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Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody VS. A Matter of Degrees: Why College is Not an Economic Cure-All How many times have you heard; if you don’t go to college you wont be successful. Without a college degree you will go nowhere. These are statements that I for one have heard multiple times. While reading Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody, by Jay Mathews and A Matter of Degrees: Why College is Not an Economic Cure-All, by Clive Crook; I thought about the comments I have heard from others about college. It drew the thoughts of why I am attending college and the reasons for why I have decided to attend college. Have you ever thought about the reasons that you are attending college? These were my thoughts as I read both essays looking at two different author’s outlooks on college. The first essay that I read was Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody, by Jay Mathews. This essay was very interesting to me. Mathews talks about how it is hard for low-income children to attend college. This is partially due to the fact that the low-income children tend to not have the opportunities to pursue a quality education like children from higher income classes. The essay also discusses how low-income children are able to attend college they tend to get higher-income careers and their children are more likely to attend college. Matthews also tells about how City University of New York opened their admissions to all graduated of New York high school graduates. With this it allowed the low-income graduates, with who may not have as good of an education, to attend college in which they may not have had the opportunity before. The second essay A matter of Degrees: Why College is Not an Economic Cure-All by Clive Crook was about how college is beneficial but is not the “cure all” for the economy and helping people live more successful lives. Crook’s essay states that though college is beneficial to individuals, society also needs individuals to get careers in things that don’t involve a degree but instead a trade. This essay states that even if more individuals gain a degree their will next become the problem of people having degrees, and college debt yet not being able to find a career with the degree that they have gained. This essay was very informative about how college degrees do not guarantee a successful career like some believe they will. Both essays had many differences as well as some similarities. I believe that both essays were very informative and linked to each other in different ways in which made me as the reader of both begin to think more about college education than I would have thought about if I had not read these essays. During the essay that Jay Mathews wrote he has different views than of the essay that Clive Cook wrote. While discussing the City University of New York Mathews talks about how important accepting low-income students into the college is important. “… sociologists at the Graduate Center as the City University of New York, explains that the failure to welcome more such students into college not only reduces their chances for greater income and more choice, but ignores a golden opportunity to raise their children to a higher intellectual and social level, and increase the chances that they also will attend college (Pearson, page 356).” This goes to show how strongly Mathews is trying to show readers that going to college will help make it available for high school graduates to have a more successful career and life for their children. On page 356 while reading about the outcomes of low-income graduates who attended college. The essay states that the “disadvantaged women” did in fact complete college at a larger number than what was expected. Another outcome is that the rewards that were expected for those students were in fact there for them (Pearson, page 356). Another difference in Mathews essay is that at the end of his essay he encourages readers that college indeed valuable and worth the time. Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody encourages readers that college needs to be offered to the low-income graduates because of how beneficial college is to individuals. Mathews states, “… more needs to be done to improve the high school preparation of disadvantages high school students. Millions of low-income Americans, their data demonstrate, have the ability to use college to acquire new skills and capabilities that improve their lives, and their children’s lives, in significant ways (Pearson, page 357).” These statements were at the end of the essay in which makes the reader think about the benefits of college to individuals that is different than Clive Crook’s essays focus. During Crook’s essay, A Matter of Degrees: Why college is Not an Economic Cure-All he starts the essay off in the third paragraph about how some have mistaken college being economically the smart choice. “To rest the case for improving schools and colleges largely on economic grounds is a mistake (Pearson, page 366).” This shows the reader the voice of Crook that will be present throughout the essay. Though both essays are saying that college is beneficial he is stating in this essay that college may not be the only way to become successful. Crook also goes onto say, “A college degree has become an expensive passport to good employment, one for which drive and ability less often can substitute, yet one that looks unaffordable to many poor families (Pearson, page 367).” He is stating that college may not be economically smart for low-income graduates. Crook goes onto talking about college degrees and careers for individuals on page 367 in Pearson’s book. During this he states that many careers that once did not require a degree in the past now require a degree most of which is a minimal four-year degree. When reading this you begin to understand Crook’s view about how college may not be an economical solution due to needing to have a college degree for jobs that once didn’t require as much educational training. Therefore it is now costing individuals more money to have the same career, that earlier they did not need a degree, therefore is college really beneficial. Crook ends his essay A Matter Degree: Why College is Not an Economic Cure-All with a couple statements that I believe continue to show the differences in the views between the two authors in the two essays. Crook states, “Shoving ever more people from high school to college is not only of dubious economic values, it is unlikely to serve the cause of intellectual enrichment if the new students are reluctant or disinclined. I especially liked Crook’s statement, “The most valuable attribute for young people now entering the work-force is adaptability (Pearson, page 368).” This statement just goes to show Crook’s view that college may not be the one and only way for people to gain successful careers. Both essays also have some of the same views that support each other. In Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody, Mathews encourages college for high school graduates, stating that college will be a good benefit to those graduates and help them have a more successful career. Mathews states this in the fourth paragraph of the essay on page 355: “College graduates earn considerable more money over their careers than non-college graduates. The have more choices about what to do with their lives and much more… (Pearson, page 355)” When reading this statement it encourages the ideas that I have heard in the past and you may have as well when being told by others that without college one will not be able to make a lot of money and have a successful career. Crooks essay also supports this benefit of college when he states “On average, having a college degree rather than just a high-school degree, increases your earnings by about two-thirds (Pearson, page 366).” In these statements from both authors they are showing readers how much college will benefit the earnings of individuals to who attend college. Mathews also explains how getting low-income high school graduates into college helps low-income individuals but it shows the argument of other’s thought about making it easier for low-income students who may not have as good of an high school education to attend. Both essays support this argument in their statements. Mathews stated “The opening of CUNY to all New York high school grads has been criticized as a wrong-headed dumbing-down of a great system with a long history of raising the brightest young people from immigrant families into the middle class (Pearson, page 356).” While Crook also stated, “… if everybody went to Harvard, the Harvard premium would collapse (Pearson, page 366).” Though both are talking about two totally different educations they both are proving a point that possibly making it easier for low-income students to attend college and become more educated that it causes the college to lose some of their previous reputations. These are two similarities that stuck out to me as a reader of both essays. There are many more but in my eyes these were the two topics that I most linked together. Though Crook’s essay looked at college more of an economic point of view Mathews essay also did too without coming straightforward saying that college was a good choice economically. Both essays force readers to look at college in ways they have looked at it before but also in ways one may not have thought about before in the past. These essays made me as a reader think more deeply into why I am attending college and the purpose of college to me. The essays made me question whether college was going to be beneficial to me or not. These essays have many similarities and differences throughout the readings. So now have you thought about your reasoning for attending college? What will you say to someone the nest time you hear him or her tell you that you won’t be successful unless you attend college?Bibliography Pearson, Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Custom Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013. 355-368. Print. Pearson, . Exploring ................
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