College Life on Students
Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 1 Effects of College Life on Students Jeremy Hammock English 102 Nevada State College-related Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 2 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to give an explanatory synthesis to the 2007 article ” The Gradates by Louis Menand.
“The Graduates” was about the hardships college students endure.
According to Menand, attending colleges can place a tremendous amount of stress on a student. He claims students beginning college tend to over analyze, set unnecessary goals, have a fifty percent dropout rate, and have an abundance of college campuses to choose from, and why Americans have the highest expenses for higher education. In this explanatory synthesis, I will go into an extensive and thorough explanatory synthesis of Menand’s viewpoints of the college dropout rate, an abundance of colleges for students to choose from, and the high cost of a college education.
I willGo further into detail of the issues talked about by Louis Menand in “The Graduates” by using national statistics, as well as pros and cons related to Manand’s argument.
BODY1- COLLEGE DROPOUT RATE In this section I will discuss why fifty percent of students drop out of college. According to Menand, many students have a habit of scrutinizing their study habits with over analyzation and setting unnecessary goals (Menand, 2007). For years now, getting more students into college has been the top priority for America’s college institutions.
The Department of Education estimated in a recent survey that forty percent of college students will drop out before obtaining their degree. Furthermore, seventy-five percent of that forty percent will drop out of college within the first two years.
The Dropout rate for college is extremely high, and there are three major reasons behind it. Many college students run into financial problems. The estimated average cost at a 4-year university for tuition is $35,000, and this doesn’t take into account of books, school supplies and other fees.
The typical American family doesn’t have $35,000 laying around to spend, so most students rely on student loans. The high interest rates on these loans are very high and may take years to pay back.
While some students pay their own way, they run into the difficulties of juggling work and school in order afford it. Some students find Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 3 that college is much different than they would have expected;work is much harder, more studying is required, more writing, and expectations are greater.
The first thing new college students experience is how the workload is much more demanding than in high school. College students are expected to read the material and comprehend it on their own study time and take notes while in lectures. Students also find that their time isn’t structured by others, but they are left with the responsibility to manage their own time. Most of all teachers in college are much more different than in high school.
Unlike high school teachers, college professors are helpful they expect you to come to them for questions and seek tutoring.
Not to mention, some students have a hard time with the social aspect of college life. Some students fit in too much and get side tracked with parties and other social activities. Unfortunately many students who enroll in a higher education program will most likely drop out. According to classesandcareers.
com, three million students enroll in some form of higher education each year. In the year 2000 thirty-three percent of 2. 75 million students dropped out of college. Forty percent of 4. 5 million college students will leave higher education without getting a degree. In the academic year of 2008-2009, fifty-three percent of 1.
5 million students at public institutions dropped out. Only 38% of 800,000 students at private colleges starting in the 2008-2009 academic year will graduate within six years, 20-30% of 625,000 college freshmen will drop-out, and 64% of 850,000 students at non-profits starting classes in the 2008-2009 academic year have dropped out. Why do we exhibit these type of statistics in the land of the free? Why are so many students not completing their courses of study and derive the benefits that come along with having earned a degree, including a lifetime of higher earnings and greater self-esteem.
Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that 28% of full-time students, and a mere 5% of part-time students go on to finish their college studies. They claim 71% of students have anxiety over financial costs, 58% do not spend time with loved ones, 51% worry about their intellectual level for completing coursework, 49% Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 4 say college interferes with their normal routine, and 40% of students resent having to do coursework instead of something more interesting.
Beyond their concern about paying for school, other stressors produce anxiety about spending sufficient time with loved ones and friends, and also having the intellectual capacity to complete coursework.
Body 2- ABUNDANCE OF COLLEGE CAMPUSES According to Menand, no matter which college institution a student chooses, there will be thousands more he/she has never heard of before(The Graduates, Menand, 2007). According to the college board, The United States has a total of 4,495 degree-granting Institutions, 2,774 four year institutions and 1,721 two year institutions.
This making a total of 4,495 accredited college campuses nationwide, which average 115 institutions per state. As of 2012, the United States had 20. 3 million students enrolled in higher education, meaning each student has roughly about 2,225 schools to choose from.
However, students who have a well thought out strategy for selecting a college and educational plan will do significantly better as it may help them finish their education. Caroline Molina-Ray,who is the executive director of research at Apollo, recently published a study that examined the factors that inhibit adult college students’ ability to finish their degrees.
