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Argument Essay: Is College Worth It?

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Is College Worth It?
From the day we start school, it is drilled into our brain that college is the only way to have a good future, but that may not be the case at all. One might be tempted to point to the many successful people out there without a college degree such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, but ordinary people can also achieve success without a college degree. At least, that’s what Charles Murray, Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, and Mike Rose argue in their essays titled “Are Too Many People Going to College?”, “Should Everyone Go to College?”, and “Blue-Collar Brilliance”. These authors believe that that college promotes social inequality, that college is not a requirement for a good job, and that college is not …show more content…
Murray points out that there has been an increased emphasis on going to college, especially among the middle class. He attributes this to the fact that the B.A. (bachelor of arts) has turned “into a symbol of first-class citizenship” (250). Because a college degree is not yet accessible to large parts of the population, he feels that the college system is partly to blame for the class division present in America. Similarly, Owen and Sawhill have observed that many view “a college degree [as] a prerequisite to entering the middle class” (208). Exploring a different angle than Murray, they focus on the economic benefits of a college degree and find that not all college degrees are created equal. Some degrees do not guarantee higher earnings than a high school diploma and might not actually grant entry into the middle class. Correspondingly, Rose notes that “we employ social biases pertaining to a person’s place on the occupational ladder” (279). By classifying people as blue, pink, or white collar, Rose contends that society makes certain assumptions about each group. White collar workers with college degrees are seen as the most intelligent, while pink and blue collar workers are seen as less intelligent. Although many believe that college helps to level the playing field when it comes to social inequality, Murray, Owen and Sawhill, and Rose are not among those

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