“The most charitable conclusion we can reach is that college probably has very little, if any, effect on people and things at all,” says Caroline Bird in one of the concluding paragraphs of the article. I cannot ignore the countless people I have met in life that will admit that college really had no effect on their current career or status in life. Employers are very aware of the fact that just about anyone can get a diploma these days and the value of that piece of paper continues to diminish with each student that just squeezes by. I like the point made in the article that college is not the producer of well cultured, intelligent, happy citizens of society, but rather these types of people are attracted to higher education and go on to succeed in life.

College has become a place of escape rather than learning. Bird’s statistics show a gradual decline in the percentage of students who feel education is very important, (at least the education they are provided in the public school systems.) According to the Carnegie Commission, at the time this article was published, up to 30 percent of students were there reluctantly. It has become a place where kids can get away from a poor home situation or become independent with out losing support from their families. In my opinion, also, I feel that in many cases it is the only option given to these high school grads. (Bird 465)

Some topics in this essay:
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