Increase in Nontraditional College Students
Seven Works Cited A 1995 report from the National Center for Education Statistics reveals that 76 million American adults, 40 percent of the adult population, are enrolled in adult education classes, an 8 percent increase from 1991 ("Adults Thrive"). Nearly 50 percent of the 14.2 million college and university students in the United States are over twenty-four years of age, and the percentage is rising (Mathews w22). Enrollment in degree programs at the University of Phoenix, the University of Denver, and Regis University, schools catering to working adults, has almost doubled in the last five years (Scanlon 3A). Between the reporting years 1985-86 and 1996-97, nationwide enrollment increased 11 percent among students between the ages of 25-29, 5 percent among 30- to 34-year-olds, and a whopping 65 percent for those 35 years old and older (Hussar 4). What explains the increase in the enrollment of nontraditional1 college students? The causes are many and range from changes in the job market and the work environments to a desire for a more rewarding career and to an increasing U.S. population.
One reason for the enrollment increase is job changes and company downsizing. As companies adjust to ever-changing economic conditions, many people find themselves unemployed and look to a college education to help them attain different or better jobs. And it is not only newly hired, younger employees who are the unfortunate casualties of corporate downsizing. Tonye Nelson had been an accounting clerk for twenty years. On March 2, 1996, she arrived at work only to be told she had been laid off because of company down...
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...: w22. Online. Lexis-Nexis. 2 Nov. 1998.
Pickard, Marilyn. Personal interview. 19 Nov.1998.
Rich, Kim. "College Pays." Anchorage Daily News 4 Aug 1996: D.1. Online. Proquest. 19 Nov.1998.
Scanlon, Bill. "Adult Education; Colorado Colleges Reach Out to the Grown-Up Crowd." Rocky Mountain News S Apr.1998: F.3A. Ouline. Lexis-Nexis. 2 Nov.1998.
1 Students between the ages of 14 and 24 are commonly considered traditional students, whale those aged 25 or older are considered nontraditional.
2 The baby-boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, comprises 76-77 million individuals, an average of 4.2 million births per year. The next generation of individuals, born between 1965 and 1978, sometimes called the baby-bust generation or Generation x, averaged only 3.4 million births per year.
When you think of a typical college student you may think of a young adult around 18 to 22 years old. You may also think of someone with little world experience that’s off on their own for the first time in their short life. Surprisingly, there has been a recent phenomenon with an increase in older people now attending post-secondary education, specifically the baby boomer generation. Libby Sander, a staff reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, explores this topic in an article called “Blue-Collar Boomers Take Work Ethic to College” (782). Sander combines the use of all three rhetorical appeals throughout her article to successfully argue that the wave of baby boomers enrolled in postsecondary education is changing the perception
Bruenig, Matt. “The Case Against Free College.” The New Republic. The New Republic, 5 October
”The pro-life movement seeks to force their moral beliefs on others - grounded in their own religion or personal philosophy. The pro-choice movement doesn 't make claims on the morality of abortion - we leave that as an individual choice for every woman faced with an unwanted pregnancy. If they feel abortion is wrong and they want to give their child up for adoption, or keep it, we will support their decision. Pro-life people say "Abortion is wrong;" we only say
Over the past few years, people have begun to see going to college as a way to achieve the American Dream through career-readiness. People used to go to college, hoping to get a better well-rounded education. For most the well-rounded education, it usually came with the courses required for a liberal arts education. The courses would provide a level of analytical and in-depth understanding that would prepare the students for both life and whichever career path chosen. No matter the amount of money paid, parents would be willing to gi...
Losco, Joseph, and Brian L. Fife. Higher Education in Transition. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2000. 51. Print.
Critics contend that the influx of nontraditionals into the college student market has accelerated a trend toward the “massification” of collegiate education – that is, that it has led to a watered down pedagogy that is far below the goals and expectation of the elite colleges. Nonetheless, the improvements in education oriented toward accommodation of the nontraditional student have had the practical effect of making college more affordable and accessible to all classes of people.
Mercogliano, Chris. "Preparing Students for a Twenty-First Century Adulthood: Missing the Boat and the Harbor Too." Encounter 2005: 18-23. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Jan. 2012.
I approached Pennstate this past August with a great deal of anxiety, interest, and excitement. I had no clue what school would be like, and I knew that I would have to learn how to adjust to my new student life. The rapid adaptation I would need is one that would be comparable a scientist in a lab, trying to discover a cure for the new strain of flu virus that would thrust the world into an unnecessary panic.
Murray, Charles. "Are Too Many People Going to College?" The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute 8 September 2008.
“In everyday life, men and women make decisions that affect the life and death of existing people. They decide whether to join the army; whether to donate blood, a kidney, or bone marrow to a child; whether to give money to Save the Children instead of buying a new sweater; whether to decline a life-saving blood transfusion; whether to drive a small fort on walls that may protect passengers in a crash but often kills those in less substantial vehicles” (Borgmann 23).
Murray, Charles. "Are There Too Many People Going to College?" They Say, I Say. 2nd ed. N.p.: WW Norton&Company Incorporated, 2011. N. pag. Print.
Those who adamantly oppose abortion are regarded as pro-life and those who are supporters of abortion are considered pro-choice by contemporary standards. Even among those who advocate abortion, there are discrepancies in their views such as up until what point in the pregnancy is abortion morally permissible. In my opinion, abortion is morally permissible at any stage in a woman’s pregnancy. This is ethically acceptable because a woman should have the right to control what goes on within her body. Along with this, fetuses are still far from personhood (having the qualities of a human being); therefore, we cannot liken abortion to any variety of murderous activity.
Current figures on the employment rate amongst college graduates leads students to think that a college education ensures a desirable job. From guidance counselors, to popular media sources, young adults are constantly being pushed towards pursuing a college education...
...; I like to believe that I've accepted my self-induced isolation from her with grace, but I must admit that I do hold the hope of bridging the gap between my mother and I. I also hold the hope of amending myself for all the times I've knowingly and purposefully hurt her. Although she is not a god, as I originally assumed, she is a good woman. She has raised me, sheltered me, and loved me for over seventeen years without asking for more than casual chores in return. I believe that the greatest compliment I could ever give my mother is to grow up to be exactly what she wants me to be. I want to make her happy. My gift to her will be my success in life, so that when she's old and gray, and she's knitting me a hideous sweater in her creaky rocking chair, she can sigh, and mumble to herself, "Wow, it was worth it."
When I needed to talk, she listened. When I was ill, she healed me. When I was hungry, she fed me. This frail woman whom I call my mom was a superwoman while I was growing up. With wisdom, she guided; with tenderness, she spoke; and with love, she raised me. Although we were very poor, my mother made it a point always to give me a present on my birthday.