William Zinsser College Pressures Summary

College students are often worrying too much about becoming wealthy in the future rather than worrying about funding a career they love to perform in the future. Many students feel they need too have their entire life figured out and only take classes that will advance them. While these classes are important, taking elective classes are also necessary to experiance new things and open their minds.too In “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, Zinsser uses pathos to explain how students are stressing out about planning their futures.

Going to college is the first step to jump into the society, learning how to communicate with others, get more advanced information, acknowledge and share ideas with friends. However, many students are getting into trouble, which not related with education. In the essay, "College Pressure," William Zinsser focuses on four main types of pressure that college student experiences, which are economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. Zinsser writes about the pressures and gives examples on each one by writing scenarios or giving a personal experience when he witnessed college students struggling with anxiety. The essay gives a good amount of information and details to back up the

In Zinsser’s essay, College Pressure, he describes four different kind of college pressures that affect all of us such as parental pressure, peer pressure, economic pressures, and self-pressure. Upon reading the essay the first time it can easily leave one

In “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, the author displays different types of pressures that college students experience. He explains four different type of pressures including economic pressure, peer pressure, parental pressure, and self-induced pressure. These type of pressures are described as having negative effects on college students. Students are doing the things that they believe will pave the way to a successful life ahead, but Zinsser explains how there is no right way to get ahead and become successful because everyone is different. In “College Is A Waste Of Time And Money” by Caroline Bird, the author explains how college is unnecessary and a waste of time and money. She argues that there are different ways other than going to college to become successful and prepared for the “real world”. Bird believes that many college students are unhappy and wasting their time. Both essays were written in the 1970’s meaning some of the facts and information are obsolete and invalid. In comparing “College Pressures” and “College Is A Waste Of Time And Money”, we can clearly see that they both focus on the downsides of college, but more specifically both of the essays share a common pattern and audience. The two essays are different in the sense that they each have a different purpose.

    In discussions of Charles Murray, he expresses his opinion on the thoughts and feelings that are being transferred to students before college, claiming them to be misleading. Murray brings to light the problem that exists in the constant pushing of guidance counselors, teachers, and even politicians to aspire for a college degree no matter what, “treating every failure to go to college as an injustice” (Murray 48). Yet, by doing so, parents and students are often blindsided by the overwhelming cost of college that many cannot afford, or the sheer amount of education students would put themselves through for no reason at all. Murray observes that “one aspect of this phenomenon has been labeled misaligned ambitions, meaning that adolescents have career ambitions that are inconsistent with their educational plans” (Murray 48). Convincing students that college is the only guiding light to a better life forces students to see college as such, an intellectual heaven where they can become anything, such as a doctor or an attorney “without understanding the educational hurdles they must surmount to achieve their goal” (Murray 48-49). They then attend a four-year university with the depiction of college as a “place where B.A.s are handed out” fresh in their minds, thoughtless as to if that particular college they are attending even has the educational requirements needed to complete their career goals (Murray 49). Unfortunately, as Murray reminds us, this is the system that  is in place. For “a brutal fact

Coming to college as an adult, we have many expectations and preconceptions of what college will or will not be. The expectations we have can influence our college life for the better or the worse. My experience since starting college has been an interesting one. People have misconceptions about college because they do not know what to expect. After doing some research, I have concluded that there are three major factors that are often misunderstood about college life. The first is the financial aspect of college. Second, is the relationship between the professors and students. Third is time management. These three factors play an important role in why people are afraid to go down the path to college.

The essay College Pressures was written by William Zinsser. College Pressures was published in April of 1979 in Blair and Ketchum’s Country Journal. The main focus in this essay is about the pressure that is put on college students. Zinsser breaks down the college pressure into four different kinds of pressure that is put onto the students. The four pressures that Zinsser describes are economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure.

In “ College Pressures,” William Zinsser discusses four types of pressures college students go through. Even though he wrote this in 1978, college students today still experience all four of the pressures. The four pressures Zinsser discusses are economic, parental, peer, and self-induced. Today’s college students are becoming more and more disconnected with their passions and are being thrown into the world of practicality. College should be a place of experimentation and discovery, but instead it’s turned into feelings of stress and fear. students are becoming overwhelmed and stressed with the same “economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure and self-induced pressure” Zinsser speaks of in his essay. College students today undergo even more then the college students from Zinssers ' time.

