Shut Up About Harvard by Ben Casselman Essay Review

📌Category: Articles, Education, Higher Education
📌Words: 836
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 02 September 2021

Ben Casselman starts his essay "Shut Up About Harvard" by comparing college applications to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, since getting into the institution of a person’s choosing is such a laborious and nerve-wracking procedure. Some students wait months for letters, and if the college is an Ivy League school, they will most likely be denied due to the low admission rate and be forced to attend a public university instead. According to Casselman, students no longer dare to apply to institutions like Harvard and Yale because they accept less than 10% of applications. A public institution can be just as good as a private university, but students face real-life challenges, such as getting rejected by selective schools, time management problems, and student debt. 

Young people may not be able to attend the college of their choosing because of the low acceptance rates of Ivy League schools. Casselman states, "Rejection is supposed to prepare adolescents for college," the essay begins, giving the idea that young people will not be able to attend the college of their choosing. As Casselman implies, half of all college students attend community colleges because of this. College students have been misled by the media into believing that they are unworthy of admittance to these Ivy League schools and should settle for less. Some people believe that private education is superior to public education because they are led to believe that through the media and news outlets. 

The media pays insufficient attention to public schools because elite schools divert the focus away from them. Many public universities have a more difficult time obtaining research funds and patent revenue, making it more difficult for them to recruit students. According to the author, many people do not have the time or money to complete college. Full-time students go into college thinking they are going to complete their degree in four years, but for some students who must work and try to provide for their families, it takes longer. Scheduling classes creates another time management issue because many students work during the day and find it difficult to get into the classes they need to graduate on time.

Students accumulate massive amounts of student debt because of these real-life issues. Every year, this debt grows, and many students must choose between working to pay for school or providing for their families. Students drop out of college because their debt is too much to bear. As a result, many people have a lot of college credits but no college diploma, forcing them to go to community institutions to conclude their education.

I agree with Casselman, but to an extent, I think students should not be so focused on going to an Ivy League school and the media doesn’t help that they portray it as being much better than a public university. Going to a public university reduces the amount of student debt compared to a private college, but it does not eliminate it. I believe that colleges need to be more aware of the cost and time management problems in students’ lives as well. They focus more on the traditional full-time students who have a flexible schedule, and do not work or only work part-time. Private universities need to be more resourceful in meeting the needs of nontraditional students who work full-time and must support a family.  For example, schedule classes not only during the day but at night and/or online. This allows students to take a particular class in various formats based on their individual needs. Many universities focus on what is better for themselves and the professor who is teaching the class, which causes the students not to be able to do well, or not have time to take the class. This leads to students dropping out or withdrawing from the class, which is money lost in their pockets because the college only wants to focus on a particular clientele. 

Students tend to gravitate toward private universities because the media portrays them as superior to public universities; however, this does not always imply that they will be paid more or receive a better education. According to Collegefactual.com, a nursing student with a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University makes a median salary of $56,000 compared to someone with the same degree from Anderson University, in Indiana, who makes a median salary of only $54,500. This proves my point that attending a private institution does not always mean better education and a higher income. I dislike how the media portrays how much better an Ivy League education is superior to public education. Two-thirds of Americans attend public schools because they were either rejected by selective private schools or do not have the financial means to attend these schools. This demonstrates my point that private does not always imply better, as most people believe 

In conclusion, the article was very insightful. Casselman made some valid points to prove that private education is not always better than public education, supporting it with some statistical data. He observed why you don’t need to spend the extra money to attend a private college, and also mentioned that colleges need to pay more attention to students’ real-life challenges, such as low acceptance rates, time management, and student debt so that all individuals have the right to a college education. I think that private institutions should focus more on those issues so that everyone who wants to attend a private institution should be able to.

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