Nicholas Perez Summary And Response 2

+Nicholas Perez
Carly Laing
English 50
24 September 2014
Is College Worth It? Scott Carlson’s Article How to Assess the Real Payoff of A College Degree, shows his point of view on college and if it is worth all the hard work, time, and debt. Carlson explains between two different views on this subject. He discusses the differences between how college can be worth the payoff and how also it can be a waste of time. In his article he writes about does not necessarily his experiences but the experiences of others. People of all kind go to college and only some make it out on top. Some people end up going and just dropping out and/or not using their degrees in the way it was intended to be used in. Scott Carlson tends to lean more towards the viewpoint of how college is worth all of the work, time, and money. Carlson interviews an abundant amount of people and has them tell whether they believe that college is something people should go through to get what they want or need, or whether they should just do it all on their own. He interviews people that make it through all the way and also people who just cannot finish. Over all the people that Carlson talk to and put into his surveys and experiments, more people lean more towards the same solution as Carlson. They believe that college is worth everything that you put into it in the end. Going to college and getting a degree that is worth making good money and have a nice steady job will be worth the work you put into it as long as you follow what you are doing in college after college. Once you change course you start losing all opportunity that you have put in the path that you have taken. When people continue the course that they pursued in college, their annual income will be increased dramatically over a person who does not go to college. A study done by the Pew Research Center said that “numerous studies have shown that, on the whole, college graduates are far more likely to get jobs and earn more money than nongraduates.” This was doubted by many whose return comment was “Americans were not getting a “good value” for the money they spent on a college education.” Yet, in return the research done by the Pew Research Center accumulate a result that showed data proving that “those who had graduated from college estimated that they were getting, on average, $20,000 more a year than they would without the degree.” Not only were the students who receive degrees making more money, they were said to be “more satisfied with their jobs because of their degrees, and credited college with helping them grow intellectually and socially. This shows that getting a college degree can really help someone become more successful and earn more money like they want. So getting a degree is worth a lot if you really pursue it hard enough and long enough. College is also a place where people get the knowledge in life to be able to support their way of life. In the article What is college for?, Phyllis M. Wise says that “it is our responsibility, therefore, to teach students how to learn, how to find information, and how to work collaboratively across disciplines and culture.” She is trying to say that everyone that wants a good life must be able to learn and use all these skills in order to be able to get a good job and work with many different kinds of people and social cultures. To be able to get a good job that you like and want, you have to be able to work well with everything and everyone no matter the problem. Wise believes that “we must provide students with the tools and skills necessary for gainful employment.” College is here to help people not only to get jobs but to help them be able to work in the environment and just to be able to get along with the people who are there. Not only do people have to get a job to help themselves but they have to get a job to help the economy whether they know they are doing it or not. Joseph R. Urgo, President of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, agrees with this theory by saying, “College is for students to decide what and how they want to contribute to society, to the economy, to their communities, and to the well-being of tier families.” College has many factors to why it is important and this is a few of them. College is not only for parties and helping people get jobs. Its more than that, it allows people to gain knowledge and skills that they will need in order to face the real world. The real world as in having to work with every kind of person, culture, relations, paying bills, having a family, and much more. College just helps people get prepared for what’s ahead. Sadly when people don’t take advantage of college, they just wait time and money for nothing. People who really pursue a goal and reach it will be the ones to succeed. Some on the other hand don’t succeed. They sometimes can get degrees but they do not out them to use. Richard k. Vedder has been confounded by his argument “there are a million retail sales clerks and 115,000 janitors with four year degrees…..just two tenths of 1 percent of taxi drivers had college degrees. “Fifteen percent of taxi drivers have college degrees now.” ” Vedder is trying to say that people can and will waist all their time and money in college and for what? What is the point in going if you’re not going to out your degree to use. Why do people to put all that money into something that they don’t even use to help them in the future? Do people just give up after they reach a portion of their goals or do they just no longer want to pursue that goal? Many people on college boards, theorist and many others are and always will be trying to figure out why people do this, why they work so hard for something that they just give up on. People get degrees for high paying jobs but then just end up becoming a taxi driver or even a janitor. No one will ever understand why people will do this. Brenda Hellyer, a Chancellor of San Jacinto college says that she has had the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of students and has” come to believe that they, like their peers across the country are seeking more than education—they are seeking options, opportunities, and guidance.” Maybe people who no longer pursue a degree after they receive believe that there are better opportunities out there for them and that is why they go and chase after small jobs in hoping for better things later off in life. Is college really worth all the time, effort and money put into it? Should people really pursue a degree or just try to make it all on their own? Well it’s up to whoever wants to be successful in life. They decide what they want in life. People can chase goals and reach them early in life; others chase them all their life and never seem to be able to reach them. So is it all worth it? Well it just depends on the person that is chasing their goals. People who go to college and pursue a goal and continue chasing that goal are usually the ones that make it out on top. They go through years of college and spend thousands and thousands of dollars just to get one job. They continue fighting for this job after college and will spend all their time, money and, dedication into their dream. But sadly, it can’t just be any job. You have to choose wisely because if you choose a job where there are millions of people trying to get then you are less likely to get it and that’s how people waist their money. They pursue a job that everyone wants and now they cannot even get the job because the positions are to full. For an example, becoming a physical trainer won’t cut it. There are so many college students pursuing that dream that many of them just waste their time. But if you pursue a job such as an engineer or a doctor or even a plane mechanic, you can really do yourself good and get jobs easily if you push yourself hard enough and chase after the right thing. So people can choose between the sides that college is a waste of time and people can also choose between that college is worth it all. It is up to how people use their time and what decisions they make.