Will Americans Help Pay for College?

Through this recent recession the gap for financial aid has become increasingly large due to the fact that colleges are basing some of their applications by their financial situation. This in turn creates widening on lower to middle class families who cannot send their children to school because the cost are too great to bear with large amounts of financial aid. The wealthy students are not only being accepted to these pricy private universities but are being given grant and aid so that they can make it through. The poorer students are not even given the chance to attend those school not because of their brain but because of their lack of funding. In today’s society were the upper class has become very distant to the middle and

“Who Gets to Graduate’ by Paul Tough, publish May, 2015 in the New York Times discusses. The story of a young girl’s mindset on college. It begins with her starting in college and first failure on a test. It highlighted the doubts she had in her abilities. This opening introduces the article’s man discussion, which involves low income students who want to earn a four year degree but experience “troubles” along the way. It then discusses statistics that show dropout rates are highest with low-income students. The author included ability versus economics status.

Andrew Simmons published his article for The Atlantic, “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility” on January 16, 2014, which raises his concerns that higher education is only being promoted as an opportunity to increase their economic status, when it should be an opportunity to experience an education (Simmons). Through the use of students such as Isabella, Simmons disagrees with the way students now look at higher education and blames the educators through the students’ lives for this view. Instead, Simmons views education as an intellectual opportunity rather than a way to elevate ones economic class which is all people see when they see “higher education.” He believes that education, ambition and work ethic is how you have a satisfying life, not with how much you make. He makes the point that when economics becomes the main goal of education it’s all children begin to think about and they might not pursue something that they are truly passionate about or what they want to learn about, which then does not create an intellectually awakening experience (Simmons).

Charles Murray’s essay proposes that American colleges are being flooded with individuals who are either unprepared for higher education or who are simply forced into attending college and can’t succeed because of the lack of certain innate abilities. Murray’s essay goes on to take issue with the idea that the pursuit of a traditional college education is somehow strategically creating a separation of the American class system. While Murray makes many salient points with regards to America’s obsession with college education as a standard into a class of the intellectual elite, the essay fails to take into consideration the various motivators that can lead to student success, despite

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the importance of college education. Students are asking if it’s worth the debt to attend a four year university or community college. Some are thinking what are the benefits of a degree is in the workforce. With college tuition increasing and state fundings lowering, low income students are struggling to attain a higher education. College institutions should have a role to provide students higher education and equal opportunity to students to increase social mobility yet intergenerational reproduction of privilege has produced inequality in education.

As a recent analysis, America’s colleges and universities are quietly shifting the burden of their big tuition increases onto low-income students, while many higher-income families are seeing their college costs rise more slowly, or even fall” (Eskow). Though education is the basic human right, most of the people in the U.S. are not being able to gain it as because of its rising cost. Since the 1970s, tuition and fees at public institutions have increased by more than 350 percent, while pay for working- and middle-class households has stagnated. As a result, the cost of a public-college education now accounts for almost 15 percent of the average family's annual income; 40 years ago it was about 4 percent (Kenneth W. Warren and Samir Sonti). The tuition and fees are increasing in such a way that the young Americans aren’t as educated as the young citizens of many other developed countries. The U.S. ranks 14th in the world in the percentage of 25-34 year-olds with higher education (42%).” When all adults of working age are considered, the US is still one of the highest-educated countries in the world. But when this age group is considered, we are falling behind (Richard Eskow). That’s the personal loss for the young people of the U.S. Education is not a privilege of the rich and well-to-do; it is the inalienable right of every people. It is a powerful tool by which people can lift

Cicero’s Orations , and the Aeneid. The major purpose of the school was to prepare a student in the liberal arts so he can follow the same path at college. The foundation of the school was classical languages, but with his mastery of the ancients, he also acquired knowledge of history, philosophy , and theology.

