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Preston Johnson
Ms. Wolverton
English 1010
11 December, 2012
To Attend College, Or Not to Attend College?
Textbooks, pencils, papers, whiteboards, laptops, essays, dorms, chairs, tables,
professors, a plethora of Top Ramen, and still much more, all paid for to add to the
college experience. So many little and large things contribute to a student’s life during
this time that it can all get a bit confusing for the large number of students still thinking
about their future path in life. Is higher education worth the price? As tuition rises,
students feel the weight of that ball and chain more heavily. I will discuss what benefits
colleges offer, the importance of students’ decisions, and the misunderstandings of
student debt. A long time on-going literate conversation asks if it’s worth the wait after
relieving the burden of student debt.
And by a long time, I mean about 376 years, back in 1636 when Harvard was
founded. Harvard was actually the first higher education establishment in North America,
setting the way for the numerous colleges that we can choose from today. Few colleges
really existed back then, and money was very tight for them. Colleges were mostly
dependent on religious benefactors to provide donations to them. These religions made
donations because “the colleges argued that by educating young Christian men,
missionaries would be available to preach Christianity to Native Americans” (Thelin,
Edwards, and Moyen). From 1800-1850, many colleges were built, but this influx of
colleges drove down prices to the point where many of these new colleges failed. As
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Harvard and other older colleges can boast more elite or distinguished programs, they
began pushing their prices up though for their premium education service. This drove up
prices for all colleges, resulting in what our tuition is today. So why do people continue
to go to college despite the constantly growing tuition price tag (Thelin, Edwards, and
Moyen)?
Much has changed since the early period of higher education in America. Tuition
prices may be higher, but the number of opportunities for has vastly grown as well. There
are a few thousand colleges across the United States, hundreds of majors to choose from,
and an endless job prospective for each major. The debate about whether higher
education is worth the price is more about opportunity and decision-making than
anything else.
The problems now are really about the unknowns and misperceptions of college.
Students are often asking what the true benefits of college are and if they outweigh the
probable debt students will encounter. Student debt is often misunderstood and can seem
daunting or inescapable. Is that really true? Or are we just hearing the worst of the worst
situations? No individual person’s life is going to be the same as another’s. Too many
environmental factors play into every person in the world to have two be the same. So
doesn’t that mean that we can never really know what the future will hold for an
individual? Students are being faced with many decisions; they have to figure out which
choices are the right ones to make. After all, there is so much to a college experience that
often gets overlooked at first. Then, when the various problems and questions suddenly
pop up in a student’s face, life get really confusing, really fast. Wrong decisions can be
made and influence how the student’s time at college turns out. Considering all of this,
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let’s get down to some of the current thoughts on this whole matter.
College is usually thought to be educational merely from a specialized job
perspective. After paying the price, students go and choose a major, which then typically
only prepares them for a single career. Unfortunately, sometimes we forget about the
experience of it all and what it takes to get through college. We forget the life lessons it
teaches us and all the other academic studies we can enjoy. College can be a time of selfdiscovery and a chance to expand your mind. While you can be going to college merely
to prepare yourself for one career, chances are that you’ll come out of the experience as a
changed individual, ready to take on life with determination and help contributes to your
community. College provides students with a broader mindset that allows them to
appreciate more things and therefore relate to and better enjoy their community.
College is quite a general term though when you think about the different types
that there are. Different experiences can be derived through these different options for a
higher education. Some argue that a traditional four-year university will prepare you best
to gain a suitable economic standing in your life. Others believe that a liberal-arts
education improves your life by broadening your mind to various topics. By doing so, it’s
argued that with a broader mind, you’re prepared for many career options instead of just
one. This could be very important as our economy is forever changing and requires new
job sets with each passing decade. Perhaps a two-year community college would be a
better choice for those looking to get their feet wet in higher education first before
jumping into a university or something larger. As long as you’re prepared to pay the
price, any of these options are yours to choose from.
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What about those prices though? Why must tuition continue to rise? Are colleges
doing enough with the money they’re given to provide a quality education? We’ve
mentioned the life experiences it can provide, but college really comes down to whether
the money you deposited brought you back with a positive investment. You’ve probably
heard many stories about troubles with student debt. We must wonder though if it’s
actually the students’ fault for not paying better attention to their personal financial
situation. Colleges can only do so much after all. Colleges also are in charge of hiring
professors, admitting new students, managing their professors and students, controlling
and improving their campus, etc. Is this too much to ask? This may actually be why
colleges are driving tuition prices higher and higher. There are so many aspects to look at
that it’s hard to make a single judgment decision on such a broad topic.
Rather than blame either colleges or students for being the problem with the
prices, we can suggest that focusing more on an individual’s situation is better than
generalizing the college experience for the hundreds of thousands that currently attend
them. Colleges offer different experiences only because individuals make their own
decisions. Sometimes the price is definitely the problem for someone, but that someone is
just one other individual. There are ways for students to get that positive return
investment if they truly make the most out of their time at college and afterwards in their
career. After doing some research, it’s definitely easy to see that some colleges are much
less cost expensive than others. Going back to separate types of colleges, a community
college is going to be much less expensive than a liberal-arts college. A four-year
university would fall somewhere in-between the two of those, depending on where you
choose to attend.
