Tucker Rozell

Professeur Lohmeyer
English 101
6 September 2016
Are Too Many People Going to College?
Statistics show that only 65.9% of high school graduates go to college (nytimes.com). In
this essay Charles Murray is arguing that too many people are going to college. Charles Murray
said, But for most students, the places to provide those basic are elementary and middle
school(235).
Even though elementary and middle school is where you learn a big part of your skills.
That is where some students dont want to end. For example, the students that have a good GPA
or the smarter ones want to go to college because they like to challenge themselves. This is so
they can get a job they want, or a job that they will enjoy. Dealing with complex intellectual
material is what students in the top few percentiles are really good at, in the same way that other
people are really good at cooking or making pottery. For these students, doing it well is
fun(Murray 239).
Although, college is not always the right path for young adults. This is because some jobs
you dont need a B.A to be good at. For example, some jobs that people can learn more through
experience than through college are farmers, ranchers, construction, city employees, coaches,
and railroad worker. For the student who wants to become a good hotel manager, software
designer, accountant, hospital administrator, farmer, high-school teacher, social worker,
journalist, optometrist, interior designer, or football coach, four years of class work is ridiculous.
Actually becoming good in those occupations...is acquired on the job(Murray 242). On the
other hand, there are some jobs that people need the college degree. For example, doctor,
counselor, banker, and lawyers.
Along with this, many of the young adults that do not take the college path are in very
high demand. This is because there is more demand for the work that these people can do. There
has never been a time in history when people with skills not taught in college have been in so
much demand at such high pay as today, nor a time when the range of such jobs has been so
wide(Murray 248).
In addition, there are some high-school graduates parents that force their graduates to go
to college. When this happens the parents are not always looking at what is best for their child.
The parents do this because they think it is a way of life, or its just what people do these days.
As a result of this, the graduates may not like college or the type of work they do afterwards.
Guidance counselors and parents who automatically encourage young people to go to college
straight out of high school regardless of their skills and interests are being thoughtless about the
best interests of young people in their charge(Murray 249).

Work Cited
Graff, Gerald. They Say I Say. Ed. Cathy Birkenstein and Russel K. Durst. Third ed. New York:
W.W NORTON, 2014. Print.