College Calculus By John Cassidy: Article Analysis

Improved Essays
In the article “College Calculus: What’s the value of higher education?” by John Cassidy, Cassidy discusses the values and drawbacks of receiving a higher college education. Cassidy claims that college education is one of the most valued things by Americans today and despite the cost continuing to increase families still feel the pressure to provide their kids with a better education. Cassidy claims these families know that a higher education will allow their children to have better lives, better wages, and better opportunities, resulting in the pressure to provide their kids with this education. Cassidy also states that college education has become a prerequisite and a necessity for an abundant amount of jobs. He claims that despite the cost …show more content…
Moreover, Cassidy also states the amount of money spent of college today is so great that it has become “financially crippling” (Cassidy, 2017, p.3). This mean that the amount of college tuition has increased so much that over the years it has become harder and harder for college graduates to pay off their loan, leaving them with college debt. Yet many of these students will get jobs that will help them pay off these loans. In addition, before applying to college, there are many opportunities that college bound students can take advantage of to get a cheaper college education. For example FAFSA has been available for low income families and they can pay a part of a student's tuition or up to full college tuition. Students can also receive scholarships for academic achievements and for their during good in sports. Both FAFSA and scholarships a good way to help alleviate the cost of college tuition. Later, on in the article Cassidy states that “There's no doubt that college graduates earn more money… than people who don't have a degree.”, this provides. Cassidy uses this to explain that regardless of having student that college-bound students will earn more money than people who do not attend college. This provides students with the security that the high cost of college tuition they will pay will be worth it in the …show more content…
Cassidy conflicts college bound students by stating that machines will take over the majority of or jobs in the future including, doctors, lawyers, and other highly skilled professionals. Yet, we live in a society where humans interacting with other humans has become one the main parts of us living. Also, the meticulous skills that people learn in Med School are not skills that can be easily done by anyone, especially a machine. Cassidy also states that the price of college is going up and it is becoming harder and harder for people to pay off their loans. Yet resources such as scholarships and FAFSA have been known to pay off as much as full college tuition for those who meet the requirements. It is better to do good in school academically and participate in sports knowing that one day scholarships will be awarded. Not only will scholarships be able to help college graduates pay off their loans but also the jobs that they game. And the articles Cassidy states that college-bound students make more income than those who do not attend college. In conclusion attending college will be worth because college opens up many opportunities to college bound students and provides them with better job opportunities than those you do not attend

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In the article, “College is a waste of time” by Dale Stephens, Dale gives his persuasive opinions on why college is a waste of time by giving out evidences of how college isn’t fully beneficial and describing people who are successful today without a college degree. Dale describes college as “rewarding conformity, regurgitation, and theory”, instead of, “rewarding independence, learning, and application”. Providing that college is also hungry for people’s wallet, The College Board Policy Center showed that tuitions have increased 3.6 times since 30 years ago. Not everyone needs college to be successful such as Mark Zukerberg who made it big without a diploma. Summing up the article, Dale states that in the end it’s people’s choice to look for…

    • 1046 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cassidy never picks a side regarding whether or not a higher education is necessary for the success of a person. However, he presents both sides and provides strong arguments for both cases. Cassidy expresses how the expensive costs of college can make or break a person’s decision regarding whether or not they want to attend. He states, “Students in the United States pay about four times more than their peers in countries elsewhere” (Cassidy, 2015, p.2). The United States is one of the only places in the world to have such high costs for college.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Study after study reminds us that higher education is one of the best investments we can make...”(Owen, S., & Sawhill). In the essay, “Should Everyone go to College”, written by Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, the two authors work together to form a strong argument on idea that everyone should go to college. Money, personal success, and personal well- being are the main subjects that the authors present to the readers. This paper will evaluate some of the different components of writing that the authors used to get their ideas across to the audience. In the text, the authors use a few different methods and devices to help convey their point to the reader in a more clear manner.…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the reading “Are Too Many People Going to College?” first published in 2008, Charles Murray argues that while the need and idea of going to college and getting a B.A. is becoming increasingly more important, not everyone needs a college education. Murray believes that any student that has already graduated from high school has already, in a sense, obtained a college education. He points out that by the time students finishes eighth grade, they should already have learned all the “core knowledge” they need to know (236). By the time they get to high school, students should be focusing more on the liberal aspect of education by taking courses in the “humanities, social sciences, and sciences” where they are “taught at a level below the demand…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The value of a college degree is a dispute that is commonly contemplated, yet rarely answered. I will attempt to express my attitude towards college education, personally defined as an Associate’s Degree for returning adult students. In an effort to explain the greater benefits of a college degree despite the common rhetoric that it is not financially worthwhile, I have considered the positive and negative effects of doing so. I have examined the following articles, “Learning by Degrees and Live Chat With the Author,” “The Major and the Job Market, the dream and the reality,” and “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower,” to support my stance. When one maintains a desire to progress academically and an open-mindedness to educational demands in the…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is College Worth the Cost? At some point in the life of nearly every American there is a choice to be made about whether or not college is worth the time and money. More and more people are beginning to question if college really is worth the cost due to record levels of unemployment for college graduates. Personally, I believe that the amount of time and money spent on a college education is worth it and has great returns that are not only measured in monetary value.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It’s hard to believe that once upon time, Americans did not have the dreadful worries of finding a way to prepare for the financial necessities for college. Now, college is becoming more of a dream rather than a reality as high tuition rates becomes the number one reason why Americans are not advancing themselves into higher education. In some cases, there are college students who receive full-ride scholarships to the college they desire; however, the majority of those who do go to college do not obtain the same luck. Those students who do continue their education and go off to college find themselves short of financial aid, out-of-pocket cash, and even scholarships. This causes students to resort to taking out a student loan.…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We view “college as a job” that gives substantial earnings returns to a college degree, irrespective of occupation, whether an individual is an insurance agent or a rocket scientist. This is not true because there are people with high degrees, like a PhD or a computer programmer, who have lost their jobs to layoffs. So having a college degree does not guarantee “substantial returns,” as Richard Vedder summarizes in his article, “For Many, College Isn’t Worth It." Vedder thinks the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are fairly accurate and that college is not worth it for everyone because we are all created differently. An impartial understanding of the information is that school is justified, despite all the trouble, for some huge number of youngsters, but is a significantly more financially dangerous…