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So how do we make any overall judgment decisions for a topic that is obviously
so broad? This particular topic has actually been discussed by many people who’ve
gathered research and pondered these problems. By reflecting on their literary works, we
can hopefully learn from their various ways of thinking and compile our own opinions on
the matter. Some disagree with others, but an opinion is never undeniable. We need to
consider all of the viewpoints and then see what connections can be made between them.
Not just regarding the money involved with college, we will also learn these writers’
beliefs on thinking openly, appreciation, and being wise in your choices.
Our world today, including our economy, is constantly changing. Students almost
always wonder if college is the best financial decision to follow for their life. Not all
businesses are all that they seem to be. Even higher education institutions are capable of
falling short in their responsibilities. Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, authors of Are
Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?, comment that, “[Colleges] have lost track of
their basic mission to challenge the minds of young people” (180). In other words,
Hacker and Dreifus don’t believe that colleges are doing what they’re supposed to be
doing with all of the money that they are paid with. Hacker and Dreifus go on to list
many ways and examples of how colleges could be more efficient with their money and
responsibilities. A few of these mainly suggest students should be more actively engaged
and pushed to use their minds. Similarly, Ken Robinson’s speech Changing Education
Paradigms agrees, arguing that we should encourage stimulating students more. In fact,
Robinson blames “ADHD” as being a fictitious disorder, “We are getting our children
through education by anaesthetizing them; and I think we should be doing the exact
opposite. We shouldn’t be putting them to sleep, we should be waking them up”
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(Robinson). In other words, Robinson is saying that instead of using relaxants to calm
children down, teachers should stimulate them more in order to make them enjoy the
learning instead of just getting them through it. By doing these things, college can be
more worthwhile for the large sums of money that students spend.
Robinson also pushes that students should broaden their minds to think
“divergently.” Robinson means that this will best prepare them for the unpredictable
economic future, where new jobs may rise up and old ones disappear (Robinson). This
“divergent thinking” means being creative and open to new ideas or theories. Imagine a
world where everyone was always imagining remarkable new ideas and collaborating to
revolutionize our communities. If everyone thought divergently, maybe we could come
up with cures for cancer, create a more diplomatic world, get rid of poverty, etc.
Obviously this isn’t exactly probable, but higher education institutions are hopefully
trying to at least help out in this vision. Thinking openly seems to be a recurring theme
for this topic. For example, Liz Addison, writer of Two Years Are Better Than Four,
argues that college opens your mind as a student. “[Colleges] offer a network of
affordable future, of accessible hope, and an option to dream,” remarks Addison (214). In
other words, she means that colleges can offer you a form of self-discovery that will
benefit you for the rest of your life. Life lessons are rather invaluable if they improve the
quality of your life. Why not find out who you really are? If you do so, it would be a
whole lot easier to find and play to your strengths, or find and improve your weaknesses.
Specifically, Addison advocates community colleges for inspiring her journey of
self-discovery (212). This shows the importance of picking what kind of college is best
for a student with their specific needs. Sanford J. Ungar’s The New Liberal Arts, on the
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other hand, suggests that a liberal-arts degree may be the better option though. Ungar
says, “Through immersion in liberal arts, students learn not just to make a living, but also
to live a life rich in values and character” (196). Ungar means that liberal arts colleges
not only open your mind, but also enrich your life and help you to better contribute to
your community. Each college suits individuals at different levels. Some students may
not be ready for that premium level of education. Maybe a community college would be a
better starter package for those students, so that they can get their feet wet in education.
Others may be very ready in terms of academics and education, but don’t have the funds
to pay for a university degree. Each student has their own needs and circumstances. If we
apply this thought to students’ finances, we need to remember that it’s the student who
makes the decision of how to handle their money. Robin Wilson’s A Lifetime of Student
Debt? Not Likely says, “More often, the problem among students who go heavily into
debt is that they are determined to attend their dream college, no matter the cost” (257).
In other words, Wilson is saying that students often disregard what their wallet is saying
and choose the wrong college experience for themselves. Every student needs to do their
research and contemplate the different advantages and disadvantages for each college
opportunity. A mouse doesn’t climb shelves to get full cookies, it goes for the crumbs
because that’s what’s best for the mouse’s circumstances and needs. It sounds silly when
you put it that way, but why try and bite off more than you can even chew?
