Summary of William Zinsser's 'College Pressures'

As new students head off to college, thousands of young adults are getting their first real taste of freedom - a chance to sketch out dreams, manage their time, and test various Ramen Noodle creations unaware of the pressures they are about to commit themselves to. According to Zinsser all college pressures can be combined into four classifications. Peer Pressure, Economic and Parental Pressures, and Self-Induced Pressure. Without them a student of our generation would not be a student, but with them, students of our time are faced with a reality that is less appealing. Students have many pressures to deal with. Pressures they deal with that occur at all times. This problem is a major issue to students everywhere in this world. These pressures can occur in any level of their educational career and are pressures that occur from sun up to sun down. The pressures that come from your friends, or Peer Pressures can happen at any time whether you are in school or not. Sometimes students put pressures on their friends due to rivalry because of grades resulting, study time or the balance of social and academic life. The result is widespread over achieving, which only adds more pressure to the student because teachers get used to a certain level of production, instead of accepting the level they assigned. Families give you pressures everyday. Some students have to deal with majors

they do not really want. They feel forced to achieve at extremely high levels and secure a future that might not be theirs just to please their parents. Zinsser states by calling it "the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt"(p.244) which sums it up perfectly. These are all the emotions you go through in chronological order of how you feel them. There are students who put pressures on themselves because of rationale such as making their parents happy, succeeding in life, making money and the overall feeling of obligation to make ones life