Wolf 1 David Wolf Professor Barbara Presnell English 1102 12 February 2012

Proposal: Due to the job market, is a college degree becoming overvalued and is it really necessary? Primary purpose: My junior year in high school I was 100% convinced I wasnt going to go to college because I thought it was a waste of time. My mother managed to convince me and I started warming up to the idea of getting a degree. However during my freshman year of college, I would sit in my math class extremely uninterested wondering why I was wasting my time learning about polynomials? I would often ask myself how exactly is this going to help me in the long run and is it worth the expensive tuition? Due to the fact that I have no idea what I would like to do and no major, I often wonder what is the purpose of me taking these classes? I want to learn how I can make college more meaningful without having a slight idea of what I want to study. Im also interested in researching how many people end up going to college because that is the popular thing to do and how many of those people regret it. When I gain enough knowledge on this topic I may attempt to argue why college is over-valued and how it can be a waste for plenty of people. However, on the contrary I may learn facts that would make me reconsider my stance on the matter and write a paper pointing out the value of college.

10 Questions What is the percentage of college graduates who are unemployed? What major in college is the most useful when attempting to get a job? How many jobs require a college degree as opposed to a high school diploma? How many high school graduates attend college? Is the trend of college graduates being jobless rising or decreasing? What classes are most useful for me and what classes are the most pointless? Are there a lot of college graduates working at regular places such as fast food?

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Of the college graduates who cant find a job, should it be considered their fault or the job market? Is it best to rush into a major you dont know if you want or is better to wait and risk finding a major too late? Is the cost of college ultimately worth the advantages of having a college degree?

Prior Beliefs, Assumptions, experience I dont know very many statistics and percentages when it comes to the success and failures of college graduates. However in high school, I constantly debated whether or not I thought it was a good idea to attend college and if it would actually help me with my future endeavors. I always wanted to attend UNC just because I loved the basketball team and I was from Chapel Hill. However as I grew up, being required to go to school was an awful feeling and I hated it. I hated waking up early, dealing with teachers, and most of all doing homework. I figured with the way that I hated school so much what is the point of paying a bunch of money so I can suffer four more years? I thought to myself that there was no way getting a job out of high school could be worse than going to school. After having a long sit down with my mom, she finally convinced me to go to college even though I thought that a degree was overvalued. Over the summer, my high school friend Sumit decided to get a summer job at blockbuster. All his coworkers were older and he was shocked when he found out the majority of them attended UNC. I was very puzzled when he told me this and it confirmed my belief that going to college didnt always help in the job market. UNC is one of the most prestigious schools in the country and if people from there are working at blockbuster, where would I end up? I also go to restaurants such as Applebees and Chilis and often notice that the waitresses and waiters seem to be in their thirties. Waiting tables is another thing that someone can do out of high school and it is depressing to see college graduates struggling at these jobs. Basically, my experiences and the things Ive seen have led me to believe that the average student considerably overvalues a college degree. Learning all about this made me think about if my time after high school would be best utilized in college. I was thinking about whether I should get a job after high school or if I should spend my next four years at a college university. Due to me hating school, I admit I am pretty bias. I hope to answer all my questions so I can make an educated decision about my future.

Working Knowledge:

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After reading an article, I found out that the unemployment rate for college is the highest its been since 1970. There are 2.4 million people unemployed with bachelor degrees and higher. Although in the last 5 the college graduate unemployment rate is going up, it is still much lower than the unemployment rate for high school dropouts. College graduates also have a much better chance of making more money than high school dropouts and high school graduates. The college graduate employment rate is still pretty low, but since the recession has ended, the employment rate is going up. I also know that although going to a prestigious school helps, getting a job after college is more about luck than anything else. NY Times reported many stories of chemistry majors having to work jobs like Wal-Mart or best buy. The median salary rate for first year college graduates is also down from what it was five years ago. According to what I have read, the choice of your major is very important as well. A major such as education is one of the majors that is likely to translate to the job market, while a vague major like sociology isnt as useful in the job market. College graduates get many jobs because of their college degrees but in their four years in college, they often take several useless classes. English Majors who end up being English professors spend useless time stressing over math exams. This is my current knowledge but I plan on finding out more.

Primary Research: I have three people that I plan on interviewing and talking to the most. My friend Sumit who worked at blockbuster with a lot of UNC students at Blockbuster will be able to tell me about that experience. I hope for him to tell me about the students attitude and if they applied for any other jobs. My older brother graduated from High School and rather than going to college, he decided to get a job straight out of high school. He got a very adequate job at a car dealership and sold cars at a dealership at the age of 19, one year out of high school. I plan on asking him about his decision to not go through with college and get a job out of high school instead. I also plan to ask him about his coworkers degrees and if most people at his job had college degrees. My mother is another person I plan to interview. She went to 8 years of school in order to get her law degree and I want to ask her about that.

Reflection: A. The hardest part about writing my proposal and inquiry was how to word the question. I knew what I wanted to say but I was struggling with the wording. It is often hard to put my thoughts into written word. Another part that I was struggling with was deciding

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which angle to look at the issue. College graduate unemployment has several different aspects and as a writer, I had to choose which one to focus on. It was difficult to narrow it down and say that in the proposal. B. My favorite part about my project is that it can actually help me in life and is useful. Im also very interested in what majors are the best so it can help me choose that one. Another one of my favorite parts is that I get to interview my friends and use first person. Most of the papers I have written are always forced to be very formal which often doesnt allow me to use first person. Im excited C. My group has helped by suggesting certain questions. It also made me think of certain things that I was overlooking. D. I learned how much I hated high school. Just by writing it made me remember why I didnt want to go to college and how I hated class. I also learned that a research paper could be fun and interesting. I used to think all research papers were incredibly boring and that teachers wouldnt let you pick a topic. This has made me believe that certain school assignments can be interesting.