Why Go to College? An Ironic Article

The article that I was assigned to read and discuss in a group was "Why Go to College?" and the funny thing is that the more we discussed the article and each section of it we found that the article actually contradicted itself many times and it only presented us with a few valid reasons of why to actually go to college. These couple of reasons being that you can "explore and broaden your interests" which of course means that in high school the variety of different activities or classes that you could participate in were not many, don't get me wrong there are many different activities and classes you can take, but compared to the amount and variety in college there aren't many. The other obvious reason was of course money. The statement that "college graduates can expect to earn a salary almost double that of high school graduates" is very clear in making this point. These are two very valid reasons to go to college. What do most high school students want to do? Find themselves and their purpose in life, and what do you need in order to do this? Money. Yet the obvious counter statement to this is that in order to go to college you need money, the very thing you are trying to acquire. For that same reason when the article mentioned that "College gives you the chance to say "yes" to you." it seemed like an unfounded claim. If you want to actually find out what you want to do in college you will undoubtedly need money, more than if you went in knowing what you wanted to do from the beginning. And finally, quite frankly the most ironic of statements made in this entire article, "College doesn't guarantee happiness and success, but it does help you make the best of your own life." Wouldn't any average person say that they want to happy and successful? That both of those things would constitute making the best of their life? Or is there anyone that would say that failure and sadness would be something fine to make the best of their life? In the end we decided that this article did not really get its point across well at all, and actually presented more reasons not to go to college than to go.

Not Going to College is not an option

So we read "Not Going to College is a viable option" and it explained how there are other options out there other than college. I know there are many other students out there who do not believe in this either because they are determined themselves or someone is pushing them. I don't have an option but college. There's no "mom I want to join the military" or "mom I want to go to a trade school". Attending a University was my only goal and option after high school. I have no other beliefs but that college can take you wherever you want to be. One thing my mom always told me that no matter if you get injured in the military or get fired from your job one thing no one can take away from you is your education. We were never really wealthy nor poor but it's still a struggle for my parents having to go to work everyday to a job they do not enjoy and not make the money they would like to make. I have told my mom before I don't want to go to college when I've been angry and she broke down and asked me why I would want to be like her. "Why do you want to start from the bottom" are the exact words she told me. Insinuating that she wants me to do what she never did or maybe had the support to do which was attend a University and obtain a degree. Now in the article it also states how students may take a gap year, which is a year after high school to figure out what you would like to do. This also isn't an option! Whether a student knows what they want to do or not distractions like this can discourage someone from going on to get a higher education. It isn't impossible to still obtain a degree but I would figure its less likely. The last point I want to make is that it is becoming more socially acceptable to push students to go to college. Although in the article it states how people are uncomfortable and resentful from schools stating how many of the graduates enrolled in college I still see it today everyday. What I see is teachers and parents pushing their kids and encouraging them to attend college. This isn't a bad thing because in today's times the competition is high and the amount of jobs aren't sufficient to fulfill everybody's needs.

AF: Poppin' in, Period Four

So here we are in the last week before the quarter, and this assignment is just hanging there, undone. (You kids are scaring me; I know I'm about to get clobbered with a mountain of last minute work; last minute work is often rushed and careless work.  Prove me wrong.  Do a good job!)

A shout out to the writers (in reverse order): Isabella, Dakota, Joseph, Ana Mae, Amy, Caitlin, Vanessa and Kinsey -- and the commenters, Christian, Kaylin, Dylan to the second power, Duyen, Kennedy, Kalei to the second power, Amy and Dakota.  Thanks for leading the way and demonstrating to the rest of us how to get this done!

Please make sure you make a visit to essayhell.com and see what kind of help you might find.  I am starting to read essays.  If you are finished, if you have a draft that you feel pretty solid about, give it to me.  Just turn it in early.  You can hang on to all your drafts and all the background work until we have the official collection time on Thursday...but if you have something you want me to read on Tuesday or Wednesday, bring it on.  I'm climbing into the essay reading saddle, and I'll be there for a few weeks.

I have a Peter Elbow presentation that I am getting ready to give about writing with teachers.  It is hard to get real with a teacher.  I do my best to take off that teacher persona, but ultimately you know I'm reading to judge you — but that is NOT why we write.  We don't write to be judged.  We write to communicate with another person.  That's why the blog is really a better place for you to develop your writer's muscles.  Write TO EACH OTHER.  Talk to each other.  I like what I see started out here, and I'd like to see it bloom and flourish.

