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Summary Of Where College Fails Us By Caroline Bird

949 Words4 Pages

Recently, higher education in the United States has been attacked and degraded. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). These claims against higher education have caused several people to question if college is even worth going through and paying for. Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether or not college is a good investment. …show more content…

Caroline Bird’s argument against postsecondary education is incorrect, specifically her beliefs that students are exposed to too many options and graduates only want jobs that save people. First, Caroline Bird shares her belief that “a college experience that piles option on option …merely adds to the contemporary nightmare.” Although too many options can be overwhelming sometimes, it is a good thing to have several options for people to choose from. For instance, as a student, I have been exposed to many options: what classes I should take, what major I should major in, what professors I should take, etc. Options are a good thing because I do not have to be pressured into majoring in something I do not want to or taking classes that are not right for me. As a matter of fact, author Virginia N. Gordon found statistical evidence that about 75 percent of students change their major at least once before graduation (Freedman). With this, students can be comforted by the number of choices they have to choose from and know that their major is out there somewhere. By being able to pick from a wide variety of majors, students do not have to worry about wasting their money by being forced into a major. Also, having several choices of majors

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