Liz Addison's Two Years Are Better Than Four

In an article written by Rick Perlstein “What’s the Matter with College?” he states that “College as America used to understand it is coming to an end.” According to this view, Perlstein believes that colleges has lost its superiority that it once had in prior years. College was made for students to further their education, but to also gain the college experience that will hopefully

In the essay, Two Years Are Better Than Four, the author, Liz Addison, gives her opinion on the importance of community college. The main point that she is trying to convey to her audience is that going to a community college is not harming the essential college experience. For some individuals, such as herself, the two-year college experience is exactly what they need to further their education. Community college is an affordable place that can “foster dreams (Addison)”. Throughout the reading, Addison makes compelling statements to prove the point which she is trying to make.

The general argument made by Liz Addison in her work, “Two Years Are Better than Four”, is that the college experience remains unchanged. More specifically, Addison argues that the community college experience is more detrimental to society, over that of university experience. She writes, “…Arguably, the community college experience is more critical to the nation than that of former beatnik types who, lest we forget, did not change the world. (pg. 257)” In this passage, Addison is suggesting that the experiences one receives in a community college differ from the experiences they would receive in a university, in that the community college could provide an individual with the knowledge and experience to change and improve the world, rather

Liz Addison’s essay, Two Years Are Better than Four, was published on September 26, 2007, in the New York Times Magazine’s college essay contest. The essay was only a response to Rick Perlstein’s opinionative article, “What’s the Matter with College?” in which he argues that the college experience is no longer exists. Addison’s essay contains both weaknesses and strengths throughout her claim, title, opposition, common ground, and evidence. Addision’s claim is stated fairly throughout her essay, but of course, it is more coherent in the beginning of her essay, “For Mr. Perlstein, so rooted in his own nostalgia, is looking for himself – and he would never think to look for himself in the one place left where the college experience of self-discovery

Two of the essays I chose for the Is College the Best Option theme is Liz Addisons’s Two years better than Four and Gerald Graff’s Hidden Intellectualism. In Liz Addisons’s essay, Two Years Better than Four she shares her own experience, having attended two community colleges that provided her a launching pad for her career. Addison expressed much elation for her experience in opening her mind to the varieties of experiences that followed her journey to earn a bachelor degree as a large animal veterinarian.

In the essay two years are better than four, "the author, Liz Addison, shows her views on community colleges, and expresses that community colleges do not receive the attention they deserve.

The article Two Years Are Better than Four was written by Liz Addison which she responded to Rick Perlstein’s opinion piece about “What’s the Matter With College?”. Based on her experience, Author Addison claimed that community colleges unconditionally allow students to begin which give them opportunities for understanding and everything possible. Because of letting any students in, community colleges would give discoveries of their independent thoughts and independent studies first. She was proud of getting her education by entering community colleges in America as mentioning, Thomas Jefferson’s writing, “Everybody should have an education proportional to my education.”. She also criticized about about Mr. Perlstein and his friends said that

In her article “College Is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird attempts to pursued her readers that colleges are overflowing with students who don’t belong there. Her article first appeared in Psychology Today (May 1975). Since this material is outdated, I find it hard to believe that most of the responses by students and parents quoted in the article still hold true. The author has set out to pursue the readers that college is a bad and unnecessary choice for today’s youth. Yet the author holds a bachelors and a masters degree from two different universities. I would think that if she thought college was really a bad choice and a waste of time and money, she would not have gone back to get her masters degree.

More people than ever before are attending college due to the endless opportunities that it provides. Louis Menand, a college professor and the author of “Live and Learn: Why We Have College,” explains the meaning of college through three theories that have been developed. Theory 1 supports the idea of the sorting-out process that separates the highly intelligent from the less intelligent. Menand’s second theory explains that college provides opportunities for developmental growth, personal growth, and teaches individuals about the world around us. These are valuable lessons that will not be learned anywhere else. Theory three supports the idea of people attending college to specialize in a specific vocation. I

Similarly, in “Two Years Are Better than Four”, Liz Addison argues that Community College is a good option for those who are not prepared for college or are unable to pay for a traditional 4-year degree. “Community college welcome people who comes from different background” (Addison). Because how much affordable Community college is in comparison to a traditional 4-year college. Community College gives hope to those who parents are blue-collar workers trying to give a better future to their children or those like my stepmother, who cannot obtain a four-year degree from medical school because of how much it costs. However, she can look for

What we get out of the college experience, we use in our day to day lives. Even the things we think aren’t important or useful end up becoming helpful. The material we learn in college is fundamental when it comes jobs and life in general. We are taught to make choices. We are taught how the real world works, and how to turn our education into our way of life. “…the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.” (Wallace 199).

The essay, “Two years are better than Four” was written by Lis Addison which was published in the They Say, I Say book. This essay is about the author, Liz Addison explaining her feelings and experiences of going to a two-year community college. In her essay she talks about a man named Rick Perlstein who believed that college really doesn't matter that much, but going to a four-year college is better than going to a two-year community college due to the college experience being better. Throughout the essay Addison mostly compares and contrasts why going to a two-year community college is better than going to a four-year college. She uses what Mr. Perlstein says about his years at a four-year college to write her essay and explain why a community college is more beneficial to students and their futures. Throughout the essay she lists all the benefits of what a two-year community college can do for some students that a four year university can not.

However, after my first month at Ventura College, I realized how unprepared I actually was, and how lucky I was to still be living at home. Transitioning from high school to college as a full-time athlete was a difficult and stressful task. My classes were very tough, and volleyball was extremely demanding. There is no way I would have been able to do it, without my family by my side. In her essay “Two Years are Better Than Four,” Liz Addison comments on two-year education by saying, “it is still possible to enter the college experience as a rookie [because] you grow up a little bit with your first English class, a bit more with your first psychology class, a whole lot more with your first biology, physics, chemistry” (213). My first semester as a college student chewed me up and spit me out, but I came out a little bit stronger and wiser. Community college is the perfect route for someone who needs time to mature.

Two Years Are Better than Four is an essay by Liz Addison, published in the New York Times Magazine’s College Essay Contest. It follows the fictional, yet symbolic, character, Rick Perlstein. Through the character, Addison expresses her thoughts on the American Higher Education system. Consequently, she highlights the importance of community colleges in the provision of higher education. Addison discounts the 4-year courses provided by mainstream universities. Throughout her essay, Liz Addison claims that Community Colleges are better institutions of higher learning as compared to Universities. This paper tries to outline them as it provides reasoning, evidence and assumptions presumed, in coming up with the aforementioned arguments.

Caroline Bird’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money” explains her beliefs on why, for some people, going to college is an ineffective and inefficient use of their time. She states that many students do not belong in college because they are there for the wrong reasons and they are not happy learning. She also gives evidence to suggest that going to college and getting a degree does not actually allows a person to make more money in their life time. Her final claim is that college does not prepare most students for the real world and the jobs they will have once they graduate.