Students go to college in search of knowledge, a new lifestyle, and the hope of a job after graduation. For many young adults, college is a rite of passage into an independent, mature new lifestyle. Not only is higher education a rite of passage, for some, it is also an opportunity to have a better life. Overall, college is a wonderful part of many people’s lives, yet the way the college education system is conducted wastes students time and money. College is basically composed of two parts: general education classes and major specific classes. General education courses are the source of wasted time and money, and should not be required of students. A few of the problems associated with general education classes are that they are basically a repeat of high school, unfortunately they can be the demise of students, they are costly, and they waste time.
The transition from high school to college is supposed to be freeing and exciting for students, yet general education requirements make it the opposite. Jaime Wandschneider, writer for Iowa State Daily, says, “From the start of our first semester, general education classes fill the credit count towards our graduation. These courses are supposed to turn young, fresh college students into well-rounded adults”. General education classes do exactly what he says: they fill: they are fillers: somewhat educational and very pointless. Many of the first and second year courses feel like a repeat from high school. As a freshman, I am taking algebra, and I can attest completely that this class is absolutely pointless to me. Does it makes sense that a freshman in college would be taking the same math as a freshman in high school? No, absolutely not, but that is the case for me, and unfor...
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...eat of high school, potentially detrimental to a student’s study plan, and a waste of money and time.
Works Cited
Anderson, Nancy. “13 Ways College Students Waste Money and Opportunities.” Forbes. Forbes.com, 8 August 2013. Web. 24 March 2014.
Pracz, Alyssa. “General Education Courses are a Waste of Time and Money.” Northern Star. Northern Star Online, 13 April 2011. Web. 24 March 2014.
U.SDebtClock.org. Durst Organization, n.d. Web. 25 March 2014.
Wandschneider, Jaime. “General Education Requirements Waste Students' Time.” Iowa State Daily. Iowa State, 29 January 2014. Web. 24 March 2014.
Welt, Bill. “Gen Eds Waste Time and Money.” The Western Courier. Western Illinois University, 30 January 2013. Web. 24 March 2014.
Zavislak, Alyssa. “Are General Education Requirements a Waste?” The Cornellian. Cornell University, 10 October 2013. Web. 24 March 2014.
In Frank Bruni’s New York Time’s article, “The Imperiled Promise of College,” he argues that college is no longer a guarantee of success because students are not being properly motivated and guided into the programs that will provide them with jobs.
Luigie Olmos Instructor: Danielle Panto English 105 November 28, 2016 Reaching For A Better Education Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (2016). Mandela’s says that education is very powerful, you can use education to change the world or your life. This means that education is important in life and we all need a good education to succeed in life. In our society education is failing because schools demand too much for a great career. For example, schools take too much time to graduate and after we finish school there is no guaranteed employment. Therefore, students are dropping out of school and are going to the workforce or military. We could make education better for students
Lankford, Ronald D. "Chapters 2 and 3." The Rising Cost of College. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2009. N. pag. Print.
Pharinet. ""Is College for Everyone'"." Practical Argument: A Text and Anthology. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 635-636. Print.
While some say that college is a good investment due to its tendency to grow a student's character and intellectual ability, the downsides to college sorely outweigh the potential benefits that it has. While college does grow a student in multiple ways, “57% say that the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend.”(Doc F). This majority opinion demonstrates that the growth you can achieve in college is sorely outweighed by its economic cost, and not worth doing.
The argument about if college is worth it or not has been one of the biggest arguments throughout the media for decades. Students suffer a lot from the debts that they get from college and also the amount of studying that they do in college and when they graduate they ask themselves “is graduation from college really worth all the money that we paid and all the work that we have done?”
Bird, Caroline. "College is a Waste of Time and Money." The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Expository Prose. 9th ed. Ed. Linda H. Peterson et. al. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 481-490.
Hart, Jeffrey. "How to Get a College Education." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 126 - 131.
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.
Meaning that it could potentially be a waste of time since it’s not focusing on what their future is planned on. By not focusing on preparing the student for the job they are planning on doing for their career it makes them feel like they are in need of more schooling to be better prepared or none at all. Along with having to attend more school they are also paying for more classes that have nothing to do with the major they are wanting to accomplish. Even when they assist you with finding a career it is not the one you planned on doing. It is along the lines of it but not exactly what you look for by then they try to convince you of another branch of the career that will make more money or push for better success when in reality it will only keep you in school longer. “Teacher, engineers, and other I’ve talked to said that on the job they rarely use what they learned in school” (Bird 378). Meaning that it is actually quite true that many of the courses taken throughout these years of college are in fact pointless and doesn’t fulfil the actual requirement for the job field they are aspiring for. Making it seem as if they are just paying for courses to stay busy until there are job openings in the field in which they are looking for. This can make students feel unneeded in the adult life also it can make them feel as if they are just being put
Pharinet. “Is College for Everyone?” Practical Argument. Ed. Lauren G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 635-636. Print.
Secondly, college is where a person goes to discover him/herself. This is one of the many goals of the college system, and that discovery process is hindered by unneeded, mandatory classes. Students should be able to try many different classes to discover what interests them the most, not to be fed knowledge that they very well might know already (and is perhaps of no interest to them). If required courses were eliminated, it would free up much time that students could then use to pursue their own interests. College exists to help people become unique individuals, not to put every person into the same standard mold.
In Louis Menand’s “Live and Learn: Why We Have College” he discusses his three theories about the purpose of higher education. The first theory says “college is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test”(57). This meritocratic theory is saying that “society wants to identify intelligent people early on … to get the most of its human resources” and college is the machine that does the sorting (57). The second theory, the democratic one, claims the point of college is not to pick out the elite. Rather, the point is to “expose future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them” (58). The third theory explains how “advanced economies demand specialized knowledge and skills, and, since high school is aimed at the general learner, college is where people can be taught what they need in order to enter a vocation” (62). All three theories have their
Parsons, Btuce. “Budget Cuts Multiply Students Debts.” The Trail Blazer Online. 18 February 2004. Morehead State University. 18 February 2004. <www.trailblazeronline.net>
Rumberger, Russell. “Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It” (Dec 19, 2012)