After high school, college is where most students go to increase their knowledge, challenge themselves, and advance their ideas. Sometimes, college is looked at as a stepping stone to entering into the job market or becoming more refined. However, some see universities conforming to the consumer society, causing students to become less challenged academically and less ready for the real world. Colleges are acting more like businesses and less like a colleges. Competition amongst universities is causing large amount of debt, as these colleges build expensive new buildings in order to attract more students. The large amount of debt accumulated by these universities is directly related to tuition fee increases. Consumerism or consumer culture …show more content…
The college student of today is very much immersed in this consumer culture. Students can often be found fixated on their phones or engaged in social media. Students occupied by the consumer culture may choose their classes based off the scores of an online professor ranking website, or select a college to attend based on the school’s amenities. A portion of the consumer culture is the need to be entertained. In Neil Postman’s Television as Teacher, Postman indicates entertainment has taken over the class room. Edmundson states, “like American culture writ large, is, to put it crudely, ever more devoted to consumption and entertainment, to the using and using up of goods and images”(324). The student has become the ultimate consumer of a college education, and the faculty are feeling the …show more content…
The cost of higher education has left the American public one trillion dollars in student loan debt. The cost of universities across the United State and the world have been on the back of the consumer. Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011 at the more than 500 institutions rated by Moody’s, according to inflation-adjusted data (Martin). The universities spending is out of control and the students are suffering the consequences. With Tuition continuing to increase along with the cost of books and housing, college may not be affordable in the
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:
In the essay, “College Consumerism Run Amok” authored by Kevin Carey describe how colleges are careless with their money. Throughout the essay, Kevin Carey explains why normal people think the average price of college tuition has risen across the United States. People believe college tuition is rising because students demand colleges to have “creature comforts”, such as luxury dorms, a fully operational gym, and a climbing wall. Also, that the creation for “creature comforts” in colleges has caused academic standards to decline. Yet, colleges market to students with these amenities instead of showing students comparable statistics: the quality of teaching, scholarships, and academic environment. Kevin Carey, in the end, sums up his idea with
Edmundson states, “they are, nearly across the board, very, very self-contained… there 's little fire, little passion to be found” (Edmundson, 3). Edmundson’s critic of consumer culture includes criticism of the students themselves and their lack of passion. Deresiewicz’s interpretation of youth culture undermines this “little passion” by looking for this youth to change the current wave of university culture and its lack of learning. Although it is important to note, that Edmundson’s critique of youth was the students of the 90’s while Deresiewicz appears hopeful for youth of the 2010’s. The youth of today and those of the 90’s in historical context may differ in their passions for higher education and change. While this timeline puts perspective on each context of the work, it is not unfair to criticize Edmundson’s superior tone when looking at the youth of his time. Edmundson’s viewpoint of college students distances himself from those needed most to make his vision of a better university culture come
Students are in colleges because they are told to, or because they still want to be financially depend on their parents and not have to worry about growing up to face the real world. The author in her article writes such ideas. Furthermore, since colleges became a big industry in the 60’s, and now the number of people attending has fallen, colleges use marketing skills to bring more students in. They try to make college sound as easy as possible to make more people register. Students, once in college are not happy and drop out,...
Going through college should not be as easy as going through a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant. Young adults should be interactive and critically thinking throughout their education, not disinterested of it. Author Simon Benlow, in his essay “Have It Your Way: Consumerism Invades Education,” believes that students are turning to consumerist ways, not thanks to the college’s culture (139). Since my return to community college, there has been a trend with the younger adults: Not caring.
