Perceptions of On-Campus Living As a college student, I can attest to the fact that college is nothing like the home I grew up in. Conor Friedersdorf’s “A College Is a Community but Cannot Be a Home” attempts to target college administrators in order to make this misconstrued belief clear. Throughout the article, he makes several strong arguments to explain how students feel in a college setting, and how the current conceptions of what on-campus housing entails are not necessarily accurate. He writes to bring about change in the ideas of college administrators, so they can acknowledge the hardships of the transitions for students rather than trying to make such an environment something it truly “cannot” be. While Friedersdorf appeals to the …show more content…
Throughout the piece, he explains the struggles of a college student and how a home strongly differs from on-campus living. In doing so, he leads his audience to feel for the students, making them and want to bring about change that will allow the college students to transition better into a setting that is unfamiliar. While, as stated in the article, many continue to believe that living on a college campus becomes a home to students, Friedersdorf argues that it “cannot be.” His argument about how “college is not a home” was written to convince the reader to agree with him and generate change. To do so, he targets college administrators and those who can make a difference towards the views of administrators, as they can bring about change in the current ways of how on-campus living is construed. Therefore, it is clear that Friedersdorf did not write this article for the sole purpose of making his opinion known to a general audience. Instead, he targets this specific discourse community and stresses the emotions that will specifically appeal to its members. By using emotional appeal in a way that focuses on his specific audience, Friedersdorf works to encourage his audience to enforce change in current college …show more content…
In this example, he uses the scenario of talking around the dinner table that most would associate with home, which, once again, instills nostalgia in the reader. This makes a powerful point in the paragraph. By leading the readers to think about their own homes, Friedersdorf causes us to truly understand his point that these dinner table conversations do not have a place in a setting as diverse as a college campus. He makes it clear that one of the reasons that “college cannot be a home” is the fact that students cannot “lower their guards” in the way that they can at home around the dinner table. The author argues this to be an inherent result of students with varying backgrounds being brought together in a place of learning. He does not necessarily believe it to be positive or negative, but rather a consideration that must be made by his target audience which pushes them to agree with the argument at hand. In making this distinction between the limitations of self-expression in on-campus living and the freedoms of self-expression at home, Friedersdorf argues that students’ way of living is forcibly altered on
In “Too Many People Are Going to College”, the author, Charles Murray’s main purpose is to encourage people to rethink college. He clearly gives very valid and educated reasons on why college isn't for everyone and how society has made everyone think that college is a norm and, in a way, a rite of passage into adulthood and citizenship. Murray is given the difficult task of proving to the people that society has marred and distorted the views of college. He does an exemplary job of executing this task. Murray presents his argument that college is not all society says it is by presenting counter arguments and either giving rebuttals or conceding.
College today is not the college America previously knew, according to Rick Perlstein in Liz Addison’s “Two Years Are Better Than Four.” He believes that college is not as significant as it once was. Perlstein makes it sound like a showy reading list is all a student should need in order to be accepted into his or her school of choice. In the same essay, “Two Years Are Better Than Four,” the author, Liz Addison, states “[m]y guess, reading between the lines, is that Mr. Perlstein has never set foot in an American community college” (212). Addison considers the community college method “to be one of America’s uniquely great institutions” (214).
Andrew Delbanco uses his book in order to talk about the good and the bad things that higher education, specifically college, has to offer. He expresses the idea that college should not just be a place in which an individual can receive education to gain an occupation. He explains how college should be a place that focuses on undergraduates and granting them qualities that are important in life. There are five of such qualities that he believes are necessary, including skepticism towards the present, the ability to make connections, enhanced admiration of one’s surroundings, willingness to look at things through the perspective of others, and a “sense of ethical responsibility” (Delbanco 3). College may have a set of negative attributes, but
College is a turning point for a person's life as they begin their own journey without their parents, but the fact of the matter is this turning point is an expensive one. This high price tag calls into question the overall value of college. This argument spawned two distinct arguments on the subject. The first article, “Colleges Prepare People for Life”, was written by Freeman Hrabowski, the President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, on the value of college in general, especially his own. Similarly, the second article, “Two Years Are Better Than Four”, argues for the value of a specific type of college: community colleges.
In the essay, Two Years Are Better Than Four, the author, Liz Addison, gives her opinion on the importance of community college. The main point that she is trying to convey to her audience is that going to a community college is not harming the essential college experience. For some individuals, such as herself, the two-year college experience is exactly what they need to further their education. Community college is an affordable place that can “foster dreams (Addison)”. Throughout the reading, Addison makes compelling statements to prove the point which she is trying to make.
When entering college, there are many things to consider. Having to make such important life decisions can be very overwhelming for a high school senior. Not only are teenagers expected to make a decision on where they are going to potentially be spending the next four years, but they are also deciding who and how that is going to look like. In the article “A college education should include rooming with a stranger,” Ann Altman uses emotional diction to persuade readers to consider what their living conditions will be like their first year of college.
