Rethinking the Necessity of Four-Year College Education

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Four Year College May Not Be For Everyone Dropouts are on the rise, according to collegeatlas.org, “70% of Americans will study at a 4-year college, but less than 2/3 will graduate” and “30% of college and university students drop out after their first year” (“College Dropout Statistic”). This shows that more people are getting into a four year college but they are not all graduating and many are dropping out. This will cause lots of problems for students in the future. They will acquire more debt with no degree for a potential higher paying job. Usatoday.org says that, “The analysis also finds that in total, a staggering $1.2 trillion is bleeding students dry.” (Rayfield). This shows that the student loan debt is higher than ever and …show more content…

Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur, when he argues “Poor and disadvantaged groups in the U.S. get inferior education—we spend much less on their schools than others. If we do as you say, because their schooling is bad, we would exclude them from the American dream. Also keep in mind that some of the greatest Americans didn 't do well in high school and would not have fared well on standardized tests. They, too, would be left out. So a potential Steve Jobs would be styling hair.”(Weber) He is saying that we shouldn’t just dismiss someone’s right to college because they were not that successful in high school. He believes that someone’s economic background will reduce their chances to be successful. But, all citizens have the right to a free public education from K-12 grade. That means that even those with a lower socioeconomic status in my town got the same exact education that I received. They had the same teachers, the same textbooks, and same environment in school. I just worked harder than they did and I made better grades and higher standardized tests scores and that’s why I am here now. I do not think it would be fair to accept the students that did far worse than me in to college when they haven’t put the same amount of work as I have into it. Again, if everyone goes to college then soon people will all together stop trying in high school. Students will not work as hard, because they know they …show more content…

If we accept more and more people into college, the college lowers its standards and the four year degree is nowhere near as important as it once was. This will just cause employers to look for people with higher degrees to do the job and will put more students in debt because they will have to go to school for more years in order to achieve a higher degree desired by the employer. If college entry and graduation requirements are more rigorous, then a college degree will be more valuable I believe this will also make high school students work harder to be able to get into the college they want. This will how students that maybe a four year college is not for them and that should be okay because we need people to work different jobs. In a Time Magazine article by Dan Kadlec, a journalist and author for many articles that have to do with our economy, tells us that maybe a four year college degree is not what it used to be when he says, “For years, back-of-the-envelope estimates suggested that a bachelor’s degree translates into lifetime earnings of more than $1 million on top of anything one earns with just a high school diploma. The College Board later estimated the value was $800,000. Two years ago, a sobering and widely read report further downgraded the figure to $280,000.”(Kadlec) It is difficult to believe how easily the value of the degree has decreased, while yes it is

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