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Mercedez Schmidt
Professor Amy Doty
ENGL-1020-HBL1
18 September 2020
Is college worth it?
In this text Charles Murray, the author essentially says students should have already
learned what they are learning in college, making it unnecessary to attend college. He explains
how core knowledge should be learned in grades K-8. High school should be more like college
courses with social sciences and humanities. In class students should be learning more than they
currently are. Comparing students in different percentiles, higher end students can have a
positive response, but lower percentile students are unlikely to respond. The higher percentile
will likely have a positive response because they enjoy the work. The lower the percentile the
less likely they are to have and positive out comes from this way of learning. He says going to a
four year university isn’t essential because the amount of courses you are required to take
exceeds the amount of classes you need for your career path. Murray thinks that it’s not a good
idea to make a bachelor’s degree such a high standard. Murray doesn’t agree with the standard
that college is the way to success. He does agree that knowledge and education are significant,
but getting an education isn’t always the best way. Murray discusses how people with the top
income don’t have a bachelor’s degree. Murray feels college isn’t the only path but it should be
an option, because a person with a bachelor’s degree makes more money compared to the person
without. Murray expresses that the message being sent that he doesn’t agree with is that you
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should aspire to go to college at all cost. Furthermore, Murray agrees that attending college
works for some people, but it’s not the best option for everyone. Overall he thinks college isn’t
misusing their opportunities to educate us because they teach liberal arts when it doesn’t deal
with our program of study. He goes into how employers value a degree over knowledge, and that
most employers look for a bachelor’s degree before an interview. Finally, answering the question
“Are too many people going to college?” Murray’s opinion is that this is because people should
have learned everything they need to know from grades k-12 to have a successful future. He lays
out all his knowledge and statistics respecting the ideas whether college is a good fit for a
student. He expresses the significance of college and students’ choices to make about college. He
also touches over the mixed messages, and teaches students unnecessary subjects not related to
