No right-minded person enjoys the feeling of stress. It is something that weighs heavily on some, especially those in college. There are many causes of these stressors, some of which I personally experience. William Zinsser, the author of “College Pressures”, discusses the many stressors of college in 1978. Throughout this article, he highlights the main factors that hinder students from reaching their full potential, such as economic pressures, which I can fully relate to. One of the main stressors that Zinsser highlights is the fact that students today only concern themselves with looking the best when compared to their peers. In college, students are expected to learn and grow from their mistakes. Although this is the most obvious expectation …show more content…
Today, many feel the economic pressures of success. As years go by, inflation rises and forces people to plan their success far ahead to ensure they will be able to find a job that will pay them enough to afford necessities like a house and a car. This means that there is little wiggle room for mistakes. The pressure and stress to do well on assignments is much higher than before, as students now need to look better than their peers on their transcripts to acquire those jobs that will ensure their financial stability. Zinsser states, “The transcript has become a sacred document.How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline” (Zinsser 16). This highlights the main concern with students, as they are more stressed about “looking better” than someone else so that they are successful in the future. It dawned on me that I shared this mentality from the very beginning. After reading this article, I realized that since elementary school, I had known that the stakes for success were so high that there was little room for …show more content…
Looking back, I now know I did all of this so that I could attend a decent college, get a good job, and live comfortably. Although I knew that college was not necessary, I also knew that today there are increasingly fewer jobs that hire those who do not have a college education. This highlights the fact that fewer students are attending college with the goal of becoming a well-rounded person, but rather with the intention of completing their requirements in order to be successful and live comfortably. Within our current society, the purpose of college for a vast majority of students is to fulfill their expectations and move along to their next degree or job in order to survive in the real world, without the luxury of pursuing intellectual or personal interests for their enjoyment. Zinsser explains in his writing that students no longer have the liberty of sampling courses throughout their college experience like philosophy and religion, which would shape them into well-rounded intellectuals. Instead, they must take the classes they need for their chosen major and do well because of the pressure to acquire a job that pays
One of the evidence that I found worthy of consideration in Zinsser's text is that "In the late 1960s", "the typical question that I got from students was 'Why is there so much suffering in the world?' or "How can I make a contribution?' Today it's 'Do you think it would look better for getting into law school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them?" (Zinsser 197) This evidence shows that the views on college education is transient and can be changed. At the same time it gives us an idea of what kind of college education Zinsser favors. Real purpose of a college education should not be forced by career or parental influences but by personal choices especially by taking classes in the fields of liberal arts.
In the essay “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, Zinsser speaks about the pressures and anxiety that plague college students, all the while wishing that they had “a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step.” Referring to the 1979 generation of college students as “panicky to succeed”, he lists four of the following stressors for college students.
As a young girl in school, I always believed that I would one day would be successful and had the hope that a college education would assist me in being successful. I exceled in school even with circumstances such as hurricane Katrina and September 11 and had a thirst for knowledge. At the same time, the teachers that influenced me in life convinced me to attend college for the betterment of knowledge and a potential for a job or a career. However, those same teachers were teaching me textbook methods and no real on hand training that is essential in an education especially a college education. In "Vocation or Exploration? Pondering the Purpose of College”, Alina Tugend ponders the idea of college being either Vocation—job training— or Exploration learning. She starts off by referring to her oldest son is about to graduate high school, but quickly goes straight to the point of her essay with “What exactly is a university education for?” She provides answers such as college is a way to automatically receive a job if one majors in science, technology or a major that can be applied to a changing world that we live
Zinsser, William. “College Pressure.” The Norton Reader. 13th ed. Ed. Linda H. Peterson. New York: Norton, 2013. 380-388. Print
American’s education system has been entering crisis mode for a long time. Throughout the past few years, the overwhelming question “Is college needed or worth it?” While it is an opinion, there are facts that back up each answer. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” mentions that the enlightened must help the unenlightened and further their knowledge. The problem with America today is that high school students are given the option of college and that makes for less enlightened people. While it is possible to learn in the work force or Army, college is a better option. Mary Daly wrote the article “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” which talks about the statistical value of attending. Michelle Adam wrote the article “Is College Worth It?” which mentions the struggle young people are going through to even get into college. Caroline Bird wrote the chapter “Where College Fails Us” in her book The Case Against College where she
In recent years, many have debated whether or not a college education is a necessary requirement to succeed in the field of a persons’ choice and become an outstanding person in society. On one hand, some say college is very important because one must contribute to society. The essay Three Reasons College Still Matters by Andrew Delbanco shows three main reasons that students should receive their bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, many question the point of wasting millions of dollars on four years or maybe more to fight for highly competitive jobs that one might not get. Louis Menand wrote an article based on education titled Re-Imagining Liberal Education. This article challenges the main thought many americans have after receiving a secondary education. Louis Menand better illustrates the reasons why a student should rethink receiving a post secondary education better than Andrew Delbanco’s three reasons to continue a person’s education.
