College Is a Waste of Time and Money free essay sample

Her final claim is that college does not prepare most students for the real world and the jobs they will have once they graduate. Bird believes most students are not in college for the reason, which is to learn, but many of them are there because it has become â€Å"the thing to do,† they want to be supported financially by their parents or tax payers, their parents want them to go, or because going to college is better than getting a nine to five job. Because students are in college for the wrong reasons, they are unhappy there. According to Bird’s findings, only 25% of students enter college because they have a desire to learn. For the other 75%, it is just a social center or even a prison. She believes they are unhappy in college because they see themselves as â€Å"unwanted adults. † Many students see their time in college as a sentence to be served before they can serve a purpose in society. We will write a custom essay sample on College Is a Waste of Time and Money or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Bird confirms her argument by citing research by the Carnegie Commission which estimates that 5-30% of students are in college reluctantly and that according to a study by Leon Lefkowitz, 200 of 300 students felt that a college education was a waste of money (Bird 2). In her argument about students being unhappy in college she uses all three methods of persuasion, but her main argumentative tool is pathos. She deeply explains the unhappiness that college students feel in an attempt to evoke sympathy from the audience. She also uses ethos in this first section by establishing herself as a knowledgeable source of information about college students. Bird’s second point is that, contrary to popular belief, college is not the best monetary investment a young person can make. Bird explains this by comparing the money that would be spent on education versus money that is put in a bank for interest. The outcome shows investing money that would otherwise be spent on a college education would earn over half a million dollars more than the earnings of a male college graduate compared to a non-graduate. Bird also states that even if a graduate makes more money in their job than a non-graduate, there is no evidence that the higher income is due to their college education. She attributes financial success to luck rather than a college education. In this argument she mainly puts forth logical reasons why college is not for everyone. She shows actual dollar amounts that logically prove an education is not necessarily the most profitable investment. Bird’s final point is that college does not prepare most people for the jobs they are going to have in the future. She states the work attached to most jobs is totally unrelated to their college education. For example, although there are many graduates with a psychology degree, there are only so many jobs in psychology. The remaining graduates are forced to find jobs with work unrelated to the degree they have obtained. Also, she brings up the point that college does not make people intelligent and successful, but successful and intelligent people go to college. In this argument she uses pathos in her argument because her statements could make students fearful that they are wasting their time in college because it is not going to help them in the future. She also uses logos by backing up her point with facts and giving statistics about how many graduates there are in certain fields and how many jobs there are available in those fields . She concludes with four main points: college does not make people intelligent, ambitious, happy or liberal, but those types of people are the kind that attend college and are attracted to higher education; college cannot take credit for the important learning experiences students have while they are there; many college classes leave even determined students disappointed; and finally that having a degree in college won’t necessarily help a person get a job.