Higher Education: a Scam?

Higher Education: a Scam?

Higher Education: A Scam?

Get good grades so you can go to college. The command varies from home to home, but the general meaning is the same: You need to go to college. You need to get a degree. With more high school graduates then ever attaining at least some higher education, the market has expanded exponentially. Such intense growth coupled with a receding economy has lead to steep increases in tuition nation wide. In an attempt shine light on the current situation in academia, Barbara Ehrenreich’s The Higher Education Scam asserts that now, more then ever, college degrees have declined in value. In a passionate mix of logical appeals and plays on emotions, Ehrenreich’s comments on the number of jobs available to college graduates in today’s market and real world worth of college degrees. Ehrenreich’s background as a political essayist and social satirist shines through to create an almost sermon-like atmosphere. Well organized and well written, The Higher Education Scam at first appears to be a factual, concrete analysis at the current situation in today’s higher education market. However, by omitting relevant counter evidence to her thesis and over exaggerating appeals to her audience’s emotions, Ehrenreich’s essay reads more as a personal opinion then a structured argument.

Enrenreich relies primarily on the use of authors whom share her ideology. She brings to the table two books that either rebuke the perceived necessity of a college degree “In fact, in his book Executive Blues, G.J Meyers warned of the ‘academic stench’ that can sink a career”(696) or were written by an author with over exaggerated credentials “‘Dr. Dennis Waitley, Ph.D’…has confessed to not having claimed his masters degree”(696). These examples undoubtedly appeal to the reader’s logic: If getting my college degree is a necessity, why then are these successful men preaching against its requirement? The logical analysis continues as she presents statistics within the...

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