the past, a college
education was seen as the path to cultural currency rather than financial security, in the
wake of the Great Recession and as college tuition has continued to swell, prospective
students have become more concerned with the pragmatic value of their education. Still,
theres much debate over just how practical an education is: it is no doubt that the critics
just see college education as a waste of money and time. On the other hand, it still has its
proponents who see it as the KEY to a better job, less stress and being more successful
in life. This paper will investigate the academic research associated to this debate in order
to come to a conclusion, that a college education has its positive and negative effects; as a
result having an influence on ones success.

Our country has been struggling financially for the past decade, especially college
students. And as a nation, $1.1 trillion dollars is spent on education$460 billion dollars
on postsecondary education, excluding loans, breaks down to about $27,000 per
graduating student (London). As a result, in 2011, an Associated Press analysis found that
54 percent of graduates were unemployed, forcing many of them to just obtain a job in
something unrelated to their college studies (London). This is so they can start paying
that prolonged loan that was given to help advance their careers, but in reality becomes
a burden holding them back.

(nearly double of what was borrowed 20 years ago.)

According to William Bennett and David Wilezol through years of research for
their book, Is College Worth It, came across the Zombie Generation. It is a group of
college graduates that are suffocating under a mountain of accumulated debt, with a
limited opportunity of employment, who lack or have no acquired skill(s) (London).
Creating dumbfounded students to learn as Charles Lawrence, a communications major
in college and now the producer of Kennedy & Co., the Chicago morning television
show, said, You have to learn all that stuff and youll never use it again. I learned my job

doing it. Similar beliefs were expressed in Value of a College Degree: costs have
outstripped the value of a degree and do not adequately prepare a student for global
economy.

From a list of 1,125 billionaires, at least 73 of them were dropouts at some point
in their career (Farrell). A few of the well-known billionaires are: Bill Gates (Microsoft),
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Steve Jobs (Apple). That clearly isnt something to be
impressed by or indicate that education is worthless. As Gates stressed to Congress,
education is beneficial in other ways, like whom one might meet; for example, in 2000 he
and Steve Ballmer an important role of chief executive of Microsoft (Farrell). That lived
just down the hall from Gates in Harvard (Farrell). So everyone has a different meaning
and purpose in life.
In conclusion, college definitely has its pros and cons. In fact there is no real
evidence that the higher income of college graduates is due to college (Bird). But then
again, statistics showed Americans with four-year college degrees made 98 percent more
an hour on average in 2013 than people without a degree (Leonhardt).

A solution to this debate is fairly clearly. If a student decides to attend an opinion

they might purse is going to apursue higher education, they might consider community
college in order to save money with spikes in tuition. In 2012 in efforts to collect and
analyze date data, an organization called College Measures worked with 5 five states:
Arkansas, Colorado, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia (Schnieder). That showed results that
more than 1 million students earned an associates degree, making it the second most
common postsecondary credential granted in the nation (Schnieder). Some short-term
higher education credentials are worth as much as long-term ones (Schnieder).
Ultimately the decision is all personal keeping in mind the kind of life style one wants to
live. So if one believes

Martin
Overall, a good start. This essay is well-researched. Though as you know, its still very
one-sided. It explores how college opponents came to their perspective, but what about
college proponents? What do they value? Do they value cultural currency over
guaranteed financial gain?
Also, what do college opponents propose instead? Do they argue that our country should
return to the apprenticeship programs that are all but extinct?
If neither side acknowledges the complexity of this decisiondifferent majors have
different rates of employment, some students value cultural capital while others value
financial capital, some students will get full-ride scholarships while others must pay
tuition entirely on their own, and so onits up to you, the mediator, to point this out.
You should explain where the two sides agree and the look toward a solution.
See marginal comments for more details.
I look forward to reading your final draft!

But I think that college is what you make of it. It can be the best time of your life, but
only if you want it to. You can take the pessimistic view about it and think that college is
a waste of money, or it can be looked at as a challenging and exciting new frontier that
basically will set the precedent for the rest of your life.

A article by Caroline Bird dating back to the 1970s has many similar and still to this day
debates about some of the issues going on now with college not being beneficial

To escape such a burden, some students are going for badges and certificates instead of a
college degree. These could be the way of the future. (hallam)
We cry about the rising costs of medical care, but college tuitions are rising almost twice
as fast. Business Insider reports that medical costs have increased 326 percent since
1983. College tuition costs have increased 645 percent. (hallam)

A middle way to this debate has to be the concept that Caroline Bird pointed out is
just giving that student the money he/she would spend on their education and instead
have them invest it resulting in a better investment.

Proving that at times it can be wasteful. Some students just dont have the same
opportunities.

Works Cited
Bird, Caroline. "Testing-a Waste of Time and Money?" Tribology International 11.4 (1975):
232. Print.
Changing expectations of college: America's long love affair with a four-year college education
may be undergoing a shift." Phi Delta Kappan 97.3 (2015): 54. Student Resources in
Context. Web. 17 April 2016.
College- Is it Worth it?. 123HelpMe.com. 6 May 1998 Web. 08 May 2016

Farrell, Andrew. "The World's Richest Dropouts." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 June 2008.
Web. 01 May 2016.
Hallam, Andrew. "Is College A Waste of Time And Money?" Assetbuilder. N.p., 9 July 2014.
Web. 3 May 2016.
Leonhardt, David. "Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 26 May 2014. Web. 3 Apr. 2016.
London, Herbert. College: Who Profits? Academic Questions 26.3 (2013): 360-365.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 April 2016.
Schneider, Mark. "Does education pay? Yes and no. It depends on what, where, and how long
one studies--but the outcomes do not align with conventional wisdom." Issues in Science
and Technology 30.1 (2013): 33+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2016.
Value of a College Degree. Issues & Controversies. Infobase Learning, 2 Oct. 2009. Web. 2
May 2016.