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College Students Pressured to Succeed
College is a dream for everyone that wants to succeed. College is also not so easy for everyone to accomplish. Having a degree in any area is great but does everyone know what you had to go through in order to get a degree. Many of the pressures students faced in the 1970s have remained the same but over time some have changed extremely to affect the college life of a student today. Recently tuition is at a very high rate compared to back in the 1970s. Today many students are pressure to succeed they put their own health at risk in order to pass a class and an exam. Students also face social pressure from friends and family.
Tuition for college admissions today has risen up to 8% since the 1970s. This pressure is different from the students in the 1970s. Their tuition was much lower than today. One semester in a
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Imagine having the pressure of your parents to succeed in something you are not interested in. It must be difficult to succeed in something you don’t like. When Zinsser writes, “Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They’re paying all this money and…” (453), the reader can agree that parental pressure still affects the students today. Many students are pressured by their own parents so succeed they follow a path where they find themselves tangled in guilt and stress. Guilt for not succeeding in what their parents want and paid for, and stress for being overwhelmed over passing classes, trying to keep a high GPA, and passing classes with nothing other than A’s. When Zinsser states, “Poor Students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt” (453), the reader can sympathize with Zinsser because as a son/daughter they want to make their parents proud and as a parent they want the best for their
Every student Pope interviews explains that their high marks in their classes are a result of working themselves extremely hard in order to fulfill someone’s expectations. Kevin Romoni, a tenth grader at Faircrest, for instance, reveals his real intentions for high school are not to fully connect with his classes, but simply to just “get into college and make his parents happy”(9). The high amount of pressure put on Kevin distracts him from the primary goal of attending and excelling in school, which is to become engrossed in learning and motivated to succeed by a genuine interest in the subjects. Also seeking her parents’ approval, Michelle Spence feels so stressed about receiving excellent grades to be accepted into a college her parents will commend, she “[cries] all the time from stress….and contemplated dropping out of school”(83), despite already being a straight-A student. Although her parents might be attempting to encourage her, the competitive atmosphere at school is too frantic. It is devastating that students are completely overwhelmed by parents’ attempts at motivation, and I believe that their stress will not reduce until the expectations set for them are not pressed as forcefully. The stressful environment students live in leads to their disengagement in learning, which creates even more stressful
It is the American dream to get out of high school and to start working towards your degree, right? Perusing a degree in the United States is not as dream like for some students. Many factors such as the learning environment, where you come from, and the knowledge and will power can shape how the higher education experience can go. While not all of these factors necessarily point to a rough or tough college experience, but also show that we as a nation could help our students be more educated and prepared to pursue and finish a degree. All students should be given equal opportunity and tools to become a successful member of society.
Zinsser’s work entitled “College Pressures” intent to expose a critical flaw within the educational system, in hope that it will encourage students to relax when it come to their academic success. Zinsser’s is doing more than illustrates a difficult situation, he is enforcing new ideas and principle just as: academic freedom and freedom to explore career opportunities without judgement and criticism from the school system and their parents. By enforcing these principle Zinsser’s hopes to awaken a new era where students are free from pressured sales tactics from both parents and society when come to academic success.
As the economy evolves and the job market continues to get more competitive, it’s becoming harder to have a successful career without some kind of college degree. This creates a belief in many young students that college actually is a commodity, something they must have in order to have a good life. There’s many different factors that influence this mindset, high schools must push the importance of the student’s willingness and drive to further their education. College isn’t just a gateway to jobs, but it is an opportunity to increase knowledge and stretch and challenge the student which in return makes them a more rounded adult and provides them with skills they might lack prior to
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college tuition and relevant fees have increased by 893 percent (“College costs and the CPI”). 893 percent is a very daunting percentage considering that it has surpassed the rise in the costs of Medicare, food, and housing. As America is trying to pull out of a recession, many students are looking for higher education so they can attain a gratified job. However, their vision is being stained by the dreadful rise in college costs. College tuition is rising beyond inflation. Such an immense rise in tuition has many serious implications for students; for example, fewer students are attending private colleges, fewer students are staying enrolled in college, and fewer students are working in the fields in which they majored in.