    • 1046 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In “Should Everyone Go to College,” Owen and Sawhill states that college allows students who graduate to earn a higher rate of income; however, various factors should be considered before choosing a degree. Moreover, the authors clarify that while the value of college outweighs the costs associated with earning a degree, just any college degree is not the best investment one could make to ensure the completion and success of their education. The authors also explain that the value of college can outweigh the costs associated with completing a degree. Owen and Sawhill emphasized that college improves certain values, such as job satisfaction and overall well-being, while also improving equally-as-important more monetary values such as graduates’…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anaisha Murray Mr. King ENGL 101-029 February 3rd, 2014 Is College Worth the Cost? Many people argue that college is not worth the cost. Some individuals say that college is too expensive and when they graduate they are not able to find a job with their degrees. People also say that college is not worth the amount of money they have to pay back in loans after they graduate. Those are all points stated in Rodney K. Smith’s essay…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Writer, John Cassidy, in his article in The New Yorker, “College Calculus, ” sums up the history of our higher education from the establishment of Harvard College in Massachusetts. Then he goes further in the discussion of the funding for students and the actions Obama has taken to provide higher education for the people. Cassidy’s purpose of writing this article is to enlighten the reader in what our government our media and the business community speak so fondly of receiving higher education and then Cassidy goes into detail of the actual values higher education has to offer. He takes on a tone of authority to explain his points and his facts as well as adopts a sympathizing tone for the readers to relate with the topic and see the truth…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Owen and Sawhill claim that “With tuitions rising faster than family incomes, the typical college student is now more dependent than in the past on loans”(212). They later proceed to describe ways that policymaker can improve on by presenting better information, increased performance-base scholarships, and better alternative to conventional college (223). Owen and Sawhill do have a point, that college tuition is expensive, but that should not signify a reason for not attending college. With several government assistance applications available to students, for example, financial aid, although they are under no mean perfect, they do however assist with reducing the cost of college. In spite of the fact that it may not be perfect, policymaker, government, and individual institution are doing their best to improve it.…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Free Education For All Everyone, at least once in their lifetime, has had the feeling of coming too far in order to be setback. Imagine a student, a junior in high school, who has a list of colleges in mind, but they have one minor setback. College tuition. For so many years, college education was not essential in the workforce, but now jobs that require little to no college education are depleting and there are millions of people wanting jobs.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every parents dream is for their kids to be successful, they want a child who had fun, stayed safe, and hopefully pursuited a college education so that their future would be bright. A college education and their degrees give college students and graduates a better opportunity to get a job and set up a career path. Now imagine, a world where everyone has a college education. The thing that made a college education and degree worth anything is that not everyone has one, it’s like diamonds. The reason diamonds are valuable is they are rare, which means there is also a low supply and high demand therefore rising the price.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Worth It For Whom Higher education has become one of the hot topics in the United States as of late. There are individuals who assert that a college degree is not required to get a high earning job, because many people who are successful did not graduate from college. There are those who debate higher education is not worth due to its high price, and those who believe higher education is worth it and necessary for the reason that jobs demand a degree. Those who argue that college is not worth it expose that loans from college are too high and the job market is weak. Furthermore, these loans affect students by delaying them from buying a house, getting married, or saving for retirement.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays