William and Ziner Comparson

Caleb Marshall
Patricia Bjorklund
English 111
February, 25 2013
Zinsser and Bird Compare and Contrast Paper
William Zinsser is the author of “College Pressures”, and Caroline Bird is the author of “College is a Waste of Time and Money”. William Zinsser and Caroline Bird both introduce essays that tell the life of everyday college students and the problems they face while being a student in today’s College University. No matter what we view the hardest problem to deal with college.
“College Pressures”, By William Zinsser Is an essay about the everyday life, troubles and problems of a College student. William talks about the challenges of college and how students react to the new environment that they must deal with when applying and going to college. The pressures of just applying to College can be enough to dishearten the potential student to apply to college. When College’s only taka certain number of students a year, it makes the odds of getting in to schools like Yale and Harvard almost impossible. The actual odds are some 34%, for the Schools such as Harvard. Students get into college and sometimes fined that they are not prepared for college by any means. Students steadily fall behind on their school work and find themselves in a hole they can’t get out of. With people worried about getting into a good college to find a good job in the world, it’s making getting into college that much harder to do. Students that make it into college find that after they get out of college they are in debt before they have started to make any money for themselves. The Pressures of college can be great, although students seem to strive every day and push through the hardships that they receive.
“College is a waste of time and money”, by Caroline Bird is an essay about how college is something that everyone doesn’t need. Bird talks about how some students are forced to attend college when its’ not really what the student wants to do by any means. Students have had the same phrase put into their head over and over again while growing up go to College and get a degree, so you can get a good job. Bird says throughout her essay that college seems like a great idea, but in fact it’s the opposite of that.
In Both essays college is something that not all students are ready for, that all students are not able to do. The Problems that college students face in both essays are not always just felt in college; they can also be felt all the way through school. Although both authors hit on the topic that college has its own problems, they also differ in their opinion on the problems. Zinsser says that there are problems that can be dealt with were as Bird has a more opinionated stance on the problems with today’s colleges.