In “Should Everyone Go to College” by Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, the authors argued that receiving a college degree is a essential to entering the middle class. Owen and Sawhill notes that their own research concluded that additional education helps improve someone wellbeing by affecting their job satisfaction, health, marriage, parenting, trust, and their social interaction.
Additionally, Owen and Sawhill stated that there are social benefits to education, such as reduce crime rates and higher political participation. Using research from Mark Schneider of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) they used data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond survey to gain lifetime earnings for bachelors earners by the type of institution they attended and they compared them to lifetime earnings of a high school graduate. Also, as stated in the text research showed that that choices a student makes about his or her field of study can have a major impact on what they get out the degree and how they would put it to use in the future.
Owen and Sawhill mention the comparison of the return to college by highest degree attained include only people who actually complete college and those failed to receive a degree incur some or all of the costs of bachelor’s degree without the ultimate payoff. As mention, Owen and Sawhill research shows that this has major implications for inequalities of income and wealth, as the students least likely to complete college and lower income students are most likely to be placed in debt in order to pay for their education.
Owen and Sawhill did their research and stated that although on average the return to college is highly positive, there is a considerable spread in the value of going to college and that receiving a degree isn’t the right choice for every person in every situation. In the text the authors provided three important steps to take to make the right choice of postsecondary education.
The first one was they more information should provided in a comprehensible manner. Second, the federal government should lead the way on performance-based scholarships to incentivize college attendance and persistence. Finally, there should be more good alternatives to a traditional academic path, including career and technical education and apprenticeships.
“Should Everyone Go to College” is a expository essay is written in a formal style which attempts to inform the audience that going to college is a essential to entering the middle class and that they should make a smart investment in their choice of postsecondary education. The authors backed this claim up with four main sub claims which informed the audience that first we must provide information in a comprehensible manner.
On page 386 of the “they say I say” book in the reading “Should Everyone Go to College” Owen and Sawhill the authors backed their claim about information should be provided in a comprehensible way be saying that you “should choose wisely and attend a school with generous financial aid and high expected earnings, and if they don’t just enroll but graduate, they can be greatly improve their lifetime prospects and without receiving the information in a comprehensible manner students wouldn’t be able to make the right decision.
The second claim the authors made was that the federal government should lead a way on performance-based scholarships to encourage college attendance and persistence. This claim was backed up bout mentioning that administration has worked to simplify the FAFSA, a form families must fill out to receive federal aid(page 387 of the “they say I say book”). They also mention how they government spends $100 billion on Pell grants and federal loans to lead to a higher education rate. Owen and Sawhill third claim they stated that a lot of well paid jobs are going unfilled because employees cant find workers with the right skills.
As mention the authors said that skills they young potential workers could learn from training programs, apprenticeships, a vocational certificate, or an associates degree and that policymakers should encourage these alternatives at the high school as well as the post secondary level, with a focus on high-demand occupations and high-growth sectors.
Finally the last claim was that going to college is a essential to entering the middle class. The way Owen and Sawhill backed their last claim up was by mention that the highest paid major is engineering, followed by computers and math. The lowest paying major was education, followed by arts and psychology. Rather you are working in the highest paying major or the lowest paying major you will still be classified as middle class but this is all done by going to college and completing it.
The audience of the essay is educated, people. The authors expects the audience to understand their references but also understand how they support his thesis. The points of this essay may be effective for those who are looking to go to college. Owen and Sawhill tried to establish common ground through data references and research. The logical connections between the key points were strong and helped back the thesis. The essay used logos to convince the audience by use of logic and reason. The reading was very clear, accurate and credible by using charts/data to get the point across.