Starting in high school, students are not given equal opportunities to excel because of family background. Furthermore, the admissions process itself has its flaws—legacies, minorities, and athletes are being chosen over exceptionally gifted valedictorians. Even after college, the problems do not end; possible joblessness and student debt are unavoidable. On top of these major problems, educators and parents continue to convince kids everywhere that college is the only option to become successful, and choosing another path is heavily looked down upon. The newest generation’s life is centered around the climax of college while at the same time, more and more students are unable to attend universities because of cost or rejection, but this is a paradox. The more high schoolers work hard, the more high schoolers will get turned down to their dream schools, and the more the college admissions process effectively become a lottery, leading to “many highly talented, brilliant, creative people thinking they’re not” (Robinson). The widespread college problem has no easy fix, nor does it have a single solution. Rather than working to fix the unfixable, adults must stop putting such emphasis on the college pathway, and instead stress that there are other options. The future of the job world is unknown; there is no way to know if an expensive college education is the right choice. College, with all of its flaws, is just one option in preparing for the future; it is not necessarily the best. Therefore, the single word, “college,” should stop dividing the academic from the non-academic or the successful from the unsuccessful, and instead be considered a single path in an array of worthy

“College pressure ”by William Zinsser identifies the pressures that college students face in the 1970’s. Especially he points out four types of pressures which include economic, parental, peer, and self-induced pressures. Economic pressure occurs when student struggle with tuition. He assert that this force students to have much money for career after graduating college so that student can return their debt when they work starts. Parental pressure occurs when students feel a lots of pressure on follow up on their career because parents paying a lots of money for school so that students try not to upset their parents.

Some people may argue that the main reason people go to college is not because they want to but because they “have” to. Could this be parents forcing their children out the door every day to college? Although many people dropout before graduating high school, there are a lot of high school seniors that persuaded or otherwise “peer pressured” by guidance counselors and parental guardians to attend college because it’s merely rightful. In “College Isn’t for Everyone,” W.J. Reeves argues that the concept of student and educator apathy is central to the issue of a four-year education not being a viable option for students, and open admissions

“Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation” (1). Many people believe that school isn’t for everyone, and whoever goes is privileged for doing so. Countless people in the world today do not attend college, and this is mainly due to an influence of those in their family. Perhaps they are unsupportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling and higher learning. Most of the first-generation students decide to apply to colleges, because they aspire to jobs which require degrees. However, unlike some students whose parents have earned a degree, they often seek out college to bring honor to their families, and to ensure they make a decent amount of money for their future.

It is a well known fact but there are many people including counselors, parents, teachers, and friends who resist saying it out loud for fear it will sound like discouragement and negativity: college is definitely not for everyone. The pressure on high schools students, especially those that excel, to attend a college or university is enormous. And in the case of a bright, industrious and motivated high school student, attending a college or university is an obvious career choice. For those students, it's only a matter of what university to attend, whether one's SAT score is high enough, and the availability of the money. Then there are the millions of high school students who are not really personally motivated but are being pressured by their counselors, teachers and parents should they attend college if they really don't care? This paper examines those issues.

Zinsser says that we live in a brutal economy, when explaining why he feels that students are under economic pressure.  The costs for most private colleges, in the late 1970’s were about 7,000 dollars per year.  He says that students never got ahead, because after they graduated, they were working to pay off their loans (128-129).  I agree with Zinsser that there is a lot of economic pressure.  Today, costs for private schools are soaring at anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 dollars per year in Minnesota.  Quite a jump from the costs he was talking about.  Most of us college students don’t make that much money each year.  Most college students I know are likely to be working a full time job, just to pay for their schooling.  And even when they do that, there are still loans they need to pay for all of it.  Zinsser never mentions that students did this in the late 70’s.  Although I know there were pressures when Zinsser was writing, I

As time passes, tuition rises, and student debt becomes crippling to student who cannot gain entry into the industry sector in which they received their education in. Many students must now face the question of whether one should begin an education in fields where unemployment rates are high, and of the available jobs, salaries are low (in comparison with the starting salaries of their peers who pursued a different education stream). The humanities education stream, which includes history, languages and philosophy, lead to low job prospects, low wages and increased financial burden on graduates. While there are many benefits to higher education in any educational stream, a humanities education’s financial and non-financial benefits do not outweigh the benefits for such a degree. Long-term debt, low salaries and poor job prospects create struggling conditions for any graduate of a humanities major.