College Pressures By William Zinsser Summary

In William Zinsser's article, "College Pressures," he examines the pressures that confronted college students in the late 1970's. Zinsser concentrates on four primary pressures, which are financial, peer, parental and self-induced pressures. Zinsser feels that these students are so much pressurized, but they ought to understand that there is no "right" approach to succeed, and a career does not need to be preplanned. He correctly gives an example where he calls personalities for guest lectures, and when these personalities say that they took up the career path after trying out various options the students get surprised. Zinsser rightly quotes, “They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the …show more content…
Each of these pressures is very relevant and I am sure students face these pressures in any college throughout the country. These pressures may at times help students, but most of the times these pressure result in disappointment and sadness for students. The entire educational and career path is presented to students in such a way that these pressures become inevitable parts of their lives. He states, “One of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, venerated in our media - the million dollar athlete, the wealthy executive - and the glorified in our praise of possessions.” (Zinsser) Students are afraid of failing, they are afraid of losing, all these add up to anxiety and lack of confidence in students. Being aware of a problem is a first step to solving the problem. So students should be aware that such pressure me hamper them and their studies. Students should learn how to balance their lives and not be too stressed out because of the various activities that they perform. Most importantly, they should be aware that such pressure exists and not lose track of their dreams and aspirations because of the pressures they