Going to college gives students the chance to step out of their comfort zone, try new things, and discover who they are while pursuing a degree that may, or may not, interest them. In today’s world if a student drops out of college society assumes they are unintelligent, while in reality they could have come to the realization that being amazing at a trade job is better than being mediocre at a desk job. There has to be a way for students to want to finish college and find what they are learning interesting. If something doesn’t change, the system of postsecondary education will become a thing of the
Imagine telling that to a student who just finished four years of hard, grueling, expensive work; or, even worse, a parent who paid for their child to finish that same grueling work. But, in some ways, that statement can’t be any further from the truth. College can prepare a student for life in so many more ways than for a career. However, in the way that college is supposed to prepare soon-to-be-productive students, that statement could be right on. As a student myself, I’ve found college to be a little bit of both. I often find myself asking, "How will this help me later in life?" But, then again, college gives me more control over my life and where I want it to go. In trying to figure out what exactly made college like this, and whether the way I felt was felt by others as well, I interviewed an Anthropology teacher at Las Positas College, Mr. Toby Coles, and I examined an essay by Caroline Bird called College is a Waste of Time and Money. The two sources offered interesting views from both side of the spectrum.
William Zinsser’s essay “College Pressures” emphasizes the struggles students have in trying to conquer the college milestone in life. Zinsser believes that college has lost the authenticity of the overall goal of gaining knowledge for one’s own interest, rather than the overall need of going. He sympathizes with struggles college kids go through and hopes to provide insight on the overall situation. One of his major points are that succeeding the first time is not always the best way in learning, and that sometimes students need to fail in order to properly learn. The author mentions the “Four pressures, economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure” and how there are “No villains; only victims” that fall
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.
“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
It was noon when the peak of Vesuvius erupted, the eruption propelled a 20 mile high Colum into the stratosphere at twice the speed of sound. For the next 12 hours heavy showers of ash fell out of the cloud and onto Pompeii and eventually buried the streets under six feet of rouble. However this did not kill the people.
Stress is an important problem faced by many college students, especially first year students, and it can have a large impact on college freshmen. For example, according to Hirsch and Keniston (1970), about half of first year students do not graduate from college due to dropping out (p. 1-20). Also, David Leonhardt (2009) agrees that the United States excels at putting “teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree” (p. 1). In addition, the level of stress seems to increase each year. For instance, the National Health Ministries (2006) claim that many college students have become “more overwhelmed and stressed” than the student generation of the last fifteen years (p. 2).
Baker always wondered what the real point of higher education is. He said, “The point is to equip the child into college. The smart kids have no trouble with college while the dumb one struggle. While the point of college goes back to when they start their education. The main point of education is to please people giving the test. This is so you can be able to pass so you can make it to the next level of higher education. This all leads to a “life of rich and a full bank account” (Baker 225). During these years at college the professors are to prepare the student who is no longer a child now for even higher education such as graduate school. This makes the student have fully fulfilled with what they have done with their life and the great accomplishment they have achieved. Higher education is to be cherished. This allows the student to prepare there self “to play his role in the great simmering melodrama of American life (Baker
College was once seen as the only way to better your life, and immensely increase your income. But now that is all the past. Caroline Bird states in her narrative “College Is a Waste of Time and Money” that “A great majority of our nine million college students are not in school because they want to be or because they want to learn” (Pg. 373). Sadly the author has a good point, and goes into detail what makes college, so obsolete in our day and time. In particular Caroline Bird mentions that students nowadays see college as something sad and depressing. She then goes on saying that most kids go to college to please their parents, or a way to get away from intolerable home situations. Today I will be talking about why I think is a waste of time and money, and will be elaborating on questions like, is college even worth it, and is it becoming obsolete.