An overall benefit that a college can provide and what students should strive for,
is to gain a better understanding and appreciation for everything in your life. This helps
you to better appreciate and benefit your community. Graff called everyone’s interesting
way of learning as being their “hidden intellectualism” (380). Mike Rose’s Blue Collar
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Brilliance particularly reaches out to blue-collar workers who otherwise usually don’t
gain much appreciation and aren’t recognized for their hard, intricate, work. “If we think
that whole categories of people…are not that bright, then we reinforce social separations
and cripple our ability to talk across cultural divides,” says Rose (254). He means that
broadening your mind and taking appreciation in less-commendable things benefits not
only your own life, but those of your community. Going to college has the benefit of
helping you to follow Rose’s advice. After all, who doesn’t want to help bring together
their community? Everyone strives for greatness in their life. Why not just learning how
to better show respect and appreciate more things? Lastly, David Foster Wallace’s
Kenyon Commencement Speech shows us that life is really about what you make it.
Wallace believes, “The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are
hardest to see and talk about” (199). Basically, Wallace explains that appreciating the
smaller things will make your life and influence that much more substantial. This is very
similar to Rose’s ideas, but generalizes the appreciation aspect more, saying that we
should appreciate even the most blatant things. Think for a second about the numerous
objects you’ve seen in the last half hour. How many of those did you stop and wonder
how they came to exist? How did those products come to be invented? How are they
manufactured? How many uses can you find for each one? How many people have used
one of those particular products? We could go on to apply questions to nature, people,
idealisms, etc. There are so many questions we could ask about each part of our life, yet
most of us don’t even notice the mundane intricacies that make up our world. David
Foster Wallace would like you to go to college so that you may learn how to open your
mind to this broader way of thinking appreciatively.
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For a conversation that’s been truly going for hundreds of years since the first
days of Harvard, it seems there should be a little more words, right? Well there is still a
lot left to be explained and pondered by other divergent thinkers. If we think creatively,
maybe we can find the questions that actually need to be answered to solve this problem.
We started with “is higher education worth the price?” After reviewing the different
viewpoints on this insatiable question, curiosity still hammers at the sides of it, hoping to
find the weak spot in the beast.
How much of it is the colleges’ fault as opposed to the students’ fault? We’ve
begun to see that with all of the opportunities that students have, it’s their choice that
decides what happens with their lives. Colleges do have to deal with so much after all;
it’s hard to believe that they should be blamed for the individual students that have bad
experiences. Not all students go to college and regret it after all. Every time you go into a
doctor’s office, you’ll find that esteemed diploma hanging on their wall, boasting of its
own value.
Next, it’s commonly known that the media, in general, usually focuses on the
darker stories. Success stories do happen and are sometimes greatly recognized, but the
number of college students who had a good experience is just too many to be individually
significant. Imagine you turn on the news and there’s a story about a student who feels
cheated in how his time at college went. You’ll most likely feel compassion for the poor
student and blame the selfish college, right? Consider that the student is biased and
maybe didn’t make the right decisions himself. The news only shows this story because it
drives a hidden fear into people, making them more likely to continue watching the news.
That’s not necessarily evil on the media’s part, it’s just how business works. The question
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here is what articles that we read and speeches we hear are actually biased? Are the
success stories being kept from us because they’re simply not attention grabbing enough?
Lastly, what would happen if government were more involved in higher
education? The key word is more for this question. They could possibly tax college
institutions more or just create a federal law to keep tuitions more reasonable. The
government could create a small agency specifically for assessing colleges’ values and
regulating tuitions accordingly. We expect tuition to be kept in check by simple business
mechanics. If students begin to not be able to pay the high prices, they won’t, and then
tuition should go down as a result. However, students are more often using student loans
without realizing the holes that they’ve dug themselves into. So it’s possible that the
government could do more to regulate college prices. This would probably have to
happen on a state government level for convenience purposes, but if a national
government sub-section could help the state governments collaborate together on how
colleges should be handled, a better conclusion could be accomplished.
Overall, college is an experience that everyone should try out. Our open
conversation here teaches us that colleges experiences may differ based on your choices
of where to go and how to make the most of it. College can benefit you most by
providing you with the life skills of divergent thinking and a greater sense of
appreciation. Appreciating the mundane intricacies of life can be well worth the money
that college costs if you make the most of it. Make your own opinions about it as you
experience it, but remember from the beginning that making your own choices is what
matters most.
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Works Cited
Addison, Liz. “Two Years Are Better Than Four.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff,
Cathy Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 211-214.
Print.
Graff, Gerald. “Hidden Intellectualism.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy
Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 386-387. Print.
Hacker, Andrew and Claudia Dreifus. “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?.”
They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed.
New York: Norton, 2012. 179-188. Print.
Robinson, Ken, Sir. "RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube.
YouTube, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 03 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U>.
Rose, Mike. “Blue-Collar Brilliance.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy
Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 243-255. Print.
Thelin, John R., Jason R. Edwards, and Eric Moyen. "Higher Education in the United
States." Stateuniversity.com. Net Industries, 2010. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
Ungar, Sanford J. “The New Liberal Arts.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy
Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 190-196. Print.
Wallace, David Foster. “Kenyon Commencement Speech.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald
Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012.
198-209. Print.
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Wilson, Robin. “A Lifetime of Student Debt? Not Likely.” They Say/I Say. Ed. Gerald
Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russell Durst 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012.
256-272. Print.