Analysis of The Purpose and Importance of College

Recently, people are discussing the role of college educations. A debate formed by arguing whether the purpose of college is for the economic prospects or on the other hand for personal growth. On one hand, some claim that college can affect your future job. Michelle Singletary who wrote an article “ Not all college majors are created equal” for The Washington Post business page, stated a lot of reason illustrates her point of thinking why college and money have a relevant connection. On the other hand, some say college is more for personal development rather than just focus on the jobs. Charles Dorn, a professor of education and the associate dean for academic affairs, who wrote the article “ What Is College Good For?” in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He uses his own story and experiences to point out that college is for self- improvement although he agrees that college is partly for jobs. To connect, the issues is whether the author’s target audience will believe Job is more important or personal improvement is more important in college.

Singletary in her article claims that the college is the start for your future job by saying “a college degree is the ticket to many jobs” because without a college degree, the unemployment rate will increase substantially. Another sub claim that Singletary illustrates in her article by telling students have to plan carefully before admitting to any loans because the salary you get from jobs might not help you to pay off the debt that easily. Singletary keeps reminding us that college debts are not easy to pay. She said, “ Nonetheless, the lack of career planning before school is chosen, a major is selected and debt is borrowed is shocking me.”This example points out that students are tended to borrow heavy loans before knowing their employment prospects and their expectation of earning which wants them to know the opportunity in the reality are different from what they want from their major in college. Therefore, as long as students planned their career future and know what they need for a job to success, it is fine to have loans during colleges.

Singletary claims that students should know what their major in college can lead to their career as people’s major does not directly affect their job. According to Singletary, she used a report that focused on matching jobs with major released by Georgetown center, they found out the types of job that the employer wants and the number of people who had the education and training have no connection at all. This example indicated to reader that jobs might need skills that other than a college degree. “It’s not an investment of you’re not coupling your education with training,” writes Singletary. Therefore students should know what they really passionate to do for job before knowing what major to start with and what other experience they need as studying Economic might work at the hospital in the future too. These example helps Singletary to prove that all students study college for a job and for paying off their loans. Students need to have a full plan for career and knowing what they need on their paths such as their major at college, their internship, and other training programs before they get into college and applying for loans. This further shows that jobs need to take work experience and the employment rate might vary.

Dorn claims that people should not go to college only for their job because we go to college for our self-development and society. One problem is that the purpose of college changed from generations to generations. According to the article, Dorn said even neither of his parents went to college, they have lived rich lives. Which means in the older generations, a college degree is not a necessary thing in their lives. They only think we won’t have to work with hands instead, we work with our head in the future if we go to college. There is no benefit from higher education. However, people have different thoughts in this generation. Dorn claim when talking to his mom on behalf of a parent that “ I hope he’ll be admitted to one that expands his understanding of the world as well as his personal ambitions, one that equips him to live well while fostering as awareness of his responsibility to others.” These examples show that although both authors and his mother was speaking on behalf of parents, they have a different view and expectation to their kids because of the time changing.

Dorn further develops his argument by saying the purpose of going to college changed from utilitarian to idealistic. Evidence of this is Dorn used the historical facts to support his argument of saying students had occupational advancement in mind when going to college and even in the early 19th century, higher education’s primary objective is to prepare students for ministerial training. On the other hand, “ In addition to providing opportunities for enhancing career prospects, colleges and universities have historically encouraged students to expand their aspiration in the direction of serving the public good.”  Dorn thinks now college pursue self- improvement to become useful citizens. Therefore, Dorn believes that going to college is not only for a job but can help in personal growth and help contribute to society in the future.

Although both Singletary and Dorn have a different view on the purpose of college, they still have some similarities within two articles. The structure of both articles can clearly show the similarities. They both started with an introduction to grab readers’ attention. Singletary used a game to know what college students chose for major while Dorn used his own story with his family background to start with the article. These relevant attention grabbers can make a strong connection to their own opinion about college. They stated lots of reason to support their argument and one of the ways is using evidence. Singletary used the unemployment statistics while Dorn used some historical facts of college to help to point to their thought. Although both articles used a different method for evidence, they both work effectively to support their argument. Lastly, they concluded their whole article with a summary of all the point they said in the article to remind the readers about their opinions on college.

By comparing the context of the article, both writers basically agree that college is for jobs. Singletary started her argument by saying “Certain a college degree is the ticket to many jobs”. Singletary used this to say the importance of college while she ended her article by claiming college major or their career plan should make with knowing the job opportunities that will be available. This proved how Singletary looks at college as a very important step for getting a job and how college and job can be connected. Dorn said a similar thing. According to paragraph 3 in his article, he was telling how his parents known a little about the way college worked and they knew a higher education can lead to occupational advantages for sure. He agreed in paragraph 22 “my mother was right”. Furthermore, Dorn said, “the reason was pragmatic: to obtain my teaching credential – and have job prospects – following graduation”. This shows that both Singletary and Dorn see college is for a job.

In conclusion, both authors keep countering the purpose of college while Singletary argues that college is a ticket to many jobs and this can clearly tell that she thinks college is important for jobs and money is always a concern for her. Despite, Dorn said the purpose of college had changed from different generations and now, it is mostly for personal growth and to contribute to society.

Furthermore, Singletary writes in a more aggressive way for those students, and parents who are interested in getting to know about college admission. She seems very firm to her aspect by listing lots of statistics and real data to convince her audience that college is for jobs and a plan is really needed to know whether you can pay your loans in the future. While Dorn writes informally for an audience of Higher Education’s teachers, staff, students, and parents. He uses his own story to softly convince his audience that college purpose has changed from just for utilitarian enterprise into both for jobs and their personal growth. Although both authors have opposing views, both used the same structure in their article and they mostly agree college is for jobs.

References

• Cook, D., & Cook, D. (n.d.). Dorn Essay 'What Is College Good For? (Hint: More Than Just a Job)' in Chronicle of Higher Education. 
• Dorn, C (2017). What is College Good For? (hint: More Than Just a Job). In D. Poole (Ed.) Reading sections for Linguistics 100A (17-19) San Diego: Montezuma Publishing
• Singletary, M (2012). Not all college majors are created equal. In D. Poole (Ed.) Reading sections for Linguistics 100A (13-14) San Diego: Montezuma Publishing