Christopher Beaha Level The Field Analysis

Superior Essays
In the article “Leveling the Field”, Christopher Beha goes undercover as a college student at the University of Phoenix and makes effective claims about the corrupt nature of these institutions and the increasing push for degree attainment by the American government. He reports his experience at the University of Phoenix and how he started to question the integrity of the concept. He addresses the origins of the college and how it has evolved from its original intent. Beha makes his claim by describing his experiences with the organization and the encounters he has with his classmates. He backs up his experience with previously recorded facts and statistics.
Beha begins his report with the orientation at the University of Phoenix. He describes
…show more content…
People all round the country have been given false hope of a good education while being scammed out of their money. In the article “Leveling the Field”, Christopher Beha exposes this corrupt business by sharing his experiences. As a senior in high school about to embark on the next chapter of my education, I found this article very intriguing and informative. As I read through Beha’s discoveries I found myself in agreement with the author more times than not. He makes valid claims about pressing issues in present day …show more content…
I consider myself well-informed on many current issues, but this article exposed me to the problems concerning higher education in America. Beha makes his claim about the unacceptable nature of for-profit schools to then show the direct effect it has on the mentality of higher education. Then, he uses this to reveal a logical solution supported by facts and personal experiences. Without his encounter with Phoenix University, he could not have made his claim about the push for degrees effectively. The way Christopher Beha seamlessly connects two troubling issues in America is very effective. Nobody, after reading this article, should view America’s higher education the same way

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The Chronicle of Higher Education has typical audience of 35-55 year olds who are typically educated individuals. However, as well as The Chronicle of Higher Education’s typical audience Carey’s target audience is potential or already enrolled students of for-profit colleges and he strives to inform these individuals of his main claim that for-profits are an evil. In addition to this claim Carey also claims that for-profits are using aggressive recruiting tactics and that student’s are having a difficult time paying their loans back after graduation. In order to prove his claims Carey uses strategies like loaded choice of language and discrediting leading industry officials and also utilizes evidence such as expert testimony and…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In their article “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus offer harsh criticisms of colleges by insisting that they are not focusing on the right things, thus making higher education not worth the cost and efforts that students put into it. To support their argument they tell of their conclusion from a visit to college institutions across the United States. They say that there are some things that successful colleges do that distinguish them from other colleges. Examples of these include engaging the students in their learning more effectively, making teaching undergraduates their first priority, not giving teachers or faculty members too much money, and making education affordable.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Going to college and obtaining a degree for an individual's chosen career is just as questionable as to the worth of being in debt and wasting years on useless courses. Some would agree that a liberal degree could be the solution to all of this, and some will oppose the wasted time and money spent on education that should have already been obtained from grade school. In the following articles, Charles Murray ‘Are Too Many People Going to College’ and Sanford J. Ungar’s ‘The New Liberal Arts,’ explain the hardships about the collegiate standards and what it should consist of in order to have an individual’s future successful. Using these rhetorical devices greatly show how the education system in college has been immeasurably depreciated in value and in return caused an escalation of student debt and an insufficient, useless degree.…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hacker And Dreifus

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the essay Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus discuss whether college is worth the price students pay. Throughout the essay Hacker and Dreifus discuss if colleges are giving good value for the investments, what individuals gain from their investment and show what it looks like for an institute to being doing their job well (Hacker and Dreifus, 179). In the essay, Hacker and Dreifus talk about how colleges take on too many roles and none of those roles are executed.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Summary

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the article “University wars: the corporate administration vs. the vocation of learning”, McMurtry aims to bring focus to the underlying issue with todays higher educational systems; universities are obsessed with financial gain and are overlooking what truly matters: education. By focusing on “their own growth, privileges, and salaries”, universities are raising tuition costs to unreasonable prices, making it near impossible for many individuals to go to school (McMurtry, 166). He claims students are forced to become “debt-slaves” in order to attain their right to an education in todays economy (McMurtry, 166). McMurtry’s effective use of intrinsic ethos, extrinsic ethos, and the appeal of pathos successfully strengthen his argument demonstrating…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Education is a resource that is available to most people in the United States. The value and the ways it is administered often various from person to person. Michelle Obama and Mike Rose are both advocates of educational value. They exhibit their positions on education in two documents; Blue-Collar Brilliance by Mike Rose and Bowie State University Commencement Speech by Michelle Obama. Rose’s document focuses on the degrading of educational attributes that are not gained in the preferred environment such as school.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Giroux views colleges as a space of democracy and intellectualism, where democracy and individualism ought to be encouraged. However, he believes that university, and the democracy it supports, are being threatened by right-wing extremism and excessive capitalism. Giroux states that many individuals hold the idea that “education is now about job training and competitive market advantage” (3). He believes that educators see students as little more than cash cows, and that colleges have essentially become businesses, interested more with money than providing their students a decent education. As a result, humanities and other important classes are overlooked in favor of classes which provide raw economic value.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Price Of Admission

