Daniel Thai
Professor Duggan
English 802 – SEC 056
14 November 2013
Money Should Not Be A Problem
By now, all of the college acceptance letters have been opened and read, and the second phase of the admission process is: how should the tuition be covered? For many, the answer will be to take out loans. Before stepping foot on a college campus, there are many questions that cross the minds of eager students. For instance, “What is college? What do parents and students expect to obtain from a college education?” These were some questions Andrew Delbanco tackled in his book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be. One of the biggest challenges graduating high school seniors and current college students face is the cost of tuition. Therefore, the question posed by Delbanco is, “Who should pay for the education after a student graduates from high school?” Granted, parents currently pay for their children’s college tuition, in addition to various loans, financial aid, grants, and scholarships provided by the institution and third-party funders. However, aside from parental contribution and government funding, students should also contribute to their tuition costs.
According to Delbanco, college is one of the greatest innovations to come from the United States, but one issue here is that many people often conflate the idea of a college with the idea of a university (3). Delbanco clarified the distinctions between the two institutions. He explained that colleges were places where knowledge was transmitted to undergraduate students so that they could expand upon it, draw from it, and use it for future endeavors. On the other hand, universities were places where faculties and graduate students were focused on creating new knowledge (Delbanco 2-3). Though the concepts of a college and a university have some similarities, they are not entirely the same.
Delbanco ensured that his readers were aware of the aspects of pursuing a secondary education. He...