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Paul Rivera
Professor Leonor
English 035
14, October, 2015
Are Too Many People Going to College?
Today in America’s society, the people believe that our generation is obligated to take
education further on to a college level. If a person decided not to go to college, people get the
basic assumption of this person as “too dumb or too lazy” (Murray 253). Why do people go to
college though? Many people attend college because they think it is valuable; it teaches you
something, you meet new people, and you earn that extra bonus in your pay check once you
graduate. Even though it may seem like a great idea to go to college; there is many factors that
are not shown on the brochure of your favorite university. Now since there is many students
attending college, there is now competition between them which is not creating a friendly
environment about obtaining an education. There is too many people going to college because
people are mistreating degrees as admission tickets, finding themselves in large amounts of debt,
and realizing the bare truth that they are not meant for grueling long classes that require different
methods of thinking and learning.
A main reason why a person would go to college is to gain a higher education with the
expectation of a College Degree. People are awarded with degrees when they study their major
and complete the courses needed to take to earn it. There is certain levels of degrees such as
Associates, Bachelors, and, Masters. Over the years the Bachelor’s Degree has become the usual
or “Norm” as some people call it. But if there is too many people going to college for the same

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degree, our B.A will begin to “offer limited educational opportunities and fail to make fresh and
meaningful instructional connections among disparate kinds of skill and knowledge”. (Rose
283). This means the more people who have the same degree will devalue work that only
requires a high school diploma and the Associates which is has already begun. People are
mistreating the B.A and they do not seem to understand what it is the true meaning about earning
the degree. Having a degree means that you have done all the requirements, hard work, and you
know the skills that comes with this major, also you have what it takes to get the job. People
seem to abuse the B.A by graduating with it and using it as a ticket to get hired in that interview.
It may seem like this person knows what he is doing but sometimes having the degree doesn’t
mean you have the skill or knowledge for the particular job. Students may have forgotten some
skills they have learned during their four years of college or there is people who buy fake
degrees. Also there is people who only see the financial gain into getting the B.A. There is a lot
of jobs that do not require a degree and some people actually work their way up in advancement,
but there is people with college degrees who apply for these jobs and take it away from the
people who worked hard all their life for it. Our American educational system should decrease
the power of Degrees. Not only does it take away peoples jobs but the people who go to college
mostly end up in debt.
The average tuition for a public college annually is around $20,000. The average student
stays in college for four years. This means that the total price of a student’s college tuition would
be around $80,000 not including other expenses. How could any normal person be able to pay
eighty grand for college with no degree and a part time job? Colleges give their students loans
for the cash they do not have at the moment. Even after many students have graduated college,
they are not guaranteed a job. The job may not be able to pay of $80,000, plus the interest that

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comes with the loan. It will take a while for the person to find a job and fully pay off their loan.
College needs to reduce the cost of their tuition to help students that are struggling financially.
Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County read an article
by New York Times called “College is for Suckers”. He mentions that the article “echoes an
increasingly common refrain that college is too expensive, that students are taking unmanageable
debt”. (Hrabowski 259). I think the article he read is true; even though Freeman states that there
is College prep initiatives that help kids and families deal with their budget. Having to pay so
much money using loans does not help college students at all, it only prepares them for debt at an
early age. A lot of people end up wasting money by failing the class or dropping out because
everyone cannot learn the same way.
Colleges offer online courses, lectures, and other types of ways that a student can take the
class. Online courses are beneficial for a student that doesn’t have any means of transportation or
just rather stay home in pajamas; is it beneficial to the students who learn at a different pace, or
who don’t like the course? “Every percentile down to the ability ladder-and this applies to all
abilities, not just academic-the probability that a person will enjoy the hardest aspects of an
activity goes down as well” (Murray 239). Charles means that if a student does not enjoy their
course, eventually they will fail or drop out because they have no skill or cannot make a
connection between the teacher and class. Even if the student does have the ability to do it they
may not just appeal to the course. It seems like colleges do not understand that students need the
hands-on method of teaching in order for them to actually learn and pass the course. Colleges
need to get rid of the accessibility of technology in their schools. It is so easy for kids to search
up something on google instead of actually reading about it, learning, and applying it to
classwork. Our American Educational System needs to be fixed or else it will get worse.

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I think colleges see the problem in our society and they do not care. They rather gain
money instead of having their future society be able to graduate without being in debt or
dropping out. Too many people are going to college because people using the B.A as a paycheck
which decreases the value of jobs, people are in too much debt, and a lot of students are failing
and dropping our more than passing college. The best idea it seems like is to get a scholarship or
go to a community college where it is cheaper. College is becoming a place where students are
failing, going into debt, and abusing degrees as admission tickets to any job they want. This has
been going on for a long time and it needs to stop. Our colleges need to lower tuition, Decrease
the power that degrees have on jobs, and bring back courses to the colleges. Fixing our
educational system will help out our society as a whole.

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Works Cited
Hrabowski, Freeman. "College Prepares People For Life." Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein,
Russel Durst. They Say I Say. New York, London, n.d. 259.
Murray, Charles. "Are Too Many People Going to College?" Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein,
Russel Durst. They Say I Say. Ney York, London, n.d. 234-253.
Rose, Mike. "Blue-Collar Brilliance." Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. They Say I
Say. New York, London, n.d. 283.