The study focused not so much on the rate of completion, she says, but on what kinds of issues adult students face, and how different generations of students cope. It may sound cliche, but Molina-Ray says that it pays to keep “your eyes on the prize,” and to remember that “there’s a big personal and likely financial reward for going to school (Molina-Ray, 2012). ” With that in mind, she offers these tips to nontraditional students planning to pursue an associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degree. Molina-Ray recognizes that going back to school is a major life altering decision and takes diligent commitment, such as making a plan or your finances, your time, energy, family, friends and coursework.
One should also gain continuous encouragement from family and friends, see what resources their school offers such as: tutoring, online study aids, day care, and anything that will help a student manage their studies Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 5 Body 3- WHY HIGHER EDUCATION COST SO MUCH IN AMERICA! College education America has become a bad joke.
Instead of preparing the next generation of leaders in the job market, college education institutes have become greedy money making swindles. It is not a mystery that Americans would tell their high school students they need to prepare for college and constantly telling them to not worry about the cost or pulling out student loans because a college education will always pay off. Lenders then loan a ridiculous amount of money for students to pay for the education they are receiving. The truth is that the cost of higher education is appalling when students are the ones paying for everything.
Students are forced to pay not only each professor’s salary, but with the cost of books tripling they also pay tuition, fees, school related utilities, extra curricular activities, student workers, and the list goes on and on.
College costs too much, both for students and for society as a whole. According to the College Board the average cost a year of tuition, room, board for in state student exceed over $17,000 at four year institutions. In 2009, Americans paid $461 billion in taxes for post- secondary education. This is a 42% increase since 2000.
Today, we have millions of people that are entrapped in their student loan debt. These people were promised a bright future, yet in reality were swindled or scammed into mountains of debt.
According to the College Board, college tuition is absolutely soaring. Average tuition and fees at public colleges rose 8. 3 % this year, and including room and board will now exceed $17,000 a year. The average yearly tuition for a private university in the United States is now $28,000, which is a 29% increase from 2007(CollegeBoard. org, 2012). After adjusting for inflation, the U.
S. College students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago. In America today, approximately two thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt. In 2010, the average student loan debt was $25,000 by their graduation date. According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, national student loan debt was at the 1 trillion dollar mark in 2012.
This means the student loan debt now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States. Over the past 25 years, the cost of college tuition has increased at an average rate that is
Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 6 approximately 6% higher than the general rate of inflation. Back in 1952, a full year of tuition at Harvard was only $600, today it is $36,000. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 75% of Americans believe college is too expensive for most people to afford. College has become so expensive that it is causing many college students to resort to desperate measures in order to pay for schooling.
For example, an increasing number of young college women are actively advertising on the internet for “sugar daddies” who will help them pay their tuition bills. Some young college students even result to stripping or prostitution to pay for college-related costs. Others work two or even three jobs in order to pay for school, and losing valuable time for their studies. Having to work in order to pay for school could cause a student’s grades to decrease, because they are not able to devote enough time to their academic studies.
Overall college has gotten way too expensive. Americans seriously need to reevaluate the cost of higher education to make it completely affordable to average American families.
Then the next generation will not overwhelmed by the financial burden of attending college or a university. CONCLUSION Louis Menand made some valid points in his short article “The Graduates”. In this essay I went more into detail of the statistics as well as the pros and cons of the points, brought up by Menand. The first point given by Menand was the high dropout rate of college students.
He explained why so many college students drop out for financial, personal, or unreasonably high goals.
The next point Menand gave was the over abundance of colleges available to students. He explains the ratio of students and the colleges they could choose from. Each student can choose up to thousands of different schools, to pursue their academic goals. Lastly, was the high cost of attending college. Too many students are going to extreme measures just to pay for the cost of a higher education. Colleges have just became a new form of capitalistic gain, ran by American corporations.
Overall, Menand brought up some Running Head: Effects of College Life on Students 7 legitimate arguments in regards to education. Hopefully by the end of this paper the reader will have pondered the effects of college life has on a student. References 35 Shocking Facts That Prove That College Education Has Become A Giant Money Making Scam. (n. d. ).
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National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U. S. Department of Education. (n. d. ).
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