College Pressures In College Students

College is an opportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying “You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.” or, “Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?” filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in Oxford American addressing college students and their families how the most important thing college students should focus on is personal growth. When students take their courses seriously their engagement can help finding out who they really are and which future career will lead not necessarily to great financial success, but to a career and life that is very satisfying. Edmundson wants to inspire his audience and have them take what he is saying seriously. Edmundson uses satirical informal language and hypothetical situations to effectively persuade college students to focus on their personal growth in order to create a life and career that is deeply fulfilling.

Going to college is the first step to jump into the society, learning how to communicate with others, get more advanced information, acknowledge and share ideas with friends. However, many students are getting into trouble, which not related with education. In the essay, "College Pressure," William Zinsser focuses on four main types of pressure that college student experiences, which are economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. Zinsser writes about the pressures and gives examples on each one by writing scenarios or giving a personal experience when he witnessed college students struggling with anxiety. The essay gives a good amount of information and details to back up the

In a May 2003 persuasive article published by USA Today titled “College isn’t for Everyone”, the author W.J. Reeves states “about 15 million people in America are enrolled in college.” This is a staggering amount considering the fact that many people are in college for all the wrong reasons. About half of the Americans enrolled in college are there because they feel they owe it to their families. Only a small number of Americans in college actually feel it is necessary for successful lives. In this article, Reeves recollects on his experiences as a college English professor at an institution in New York. He speaks of how he believes that many students truly do not want to be in college. You can tell this by his stories of tardiness,

In “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, the author displays different types of pressures that college students experience. He explains four different type of pressures including economic pressure, peer pressure, parental pressure, and self-induced pressure. These type of pressures are described as having negative effects on college students. Students are doing the things that they believe will pave the way to a successful life ahead, but Zinsser explains how there is no right way to get ahead and become successful because everyone is different. In “College Is A Waste Of Time And Money” by Caroline Bird, the author explains how college is unnecessary and a waste of time and money. She argues that there are different ways other than going to college to become successful and prepared for the “real world”. Bird believes that many college students are unhappy and wasting their time. Both essays were written in the 1970’s meaning some of the facts and information are obsolete and invalid. In comparing “College Pressures” and “College Is A Waste Of Time And Money”, we can clearly see that they both focus on the downsides of college, but more specifically both of the essays share a common pattern and audience. The two essays are different in the sense that they each have a different purpose.

    In discussions of Charles Murray, he expresses his opinion on the thoughts and feelings that are being transferred to students before college, claiming them to be misleading. Murray brings to light the problem that exists in the constant pushing of guidance counselors, teachers, and even politicians to aspire for a college degree no matter what, “treating every failure to go to college as an injustice” (Murray 48). Yet, by doing so, parents and students are often blindsided by the overwhelming cost of college that many cannot afford, or the sheer amount of education students would put themselves through for no reason at all. Murray observes that “one aspect of this phenomenon has been labeled misaligned ambitions, meaning that adolescents have career ambitions that are inconsistent with their educational plans” (Murray 48). Convincing students that college is the only guiding light to a better life forces students to see college as such, an intellectual heaven where they can become anything, such as a doctor or an attorney “without understanding the educational hurdles they must surmount to achieve their goal” (Murray 48-49). They then attend a four-year university with the depiction of college as a “place where B.A.s are handed out” fresh in their minds, thoughtless as to if that particular college they are attending even has the educational requirements needed to complete their career goals (Murray 49). Unfortunately, as Murray reminds us, this is the system that  is in place. For “a brutal fact

Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle in their book “Rereading America” feel that commencing college is a very disturbing experience. So many things we have to deal while starting college, but the major challenges are expanded difficulty levels and higher expectation which we are not familiar over the years of high school. In order to solve this issue, we have to remodel ourselves by taking up the challenge and rethink about our strength and flaws. To succeed in college we need to be mentally strong and dedicated towards our goal.

