Summary Of New York Times By Freeman Hrabowski

Freeman Hrabowski’s article in the New York Times explains why a person should attend college. Initially, Hrabowski establishes credibility on the topic purely through his title as the chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Because he has been given this title by past president Barack Obama, the reader automatically identifies Hrabowski as a person who they will be able to trust.
Secondly, Hrabowski starts his argument with a small personal anecdote and a rebuttal. He explains how witnessing students wearing a shirt that said “College Is for Suckers.” (Hrabowski, 2013, 259) was extremely common because of their lack of knowledge on the true benefits of college. The typical arguments of not
attending college are usually that it is too expensive, students are inheriting large amounts of debt, and that they graduate and still remain unprepared for the workforce. Hrabowski is quick to object this belief with a statement from many economists and educators who can prove that “the fastest growing job categories require at least a college degree” (Hrabowski, 2013, 260).
Hrabowski does not fail to note the opposition’s argument of why college is not worth the time and effort. He acknowledges that the system sometimes fails to help student find an institution that is right for them and their needs. If a person does not see something such as a school or club putting effort into trying to include them, that person will not put the effort in to finding more about that program- it is just human nature. Yes, college will help prepare a person financially for a future in the workforce, but mostly college will prepare people for life.
Hrabowski also explains the changes the education system has made in order to pull more people into going to college. Hrabowski refers to President Barack Obama’s efforts to call on a higher educations to standardize the information given to potential students about costs, debts, financial aid, and graduation rates; important questions that do require an answer when looking at colleges (Hrabowski, 2013, 260). He also mentions an importance in counseling. Many students may need this counseling and not even know the benefits they would receive from it, “Lack of counseling is one reason that fewer than 10 percent of Americans from the lowest income quartile have earned a college degree by age 24 compared to 80 percent of those in the top quartile” (Hrabowski, 2013, 261). Hrabowski’s goal is to persuade the reader into going to college.
He tries to integrate anecdotes and facts by professional officials that the reader will recognize and care about to ensure his credibility of his argument. Many people who have went to college and gotten their degree become wealthy or at least financially stable. According to study.com, people with a degree tend to earn eighty-four percent more money than people without a degree. That means, more money for your children, more opportunities, better financial stability, and a better education or more knowledge. Many of the people who don’t go to college have a plan for their future, but not many have back-up plans. It’s always important to have multiple plans, in case one, two, or even three of them fail. The difference between professors in college and teachers in high school is that college professors teach you using “real-life” situations or issues that you or many other people may experience. Also, if you further your education, then you will have more knowledge than others who did not further theirs. At least that’s what the statistics from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77 show. For young adults ages twenty-five to thirty-four who worked full time, year
round, higher educational attainment was associated with higher median earnings; this pattern was consistent from 2000 to 2015. A lot of people who are on their way to college do not have a plan or know what they want to do in the future. But those people also know they do not want to stay at home with their parents or guardians. Many kids just a need a moral reason why they need to go to college. Teens need to plan for their future in their high school years. It’s very important that the kids themselves make this decision. Because only they know their true desire or pleasure. It all starts with good grades and a great attitude. It is very important for kids to “Hang” with the right crowd or people. The people that you associate with can influence you to do many things that you would not do normally, unconsciously. That is because with every encounter, you are slowly maturing and developing new ideas about yourself from their actions and yours. The environment which you live can do the same. For example: when a kid that was born in the “hood” watches people do unlawful things daily will begin to think those unlawful scenes are normal; that child will encode them into his brain and find it “ok” to do the same. Which is how your environment and the people you associate yourself with begin to put you in the “kids that don’t go to college” column. Then you also have the kids that are just raised by parents with terrible financial aid and have to stay home because they can’t afford college. A college education gives you more job satisfaction and depending on your academic outcome it will change your life in good or great ways. Hrabowski couldn’t have explained his argument any better.