Rick Perlstein What's The Matter With College

One of the first major steps to becoming a successful adult these days is receiving a college education. A college degree today is viewed as a necessity rather than just a place where students go to explore and expand the mind. Nonetheless it’s slowly becoming an unreachable goal for most people. It has become widely known that the cost of college has been rising the last few decades and continues to rise, and the rates will only continue to of increase. As the cost of college rises, families have to either change their way of life to be fortunate enough to send their children to college or take out extensive amount of loans. When the time comes to talk about college, a large number of questions arise. Even though there are many questions,
The main problem families’ face is the difficulty to pay for college, especially with the current economic condition. With increasing tuition cost the college experience in not the same as it was. Rick Pearlstein, author of, “What’s the Matter with College” has his own definition of college; where 18 years old have broken free from the jail that was their parents’ house. Where individuals gather together and engage in intellectual and cultural luminaries, while spending countless hours debating issues in the dorm rooms. Perlstein believes that college today lacks the cultural and intellectual vigor. I argue that Perlstein’s overriding assumption that colleges are no longer leading our society in cultural development is seriously lacking the real world issue of price. He overlooks the fact that most students today cannot afford his “college experience.” With high tuition costs having it’s not realist to be spending countless hours discussing the meaning to life. Students today have to pay their own way through school and take out loans to even go. Perlsetin doesn't even bring attention to the true value there is going to community
Addison goes into these matter further when she writes, “The philosophy of the community college, and I have been to two of them, is one that unconditionally allows its students to begin. Just begin” (212). This is the very essence of what community college really means. Many students don’t know what they want to major in when they graduate from high school. Many students change their minds at least once during their first few years of college. To help find what you are looking for most if not all community colleges have art exhibitions, concerts, community forums, health fairs, sporting events, and theatrical productions are examples of educational, recreational, social, and multicultural activities. Community colleges are good places to explore different types of classes and finding fields that interest students before making their final