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Indeed, the article puts forth numerous examples of colleges that take different and, some would argue, illogical approaches to funding, and students with varying degrees of success. For example, one college that the article analyzes is The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, which uses the normal standard testing procedures, and also throws in a home test that consists of a number of open-ended questions. On top of this, the college is dedicated to tuition-free education. Examples like this show that education does not have to adhere to the formalized structure that students have become adapted to. Indeed, what might be ticket is, in fact, a restructuring of college as it is known today.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the beginning, he succeeds to get the attention of the audience by using heavy weight words and phrases like ‘battle’, ‘soul’ and ‘corporation- heavy democracy that dominates the globe’ (Spayde, 65). He brings out the seriousness of formal education and how it is allied with power. His comparison of education to power is by itself overwhelming. To justify his view- point he puts forward a scenario of the power of a grad school dropout over a high school dropout in terms of empowerment attitude, entitlement and easy access to tools, people and ideas in-spite of having a lower salary. His use of words such as ‘ poorly or inadequately schooled’ creates a sense of weakness due to lack of formal education, and the word ‘dictate’ makes one feel powerful and authoritative which further strengthens his argument about relating education to power (Spayde, 67).…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Now Is The Time For Students Themselves To Stop It. (Cover Story) with a striking statement that the nation’s colleges and university students are studying,reading and learning less. Chace supports the statement by quoting and paraphrasing sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa as the present evidence that the American higher education system is failing a large portion of the students. On the same parallel President Obama stated “ If you can’t stop the tuition from going up,the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.” Higher education can’t be a luxury-- it is an economic imperative that…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    195-197. In “What College Can Mean to the Other America,” Mike Rose discusses the issue of how America’s economy leaves the underclass without opportunities in postsecondary education. Rose seems to direct this issue towards an audience who can make a difference. At the end of his article, Rose states, “What kind of society do we want to become?” (p.197).…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco (2012) provides a comprehensive chronological overview of higher education from its origins to the present day. Upon reading the title I assumed the subsequent pages would drag on about the failures of higher education and list a fool proof way of correcting said issues, I am happy to announce I was incorrect. In the book’s six short chapters Delbanco manages to take us back in time and review the origins of higher education in order to better understand where we are today. In the first three chapters Delbanco reviews the evolution of college, which originally stirred from religion, and became the way society groomed young men of age. In 1886 founding president of John’s Hopkins stated that college should always be a place for the development of a student’s character (p.42).…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In their papers on higher education in America, academics Mark Edmundson and William Deresiewicz write on the alleged crisis gripping the university system of the United States. Utilizing the terms ‘consumerism’ and ‘neoliberalism’ pejoratively, they muse on how each system has adversely affected higher education institutions throughout America. While both terms used are quite similar in nature, Deresiewicz is more pointed and explicit in his characterization of neoliberalism as opposed to Edmundson’s vague, winded description of consumerism. However, after an in-depth reading of Edmundson’s paper, one can deduce that he possesses the same disdain for free markets that Deresiewicz openly flaunts. Before one explores both professors’ writings,…

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Cost Of Education

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The overwhelming concern with higher education is its cost. The cost of higher education per student has substantially increased since 1985. The cost has rapidly risen along with the public’s concern. The continual panic and overall angst associated with the price to attend college has become a serious national issue. There is not one sole reason as to why the costs have reached this point.…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    College is Not for Everyone Today, more people than ever are attending community colleges and universities. Often, a collegiate degree is a prerequisite to meaningful employment (Pincus, 341). There is even social pressure pushing many to attend. I feel that the university education system has many structural shortcomings, and that institutions of higher learning often do not have students ' best interests at heart.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays