Randolph Macon's Exemplification Essay: Liberal Arts Education

I decided to attend North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University because I wanted a HBCU experience. For most my life, I was surrounded by diversity. The schools I attended had a healthy balance of students from all races. Even though that was good I wanted a change of environment. Throughout high school I was taught the bare minimum of black history. Each year, the great deeds of Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks were drilled into my head. When I toured A&T they provided me with information on black history that I was not even aware of. After the tour, I made my decision to attend A&T and gain more knowledge. When I came to college the biggest challenge I faced was time management.

Published in Harper's Magazine’s September 1997 issue, Mark Edmundson’s essay, “On the Uses of Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” presents a very personal argument for an apparent crisis in liberal education–the lack of passion in students. According to Edmundson, a professor at the University of Virginia, “liberal-arts education is as ineffective as it is now…[because] university culture, like American culture writ large, is, to put it crudely, ever more devoted to consumption and entertainment, to the using and using up of goods and images” (723). He believes that consumer culture is responsible for students’ dispassionate attitude towards his class because they view liberal education as a paid service or product that should cater to their wishes. Further, he writes that universities feed into consumer culture, maintaining a “relationship with students [that] has a solicitous, nearly servile tone” (725). In this way, Edmundson lays out the reasons for why he thinks liberal education is failing.

UNC Charlotte has made a significant impact on my undergraduate career because this campus has an abundance of resources, a helpful staff, a diverse atmosphere, and plenty of opportunities for campus involvement. This university has a variety of staff, all of which have been helpful in my college experience. They are excellent about working with students so they can gain the most out of their educational experience. For example, when I have sought out more information on which portion of Spain to go to, so that I may improve my Spanish fluency, my professor was extremely helpful. She sat down with me and explained about what it is like living in Spain, tips for where to go, and what to expect from the different regions. This valuable information

To discuss the value of liberal education, there should be a mutual understanding that investing in college means to invest in oneself. Furthermore, while some consider this investment to be a critical stepping stone to success, others dismiss it, explaining that school simply cannot prepare someone for the “real world.” Sanford J. Ungar and Robert Reich explore both of these subjective values in their essays “The New Liberal Arts” and “College is a Ludicrous Waste of Money.” Ungar, the president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, discusses why a liberal education should be sought after; he does so by introducing common misconceptions about liberal arts and, using argumentative persuasion, proves their insignificance. On the other hand, Reich, the former secretary of labor, argues against the conventional belief of college being the only road to financial wellbeing; rather, he explains why a two-year education may better accommodate many college students, especially those in need of immediate work or those that simply cannot afford a four-year education. In all, although both Reich and Ungar generally discuss liberal education, their perspectives differ when it comes to its practicality in the current economy. Also, to express their different views about liberal arts, the authors use contrasting tones to present their ideas to different intended audiences.

“The New Liberal Arts” is an article written by Sanford J. Ungar, who is a president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. In the beginning of his article, Ungar wrote, “Hard economic times inevitably bring scrutiny of all accepted ideals and institutions, and this time around the liberal arts education has been especially hard hit.” In other words, Ungar means that recent economic recessions have made a huge impact on what people think of going for a liberal arts degree. In his essay, Ungar lists seven misperceptions and how he reacts to them. The most common misperception that Ungar identified is that liberal arts degrees are no longer affordable. The cost for liberal arts education is very expensive while

Emory offered me something no other school I was accepted to could; it allowed me to study finance and film. Emory also has the perfect location. It is in Atlanta, where many movies are being filmed due to the tax credits in Georgia. This makes getting a job or internship easier. My grandparents and cousins also live in Dunwoody, 25 minutes from campus. This made me feel better about leaving home as I knew there would be people close by if I ever felt homesick. Emory is also the perfect size campus for me. It is large enough to feel like a college not a high school, but small enough to get around campus by just walking. Once here, I discovered you always run into someone you know on campus no matter where you go.

As the world becomes more specialized it raises the question, should undergraduate institutions change their curriculum requirements to better equip students? The goal of a liberal arts education is to enlighten individuals and prepare them for the complex and diverse world by requiring the study of literature, philosophy, mathematics, and sciences. As professional careers evolve into more specialized fields the argument that a liberal education is no longer needed rises. Some educators feel that future professionals would be better primed for the future by focusing specifically on subjects that deal with their intended field. However, a liberal arts education provides benefits that go beyond the classroom. The experience of studying a

Attending Wallace State Community College was really a no brainer for a myriad of reasons. It has been sixteen years since I attended high school. Since then, I have used practically none of the math that I learned in my high school years. Now, I have to relearn that math in order to put me on the path of obtaining my Bachelor’s degree in History and following that up with law school at either the Cumberland School of Law at Samford or the Birmingham School of Law. The math program at Wallace is said to be easier as it includes less math that would only be used if I was trying to put a man on the moon. Add the convenience of riding to school with my beautiful wife because she already attends Wallace; coupled with having a smaller sized school and cheaper tuition just puts icing on the cake and beer in my mug.

It has been argued that University culture and education is slowly moving toward a schooling designed to please students that have little fire and passion, rather than “an educational institution designed for instruction and examination of students” as Oxford Dictionary defines it. Mark Edmundson 's "On the Uses of a Liberal Education" explains how university education is becoming ineffective due to the University’s “ever more devot[ion] to consumption and entertainment” (40) in American culture as well as the focus on pleasing privileged students who have inevitably been devoured by the same sense of commercialized consumption. Likewise, Sherman Alexie affirms the idea that university education is marketed toward the “elite” groups of students who are able to shop for and afford college in his story, “Saint Junior”. Alexie accomplishes this through his contrasting characters: Roman Fury, a member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians and valedictorian of Wellpinit High, and Alex Webber, a wealthy, white legacy, who doesn’t necessarily have the grades universities are looking for, but has no problem getting in anyway. While Edmundson and Alexie approach the conflict through different forms of writing, both authors argue that by way of commercialized American culture, universities have isolated students of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds by gearing a college education in favor of students with a privileged status. Both Edmundson and Alexie argue this point, finding

Fareed Zakaria’s In Defense of a Liberal Education, is as the title suggests, a book in support of liberal education. The first chapter provides a brief and comprehensive history of the author’s own background in India and America. Of the six chapters, this one, is perhaps, the one wherein Zakaria most closely discusses his personal experience by reflecting on his life and how he gained an understanding of what “liberal education” truly means. More so, prior to coming to America, Zakaria tells of his education, in the 1960s and 1970s, in India, one which was skill-based as that was seen as the only path to a “good” career, essentially, either engineering or medicine (23). Zakaria explains the determination of what higher education one would

In the essay “On the Uses of Liberal Education,” Mark Edmundson discusses how unhappy he is with the current education system. Most students today are very influenced by other activities like watching movies, football matches, fraternity parties, and a lot more. The students today prefer doing these fun activities and not studying. They expect a simplified education system where they do not have to struggle and everyone passes their classes. Mark Edmundson attempts to shed light on the issue of universities becoming more consumers driven, and how this is affecting the education system negatively.

Berry College has always captivated my attention substantially more than my other college prospects. When touring the campus, I envisioned my life there. The atmosphere protruding from the beautiful campus was incredibly awe-inspiring. Attending Berry College would bring me the academic challenge I need, as well as the benefit of smaller classrooms.

Getting an up-close experience for yourself is better than watching it through someone else's eyes. When I received the grand opportunity to stay overnight at Denison University, honestly, at the time I had low expectations. However, after experiencing what Denison had to offer my mindset about this school changed. So what was it that sparked my interest? Well, for one it had to do with the classes and how much students were actively participating as well as asking the professor challenging questions. As a leader, I like to see other leaders take the initiative, questioning what they are learning while not just eating everything they are fed. Furthermore, the second reason had to do with the closeness of the group of African-American students

What influenced you to apply to Cornell College, and why do you believe it might be a good college choice for you? (100)

Some have recently argued that a liberal education, as opposed to a vocational education, is a waste of time, money and effort because so much of these are spent on the pursuit of knowledge not at all relevant to the chosen major. As Bob Newman of Paradigm Media states, "We all know that career colleges and trade schools get a bad rep in the education industry. For many, they’re viewed as the “other option” or Plan B. What surprises me about these stereotypes is that the data available shows that career/trade school grads can make way more in the long run than students with a Bachelors or even Masters degree.” The common consensus is that college is a mere ticket to the corporate world of high pay, early retirement jobs. If this is