Three Reasons College Still Matters

In his article “3 Reasons College Still Matters” author Andrew Delbanco attempts to convince his audience the reasons college is still important in order to obtain a high education, in this case three main reasons. He discusses many other’s points of view on college and why people think college is irrelevant to ones future career. People largely had similar reasons to why college is not important; the people who do not attend college mostly say that college is a waste of valuable time and or resources. Delbanco does indeed address these assumptions to why people think college is not important. His argument is aimed towards an audience of people that may consist of those like high school graduates looking to further their education in college

People who are thinking of college would typically include parents who want to know if college is best for their child or children, high school students, adults looking to complete their schooling or even enhance it, and even people who have dropped out of school entirely. In order for Delbanco’s article to be well supported and robust, he would need to go over the cause for why people don’t think highly of college as a wise educational plan in life. He explains the basis of people not going to college, he says, “Some on the right say that pouring more public investment in higher education, in the form of enhanced subsides for individuals or institutions, is a bad idea.” This is important in an argumentative article to have a refutation; otherwise, the argument is weak and fails to support the claims that have been made by the writer. Introducing a counter argument in an argumentative article is an intelligent decision to do when writing; this provides insight on others thoughts that oppose the statement, which has been made by said person. In his refutation he also includes more information why people oppose college, he says, “Other thinkers, on the left, question whether the aspiration to go to college really makes sense for ‘low-income students who can least afford to spend money and years’ on such a risky venture, given their low graduation rates

Being able to present statistics to support ones argument is crucial to persuade a person’s audience in ones favor; this is something Delbanco does in his article and is an appeal to logos. Logos is an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason. He hopes to use the appeal of logos in swaying people to acknowledging college is important in ones future by using reason. He continues to acknowledge the view from other’s perspectives and even shows statistics on the odds of earning a degree from one authority, he says, “If you are the child of a family making more than $90,000 per year, your odds of getting a BA by age 24 are roughly 1 in 2; if your parents make less than $35,000 your odds are 1 in 17” (Delbanco). This is another important stat to mention in an argument while addressing the