I'm out!
Peace and love,
AFletcher

College Dress Up

The article in our "What's Next" packet titled Why Go To College has done nothing but make my choices for college that much harder. When my group and I were discussing the article in the jigsaw activity we did in class one day, all of our main points were basically contradictions in the article.
 On one point the author describes college as a "lifetime investment" and states "The competitive advantage is yours if you choose to graduate from college". But just eight paragraphs later, they go on to say "...earning a degree from an Ivy league school or an expensive private college is no guarantee that you'll land the best job and have the highest earning potential". Really? As we were discussing the article, I noticed that the original article was titled "How 2 Choose, University of North Texas".
Have any of you noticed that most of these articles, pamphlets, and advertisements that are being thrown at us are not only biased, but are just causing us to question the whole idea of college in itself?
All I've received since this past summer are pamphlets advertising how beautiful certain campuses are and statistics on the college's graduation rate and so on. When all I really, truly want to know is which college has the best rates and whether or not it offers the right classes for my major.
This article is just an addition to all the other over exaggerated, dressed up ideas of how college will be statements that are just beginning to pressure us throughout our entire senior year.
Have you guys gotten any articles or post cards from colleges that seem too good to be true? How have you decided to tell the difference between the real stuff and the colleges that just want the application money?

Second personal statement

Hey everybody! I had a really hard time writing this second personal statement. Writers block hit me hard, causing me to have no idea what to write about. I felt like I devoted all of my time and effort into my first personal statement. At first I didn't think it would be difficult to write my second one since I had practice writing one already. Our first one was our favorite prompt and the second one was not and I think that really changed my point of view. I tried using all of the techniques we had learned from Peter elbow and it did help. I also went on essayhell.com and I loved it! I advise all of you guys to go look at her website. It is amazing. It went step by step on how to create a good personal statement colleges will want to read. It benefited me greatly. When I turned in my Ps2D1 I wasn't very proud of my work but today during the peer read around people wrote comments on my paper and it helped a lot. It boosted up my confidence and they gave me great ideas on how to improve my essay. I feel like we should do that more during class :)

Rules

I always question myself, am I ready for college? Can I stay focus in my studies? Can I do this? Doubts about my future plans came to my head and I began to rethink again if college is a right path for me. But then again I remembered, I have not applied to any college yet. What if I did not get accepted? What if I cannot pay for my college? What if I failed my classes? I began to be distrust myself if I can able to enter and survive college. But after reading the article of Joe Rodriguez, “10 Rules For Going To College When Nobody Really Expected You To”, I felt that if I follow these rules, I can overcome the obstacles and challenges in college. Out of his 10 rules, I selected rule number 10, 2, and 1 to be the most important. Rule number 10 talks about “being a total student”. For me this means focus only nothing but your studies. Ignore or put aside for a while your love/romantic stories because relationships can wait. Rule number 2 talks about “studying what you love”. College takes a lot of time and effort and it would be silly to pick or do something you don’t love.  Also, you should choose a career that you would embrace until you get old. Lastly, the number 1 rule talks about “remembering where you come from”. You should look back and try to remember the people who helped you along your way. Remember how your teachers, friends, and family motivated you during hard times. Overall, I think the 10 rules is a big help for all undergraduates. 

Not Going To College Does Not Mean You Can't Be Succesful !

While reading the article "Not Going to College is a Viable Option" by Lawrence B. Schlack, I kind of felt relieved because it talked about how college is only one of the many paths you can take. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one having anxiety about college. Since the beginning of the year, there hasn't been a day where I stop thinking about questions such as What if I become nothing at the end? What if I end up dropping out of college because of money issues? How am I going to adapt transitioning from high school to college? And the most common question that a lot of us worry about is What if I don't get accepted to any college? The three reasons why college is scary are economics, status, and competition. The article talked about how students these days are told that if they go to college, they will have better jobs and better life. Also, students have this idea where if they don't go to college, they already failed in life. The author proved that wrong because there are many options after high school and that includes missionary work, military service, or working in a field you are interested in. For example, if you want to be in the medical field, you can start volunteering at a young age or applying at a hospital to get experience and know more things about the profession you want to go into. When someone chooses not to go to college, we view it as negative and think that he or she doesn't care about their life. Well, we shouldn't think that way because it's different for everybody. Some students are very indecisive about their career and that's okay because they will make up their mind eventually. College is very expensive and it's not always the next step after high school. It also depends on what you want to major in. Some people choose to get a job first then go to college after a couple of years, that way they have money to use for tuition and book expenses. People are not always going to be what they say they are going to be because many of them change major and sometimes things just happen that at times they end up dropping out. We never know what the future holds. For me, the scariest part is that I have to make my own decisions. It's hard to make decisions because sometimes you never know if it's right or wrong. I'm scared because my decisions are going to determine my future. For instance, choosing which college to apply to is a big decision to make. I don't know if going to college out of state is the right decision because that means I'm going to be apart from my family and I never know how I will adjust to that new environment. All in all, we shouldn't give up if we end up not going to college right after high school because there are a lot of options to be successful. Remember that there is no one who became successful without failing first. Also, there are many successful people that started at the bottom and worked their way up.