Colombo explains that “Beginning college can be disconcerting experience” (Colombo, p.1). That there will be more peer pressure from your peers and an increase expectations that you have never faced during your high

In “ College Pressures,” William Zinsser discusses four types of pressures college students go through. Even though he wrote this in 1978, college students today still experience all four of the pressures. The four pressures Zinsser discusses are economic, parental, peer, and self-induced. Today’s college students are becoming more and more disconnected with their passions and are being thrown into the world of practicality. College should be a place of experimentation and discovery, but instead it’s turned into feelings of stress and fear. students are becoming overwhelmed and stressed with the same “economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure and self-induced pressure” Zinsser speaks of in his essay. College students today undergo even more then the college students from Zinssers ' time.

In “College Pressures” written by William Zinsser, the author analyzes the stress that college students faced in the late 1970’s, centering his attention on four

It is a well known fact but there are many people including counselors, parents, teachers, and friends who resist saying it out loud for fear it will sound like discouragement and negativity: college is definitely not for everyone. The pressure on high schools students, especially those that excel, to attend a college or university is enormous. And in the case of a bright, industrious and motivated high school student, attending a college or university is an obvious career choice. For those students, it's only a matter of what university to attend, whether one's SAT score is high enough, and the availability of the money. Then there are the millions of high school students who are not really personally motivated but are being pressured by their counselors, teachers and parents should they attend college if they really don't care? This paper examines those issues.

Throughout the essay, Charles Murray stresses the idea that college is the wonderland of finding oneself and to find the career that one would want to follow for the rest of their lives. “College is seen as the open sesame to a good job and a desirable way for adolescents to transition to adulthood. Neither reason is as persuasive as it first appears.” Murray, C (2008) Practically spoken, this is not normally the case. College is a fair amount of work, much more work than one would normally acquire through any course of a high school or secondary school setting. In no way saying that the average student cannot meet the requirement and achieve success over the amounted work, it would also be ridiculous to expect every graduate to pursue going into higher education with the expansion of work that will be given.

College pressures dominate our lives. They begin to levitate around us and slowly derail our lives. William Zinsser elaborates about the college pressures that modern generations are facing. He reveals multiple commonalities that the typical college student encounters on a daily basis. Zinsser states, “They want a map-right now-that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, social security, and presumably, a prepaid grave” (12). He is spot on, the pressures demand my attention and won’t take no for an answer. So far I’ve gone head to head with these pressures every day since I started my freshman year in college. For the time that I’ve been here, my mind is overwhelmed and distraught with the amount of stress that gets piled on top of me every single day. I drown in these unrealistic expectations written in those faulty suggestion bars about how to be successful in college and college 101 tips. College pressures surround me like a dull gray cloud. It showers me with expectations and unfinished checklists. College itself is similar to carpooling to hell and back, but with no actual guarantee with a ride back.

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

According to Lupien, McEwan, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), going off to college involves significant adjustments to their daily routines; sleeping and eating habits, time-management skills, and stress levels will be altered in one way or another. First-year students have to adjust to the new school environment, different social settings, and new schedules, all without the help and guidance from their parents, who have been there for them for eighteen years. Over 30% of college freshman report that they feel overwhelmed (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010), where some students even opt to work as they juggle their class and work schedules. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved in society in a positive manner, allowing contribution of their ideals and values to others.

With an increased demand for skilled labors, many students nowadays find themselves needing to complete some form of higher education at college to ensure their success in the workplace and their future career goals. Although freshmen students often enter college with high expectations and ambitions, many eventually drop out of college. Why does that happen? In an ever-changing and more competitive environment, the demanding expectations on college students now soar at unprecedented heights, creating stressful and unpleasant experiences for many of them as they try to keep up with all the burdens inflicted upon them. In their writings, Dr. Christine B. Whelan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alan Schwartz, and Nisha Ramachandran explore and illustrate some of the stress-creating challenges that freshmen struggle with today. Even though many factors contribute to the huge list of problems for first-year students, many of the problems that create stress for college freshmen fall under the categories of academic factors, (what adverb to add) teachers, and personal-life conflicts.