College: Grand Slam or Scam?
Every student has the choice to attend college. Getting asked the question “Are you going to college?” can be challenging for some students. College is a big decision to make and it comes with many factors. College can benefit or drawback students, depending on the specific student. (Student A and Student C.) In American society, a college degree in American holds weight. Working towards a college degree shows employers that students are motivated to succeed. A college degree can determine raises, well-paying careers, and most importantly success. Students encounter their own personal and financial issues, and college can have the effect of leaving students in sticky situations. Even with a college degree, a career and well-paying stable job in the student’s field of study is not guaranteed.
Students will make more money from attending college. Students attend college so they can make themselves more marketable to the career field, and to also make a good and stable amount of income.
“A college graduate earns more than a non-graduate. Plain and simple. Studies have shown that there is an average of $25,000 earnings difference between grads and non-grads. Furthermore, this gap is widening every year. The bottom line is that pursuing a degree increases the ability to find work in the same field, increasing experience and earning potential” (CBD College.)
Having a college degree can give a graduate the opportunity to receive higher paying salaries and stable incomes. A college degree can also give a student the potential to receive higher raises. Not every student who receives a degree gets a stable income. Student A attended college, received a degree, and found a career that had a stable salary. Student C attended college, received a degree, and found a job that offered salaries that do not pay enough to pay off student’s expenses. The push to try to make students attend college is leaving many students optioning out the “build your own business” idea, which is the idea many of the billionaires in today’s society had.
“25 of the top-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree and their average salaries, based on data from the BLS and CBSSalary.com It is important to note that some of these jobs DO require some kind of a degree, just not a 4-year degree. As many have commented below many of the jobs do require formal training of some kind or even a two-year degree” (Seed Time.)
College graduates can potentially have better employment opportunities. Students go to college so they have a high chance of getting a career in their field of study. Many college graduates (Student A), take-out loans or pay the expensive college tuition because the money they can potentially make from their careers after college is worth it.
“College freshman in 2015 said they attended college to “be able to get a better job.” In Jan. 2017, the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 25 and over with a bachelor’s degree was 2.5% compared to 3.8% for those with some college or associate’s degrees, 5.3% for high school graduates, and 7.7% for high school dropouts” (Pro Con).
After college, graduates use their degree to get a career in their field of study that they potentially could not get if they did not go to college. Although many people get to use their degree for their benefit by obtaining their “perfect” or/and “dream” career after college (Student A), not all students get to use their degree for their benefit. Even with a college degree, after college not all graduates are able to get a career (Student C.) There is a lot of comparing applications for the job position. The work place is very competitive, potentially thousands of people can be applying for the same position.
“This is a real issue unique to this generation called ‘a quarter-life crisis,'” said Cyrus Williams, a licensed professional counselor and an associate professor at Regent University in Virginia. Millennials are “struggling in terms of milestones, getting jobs, parenting, finding jobs, having too many choices, and having debt coming right out of college” (CNBC.)
College tuition is very expense, most college students take out student loans which they are obligated to pay back approximately six months after graduation, so not being able to get a stable, well-paying job after college can lead to major set-backs for college graduates. Graduates who do not get jobs after college are required to pay for necessities such as rent, utilities, and food. Even if graduates are not using their degree they are still obligated to pay back their student loans as soon as six months after graduation.
Student loans are not as bad as they seem. Since college tuition is outrageously expensive, most students do not have the money to pay for it. But there is a solution to that problem, to take out student loans. Students who do not have the money for college, take out loans from banks so they can attend college. Banks loan student’s money in return for the students to pay them bank monthly after the student graduates.
“Average monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $351. Median monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $203” (Student Loan Hero.)
The goal for after college is to acquire a stable career that comes with a stable salary, so the monthly student loans will become manageable for the graduate (Student A). That scenario makes attending college worth it and beneficial. On the other hand (Student C), students take out student loans from a bank for a four-year university. After college, many students cannot find a job in their field of study but they still have to pay for necessities so they are forced to get minimum wage job which pays approximately $7.25. Students attend college so they can get a career where they can earn raises and move up in the company, not a regular job. People have their own personal and finical problems, so without a steady paying career can lead graduates to make certain decisions they potentially would not make if they had stable income.
References
9 BENEFITS OF EARNING A COLLEGE DEGREE. (2016, December 09). Retrieved March 16, 2018, from https://www.cbd.edu/9-benefits-college-degree/
[Create AP-style references to match the edited model above. —DSH]
https://christianpf.com/paying-jobs-without-degree/
Rowan Counterintuitive 
Technical Matters
—We’ll review in class how to produce informal in-text citations to avoid the parentheses at the end of your quotes.
—Quotations of longer than 2 lines should be formatted as block quotes. I’ve edited yours above.
—Last year’s MLA-style Works Cited section has been abandoned by the Writing Arts Department in favor of this year’s APA-style References section. I’ve produced one such citation from the link you provided, using the website Citation Machine. http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-website
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Style Notes.
Your first paragraph makes a series of apparently unconnected claims, SummerGirl.
Possibly you intend to select among them from this first draft. But if you planned to use all these claims, my advice would be to organize and connect them into something like a coherent argument.
First, we sort the claims into categories.
POSITIVE
—College can benefit or draw back students, depending on the specific student. (Student A and Student C.)
—Working towards a college degree shows employers that students are motivated to succeed.
—In American society, a college degree in American holds weight.
—A college degree can determine raises, well-paying careers, and most importantly success.
NEGATIVE
College can benefit or draw back students, depending on the specific student. (Student A and Student C.)
—Students encounter their own personal and financial issues, and college can have the effect of leaving students in sticky situations.
—Even with a college degree, a career and well-paying stable job in the student’s field of study is not guaranteed.
NEUTRAL OR DUBIOUS.
—Every student has the choice to attend college.
—Getting asked the question “Are you going to college?” can be challenging for some students.
—College is a big decision to make and it comes with many factors.
Next, we decide which category to emphasize.
—Despite the cost, a college degree is still worth it?
—The enormous cost of a college degree makes it a bad deal?
—College pays off for just a small percentage of graduates?
Then we organize the claims to make an argument (using Definition, Causal, and Rebuttal techniques).
See what I mean? We Define our terms (College is an Investment). We identify Causes and Effects (Some graduates find immediate lucrative employment. Some graduates are crippled from the start.). We incorporate other positions (Employers value a bachelors degree) and Refute them (But that doesn’t mean graduates are hired or paid well.).
Most important, the paragraph reads like a short argument. Every paragraph should. Every sentence should.
Is this helpful?
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SummerGirl, you put this post into the Feedback Please category, but you haven’t responded to the comments I left you five days ago. My changes are more current than yours. I’m happy to provide feedback, always, but it’s a conversation. Make revisions or ask for clarification if my Notes are unclear. You can put the post back into Feedback Please after your own rewriting session.
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I am so sorry for not responding, im still working on the feedback. I rescheduled our conference for next wednesday to help with the citations! Thanks you so much for the help.
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That’s fine, SummerGirl. I didn’t mean to complain. I was confused to see your post in Feedback Please. (Maybe I forgot to un-categorize it when I made my first set of remarks.) I look forward to our conference.
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3rd paragraph for the Wednesday March 26, 2018.
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