Alec Anderson

Professor Justin Jory

English 2010

24 February 2019

Utahs’ (and the rest of the U.S.) College issues.

When it comes to education, Utah is ranked as #3 in the entire United States(US News).

In the whole world however, the U.S. is ranked #14, but for some reason the ranking list only

compares 40 countries out of all 195. A possibility is that the other countries are so far behind

that they can’t compare to the 40 that are listed. The best analogy for this would be if you are 3rd

best player on a basketball team, but you are nowhere near going to the playoffs. So even though

we are third in the country, we still have some work to do when it comes to our education system

to bump up our ranking. One change that comes to mind is to make schooling more efficient and

enjoyable for those attending.

There seems to be the issue of college and universities that are forming more into

businesses to sap poor college students out of the money that they have. In a peer review of an

article about Higher Education, the author and reviewer

say “ They share some of the same concerns, such as the

soaring cost of college; the privileging of trivial research

and professorial and administrative personal interest over

what’s best for students;(Lawler)” The reviewer continues

on talking about how the price increases due to either the

cost of tuition rising or the amount of required credits, thus requiring more semesters to attend,
which means more money spent along with time. It is very obvious that students are not too

happy about it.

There is a good example of one of these students who wrote an article giving their

thoughts on their college experience so far. They start off by saying ​“I don’t know about you, but

I’m not into wasting my time or my money, and with these changes in general education

requirements I feel like I’ve done just that. As a double major, fifth year senior, I find it

annoying that I could have graduated a semester earlier if not for general education credit

requirements that have now been changed.(General Education Changes a General Pain in the

behind.)” The student goes on explaining that not only is it wasting their time and money, their

GPA gets affected when they don’t do so well in

a class. This can be really frustrating when its a

class you have no business taking in the first

place. “Still, I must admit that it’s not all bad;

the shift in the general education requirements to

focus more on global awareness is fantastic. We

definitely need to encourage the importance of knowledge on international matters. Anything

that can be done to break the “dumb American” stereotype is a step in the right direction.”

It is tough to see that stereotype being related to our country, since countries like

Germany and Switzerland have 20% of their population that attended college while the U.S. has

40%. This information comes from a debate called “Too Many Kids Go To College” where two

groups are discussing how attending college is not as beneficial to some than it is to others. The

people on the agreeing side talk a little bit about how it is hard to know what a person is like if
you only know what they got their BA in. “It is not surprising that we have all the horror stories--

which are documented in journal articles and large surveys, not anecdotally-- of kids who take

the easiest possible classes and don’t study. They aren’t there to get an education, they’re there to

get a piece of paper. It is hugely destructive to have created this kind of false credential.(Too

Many)”

In some other countries, there are some that have the thought that they missed some

things that they should have learned in college, but didn’t. A statistic was made from graduates

in the U.K. that think they lack skills or attributes they thought they would learn in school. If I

am reading it right, it is talking about 23% of graduates. ​8% ​Lacking of working world, life

experience or maturity,​ 6%​ Lack of required skills or competencies, ​6%​ Poor attitude,

personality or lack of motivation, ​2%​ Lack of common sense, and ​1%​ Poor education (UK

Department of Education). There are many people who think that education should be more

meaningful rather than the goal of just getting a piece of paper.

 Works Cited:

“Where Does Utah Place in the U.S. News Best States Rankings?” ​U.S. News & World Report​,

U.S. News & World Report, ​www.usnews.com/news/best-states/utah​.

Ranking America​, rankingamerica.wordpress.com/tag/education/.

Lawler, Peter. “Can Teaching Really Matter?” ​Academic Questions​, vol. 24, no. 4, Dec. 2011,

pp. 480–488. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1007/s12129-011-9245-8.

"General Education Changes a General Pain in the behind."​ University Wire​, Apr 04, 2014​.

ProQuest​,

https://search-proquest-com.libprox1.slcc.edu/docview/2024000577?accountid=28671​.

“Too Many Kids Go to College: A Debate.” Films Media Group, 2011,

fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=102595&xtid=58329. Accessed 21 Feb.

2019.

UK Department for Education. "Distribution of Skills and Attributes Lacking among Higher

Education/University Graduates in The United Kingdom (Uk) in 2016." ​Statista - The

Statistics Portal,​ Statista,

www.statista.com/statistics/290883/skills-lacking-among-university-graduates-in-the-unit

ed-kingdom-uk/, Accessed 22 Feb 2019