In the New York Times article “I Owe It All to Community College: Tom Hanks on His Two Years at Chabot College” published January 2015, the author Tom Hanks talks about his experience in Community College. The article being published in the New York Times was directed at an older group of people. Hanks begins the article effectively persuading the reader that Community College changes the lives of the students who attend. Hanks addressed his experience at a two-year junior college in Hayward, California with positive critique. Hanks’ succeeds with his claims of community college being a alternative to students in search of a afforable higher education, through his use of ethos, pathos, and logos.
In Freeman Hrabowski’s piece, “Colleges Prepare People for Life,” he mentions the differing opinions between going to college and choosing another path. Many people find college too expensive, and once a student graduates, he or she will face enormous debt and potentially risk still being unprepared for the working world. Hrabowski acknowledges this, and also notices that many students who do attend college occasionally make the wrong decision in terms of choosing a school and major. But while the stakes are high, he argues that college not only provides financial stability, but also allows students to become more virtuous citizens in the long run. He does this by providing information to backup his claims, using a passionate tone to explain his beliefs, and paralleling college attendance with good intentions.
In her essay, Two Years Are Better than Four, author Liz Addison states that “It is here that Mr. Perlstein will find his college years of of self-discovery, and it is here he will find that college does still matter.” In other words, Addison believes that it is at community college that one can find himself and seek out his future, that community college is a stepping stone into life, and gives you a boost into the real world. In saying this, she believes that college is still relevant in today’s society, and is needed to succeed in the future. In recent discussions about college, a controversial issue has been whether or not college as America used to perceive it is coming to an end.
Jacob Neusner’s commencement speech points the finger not only at the graduating students but mainly at the faculty members. He sways towards how easy-going, laid back, and forgiving the professors and other faculty members were towards their students. In that sense, Neusner clearly states that these students aren’t prepared for what’s about to come because they have always had someone hold their hand every step of the way and shown forgiveness in this fantasy called “college.” College is supposed to help you get your feet wet and aid students with preparation for the harsh so called real world. Many thoughts ran through my brain while reading this speech as did my emotions which were up and down like a rollercoaster. As much as I agree with Jacob Neusner on the fact that college and the “real world” are
Andrew Delbanco’s essay “A college Education: What is its purpose?” gives three reasons why college still matters. Delbanco teaches at Columbia University, where he’s the director of American studies and has written several books on the meaning and benefits of college. Delbanco, begins his essay by discussing what college means to each individual student. He states, “For many more students, college means the anxious pursuit of marketable skills in overcrowded, under resourced institutions. For still others, it means traveling by night to a fluorescent office building or to a “virtual classroom” that only exists in cyberspace.” (1) Delbano successfully uses pathos to appeal to his audience’s emotions, his personal experience and anecdotal combine to persuade his readers to consider or realize the importance of receiving a college education, however his essay contains minor flaws that can counteract his claims.
More than 98 percent of understudies live on grounds in residences. Rookies and sophomores should live in private universities, while youngsters and seniors regularly live in assigned upperclassman residences. The real quarters are tantamount, however just private universities have eating corridors. In any case, any undergrad may buy a supper arrange and eat in a private school eating corridor. As of late, upperclassmen have been given the choice of staying in their school for every one of the four years. Youngsters and seniors likewise have the choice of living off-grounds, yet high lease in the Princeton region urges all understudies to live in college lodging. Undergrad social life spins around the private schools and various coeducational eating clubs, which understudies may participate in the spring of their sophomore year. Eating clubs, which are not authoritatively partnered with the college, serve as eating lobbies and collective spaces for their individuals furthermore have get-togethers all through the scholarly
In addition to the social aspects, college teaches how to develop independent thinking. It also “exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing” (Menand, 3). However, most students today perceive college fundamentally as a party scene and various forms of entertainment instead of focusing on school work. They have forgotten about the academic freedom provided by receiving a proper college education.
At some point, someone has said that high school will be the best four years of their lives and college gets even better. So with that idea in people’s heads, they come up with their ideal image of the college. They start planning the perfect scenario of what college they will go to and what their roommate will be like. They often try to compare an unrealistic image and turn it into a realistic image, but they are unlike in many ways. Once students step onto the college campus, they will soon face what it is actually like to be in college.When people understand that college is not the perfect movie scene, then they will take advantage of expanding and furthering their education seriously. Going to college is a whole different experience and there is a lot more to it such as the rigorous classes and overwhelming school work, being more independent, and forming new bonds with others.
Every student who enters the period of college has to face the necessity of person entering choosing between living at home or to live on-campus. At a certain time in life, you may have to decipher whether living in a dorm or living at home is a suitable choice. There are several pros and cons that partake in coming to a decision between the choices. There are numerous reasons to live at home such as, and financial sustainability, and additional privacy, etc. However, there are also countless reasons to live in a dorm such as living your own leads to freedom. The choice between dorm life and home life is what leads towards the transformation of the life of a young adult.