In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in student enrollment in higher education after high school effecting the need for financial aid for all students. Education has become a growing part in America where more students want to better their lives with a college education. However, the cost of college tuition has increased and more students find themselves struggling to pay off the enormous tuition rates. In a recent study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student debt has reached $1 trillion in federal loan debt. Student loan debt has crippled the economy and students are struggling to pay off federal loans. In order to help students with the high tuition rates of college the government and universities offer
An education is one of the most important tools a person can acquire. It gives them the skills and abilities to obtain a job, earn a wage, and then use that wage to better their lives and the lives of their loved ones. However, due to the seemingly exponential increase in the costs of obtaining a college degree, students are either being driven away entirely from earning a degree or taking out student loans which cripple their financial prospects well after graduation. Without question, the increasing national student loan debt is one of the most pressing economic issues the United States is dealing with, as students who are debt ridden are not able to consume and invest in the economy. Therefore, many politicians and students are calling on the government to forgive their student loan debts so that through their spending the slowly recovering economy can finally return to its pre-2008 strength.
The skyrocketing price of college tuition is causing a tremendous concern over whether higher education will be a viable financial concept to the average citizen over the next decades. Some families have opted to explore different means of obtaining a higher education for their children as these costs escalate. There is overwhelming evidence that colleges need to restructure the way they are run because tuition prices are increasing at a rapid rate causing changes in the way students fund their education and in the way the government provides educational subsidies.
Employers consider a degree necessary for getting a job at their company. However, not many people can afford college. The solution is to take out loans, then college becomes affordable. These loans create a whole different issue, student loan debt. This can affect people their whole lifetime and has been happening for years upon years. But, in the more recent years America is starting to shed more light onto the issue and are becoming curious on why colleges charge twenty five thousand dollars, or more, for a year of education. Many different countries offer free college, but in America student loan debt keeps getting worse.
Allan and Davis mention the spike of college cost since 1995 has increased by 150 percent; student debt has increased 300 percent since 2003, and with education, second to the mortgage industry in the nation’s debt, America needs to redirect their attention to the future and focus on education (Allan n. pg). Budget cuts from national to state
“Many institutions have begun to use hard-sell, Madison-Avenue techniques to attract students. They sell college like soap, promoting features they think students want” (Bird 372). This is a strong statement to use because it seems like some kind of item of need in everyday life for young adults. Colleges have gotten to the point where they have become so much like a business that they feel the need to satisfy the customer on what they are selling so they include all sorts of programs and curricular activities that could please the new students. Not only does it seem as if they are being pressured into attending college by their high school counselors and parents but also by their own classmates as most of them are going so many don’t want to feel out of place and they attend anyways. Due to society make it seem as if college is a necessity people feel the need to attend but also as if it is just a way to “temporarily get them out of the way…” (Bird 374) Today even some sociologist believe that college has become an institution so people just accept it without question. That’s wrong because people make it seem as if you won’t get far in life if you don’t have or get a college degree. But that shouldn’t be the case because in the past many jobs were done by people
Children of the twenty first century spend nearly 13 years in school, preparing for what is college, one of the only ways to achieve the so-called “American Dream”. College is the best way to start an advanced career and go further than one possibly could if college degrees were not available, allowing people to achieve their view of the American Dream; whether it be large houses, shiny cars, multiple kids, or financial comfort, college is the stepping stone to achieve the American Dream. But all great things come with a price, college dragging along debt. Students who attend college struggle to find ways to pay for it, leading to applying for student loans. These loans a great short term, paying for the schooling at the moment but eventually the money adds up
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.
...ggled with high debt burdens that adversely impedes their lives. Also, it will threaten to the affordability and success of higher education in the US. I believe that through my research paper in can prompt American college students to make wise and informed decision on financing higher education. Moreover, it will make the education policymakers aware that the rising education debt has a serious implication for college access and affordability, prompting them to decrease total student loan debt amounts by holding down college tuition and increasing the federal student aids.
With the rapid growth of college tuition, it has become an important issue in higher education. College Tuition is simply defined as the charge or fee for instruction, at a private school or a college or a university. Most people agree today that college tuition is too high or that it needs to be completely dismissed. There are some however, that may disagree with the claim about college tuition and state that college tuition is necessary for college growth, and it’s primary purpose is to pay for college expenses to support the institution financially. Research shows that college tuition is too high and that debt has become a standard in America after attending post-secondary school.