. In the article “Public College Boosting Aid to Wealthy as Poor Are Left Behind,” by Marian Wand, the author shares a story of little girl, Shauniqua Epps, she is 19 years old. Epps family lives in subsidized housing in South Philadelphia. Epps’ father died when she was in the third grade, her mother lives on social security which provides $698 a month. She has a good GPA and is also good in sports. She applied for three colleges for higher education, but none of the colleges provided financial aid to her. She did not go to any of the colleges because she could not afford the tuition. No one in family can support her because Epps’ mother does not have enough knowledge to encourage her. This proves that the students from low socio-economic background were not encouraged by their

Before one can move forward with their education one must understand where it all started. When researching the history of higher education there is a common theme in every aspect of my research. I would find the word “college” and the word “university”. Throughout the 19th century there would be some confusion between the two words. In colleges the primary role is teaching where as in the university research and scholarships are the primary role (Lucas,2006). Also, current universities offer post- baccalaureate or graduate instruction whereas colleges do not. However, this was not always the case before the 19th century.

Many wealthy people didn’t graduate from college. For example, the creator of Facebook Mark Zuckerburg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and Twenty-one time Grammy winner Kanye West. All these individuals make a life of college dropout. They make their life sound enticing, we must remember that they are exceptions rather than the norm. A college degree is a common goal for families and a baseline requirement for jobs In the United States. A recent Pew Research study found that 94 percent of parents expected their children to go to college. The college attendance has not always been the case. During the 1940s, college was mostly a privilege of the wealthy. The most college students were white males; women and people of color were often barred from entry. The change began during WW2 ended, however, that began to change. The first major change involved the G.1 Bill in 1944. Students and their families make tough decisions when they think about attending college.

In " Free College Doesn't Fix Everything,” Richard Reeves, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Said that Community colleges in the United States can, in theory, provide an important service. not everyone has the same opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree. Most high school students from rich families will end the university, some of humble origin will join them. At this time, the system of institutions in the United States serves to reinforce inequality from generation to generation, rather than reduce it. However, some students do not get into college, or do not finish their studies, and this is not only economically-financial situation is also due to the weakness that has America in education. However,

“Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation” (1). Many people believe that school isn’t for everyone, and whoever goes is privileged for doing so. Countless people in the world today do not attend college, and this is mainly due to an influence of those in their family. Perhaps they are unsupportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling and higher learning. Most of the first-generation students decide to apply to colleges, because they aspire to jobs which require degrees. However, unlike some students whose parents have earned a degree, they often seek out college to bring honor to their families, and to ensure they make a decent amount of money for their future.

Students from all over the United States are told all through their life that they need to attend college if they ever want to be successful, however, this is far from the truth. Often schools are culprits for driving students to attend money driven colleges, in other cases it is family. While schools all too often make the push on students to continue their schooling, parents can cause the same situation, as they may not have a degree and be working a low-paying factory job. Now kids already don’t want to be like their parents when they get older, so seeing them suffer in poverty or barely above the poverty line can cause some dissatisfaction, further seeking a degree to live a life that they never got. What many

Upon doing research on Charles Murray it was discovered that he went to Harvard, which may make one doubt the validity of his argument. Another faulty is that a man who went to such a prestigious school will have a different expectation than someone who went to the University of New Hampshire for example. Of course he doesn’t think college is for everyone because not everyone may be able to make it through a college as vigorous as Harvard. Anyone that attends Harvard has some amount of talent but “anything below an IQ of 110 is problematic…if you want to do well [in college], you should have an IQ of 115 or higher” (Kirszner, Mandell 677). By making this statement, one can doubt his arguments validity; he may be making too high of an expectation for the “qualifying” student academically college abled and underestimating the “unqualified” college student that should try two years of vocational school before attempting a four year college. Millar, who did not attend an Ivy League school like Murray, and did an exceptionally well job of convincing her readers by stating facts with opinions. If a woman who went to UCLA can do that, than Murray may be overestimating college and adding more insult than encouragement. If a parent has a child with an IQ less than that of a “qualifying” one, then Murray may appear discriminatory towards an audience that is associated

The appearance of universities was part of the same high-medieval education boom. Originally universities were institutions where students could attain specialized instruction in advanced studies. These types of studies were not available in the average cathedral schools. Advanced schools existed in the ancient world, but did not promote a fixed curricula or award degrees.