Since the 1980’s the cost of attending colleges have increased rapidly. Rising costs of for Medicare, highways and prisons have caused many states to reduce a percentage of their budget for higher education. Colleges and Universities currently face a very serious challenge:
This shift in university life has caused the emergence of a more focused and hard-working student body. There are those from past generations who will look at the happenings of colleges today and ridicule this change. And even after moving through the nostalgic haze that surrounds the memories of the past, the differences can still be seen, but it should be known that today's students are just adapting to the system that has already been established for them. This systematic change is to be expected. Considering that the world is not the same as it was in the 1960s, why would we assume that an institution would be exactly the same as it was
Caroline Bird writes the statement in her 1975 article “The Case Against College (Bird 15-18)” that not every high school graduate is ready to attend college. It is 2010 and this article is still valid today. Some of the college students I have been around were not mature enough for obedience school let alone college. A few of the points she makes in the article are: College has never worked its magic for everyone. Does it make you a better person? Are colleges responsible for your children? Are my children living in a country club? I will use some of my own experiences as an example of college life, as well as examples from my daughter’s college experience, along with my nephews as well. All to find the answer to the big question: Are you ready for a college education?
Societal pressures are one of the major contributors which cause students to mainly focus on future rewards instead of appreciating the present. Alfie Kohn describes parents as someone “who seems to care less about their children’s well-being than their SAT scores and the thickness
College students seem to worry too much about their futures and how financially sound they want to be when they graduated from college. Therefore, this unnecessary worry has hindered many students from channeling their positive energy into something they love to do. They think they need to have it all figured out now. Thus, they forget to take creative classes that will aid in open-mindedness. William Zinsser, the author of “College Pressures”, speaks about the four types of pressures on college students. These pressures are economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is however common to see some of these pressures affect college students. I believe that some college students if not all can relate to all of the aforementioned pressures.
First of all, many high school graduates cannot handle college. Isabel V. Sawhill and Stephanie Owen describe college as a place, “one can obtain a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree”. The work load outside of the classroom could be compared to working a full time job. For example, if a student is enrolled in four college courses and is in class a minimum of four hours the student should spend at least four to six hours of studying. This may be extremely agitating and stressful to a student that is not good at studying. The new college student may realize that the schoolwork is too much for him to handle and instead drop out. In Pharinet’s blog post, Is College for Everyone? He states that “…it is estimated that in the U.S., approximately 50% of students who begin college never graduate. There exist students who are not yet ready for the academic and financial challenges of college. There exist students who do not have the desire for college or learning.” This statement is important because if 50% of students that begin college never gradua...
In the essay, he states that he sees “four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure” (398). He goes on to explain what goes through the minds of college students when dealing with the four stated pressures as well as academic pressures. While putting the thoughts of college students on display, Zinsser emphasizes the stress that they are forced to succumb to due to the stated pressures. He 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. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth” (400). In the quote, Zinsser explains the economical aspect of the four listed pressures. He clarifies that most students who pursue higher education do not graduate unscathed from school loans. He then questions his audience on the rationality of a college student going through school without thinking about the large sums of money that must be repaid by them: “How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning?” (400). This description helps Zinsser effectively explain to his audience the hardship of dealing with just one of the four pressures he enumerated. Zinsser also uses rhetorical questions to let the audience know that he respects their point of view but also to further his own point. When explaining how parents would rather their children enroll in courses that will lead them to a financially fulfilling degree, Zinsser answers the question that audience members are thinking: “Where’s the payoff on the humanities? It’s not easy to persuade such loving
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
Family pressure and lack of family support are a few of the many causes of college student to stress about their financial standing needed to attend college. A peer in my class, Alex, is the youngest child; he is being pressured by his father to attend college because he is the last of his siblings to have a chance at working towards a well paying job. Alex also faces family pressures to attain a high grade point average in hope of earning benefits towards insurance and other expenses. Yet, he still lacks financial support towards his college education. Even if Alex were to get financial help from his family, he would still feel the pressure to attain a job to reduce the stress about making financial ends meet. I also face similar challenges as Alex, in my situation I have had a lack of support. My mother is a single parent with a high school diploma being her highest degree of education. With the lack of financial income that comes with only having to rely on my mother income, she wanted me to start working to help her pay bills and other pending expenses. She understands why I am pursuing a college education, but also knows that with me working full time can help ease our financial stress, which if attending college will only increase our current expenses. Putnam states in the book Our Kids, “To be sure, less educated parents, with narrower cultural horizons and less familiarity with advance education,
I believe that the biggest challenge college students face today are personal responsibility and time management. In college, there is a lot of freedom given since you're now and adult and your parents are out of your hair, but for some students, that may be a lot of responsibility for them to take on. Since they're on their own, they have to know how to govern themselves accordingly. Some students fall into the new adult world around them and begin to slip with schoolwork and begin to lose track with their grades. Time Management also seems to play a big position in the adversity that they face. In college, I know that you get to decide what time you go to your classes and