proposal david wolf

8/2/2019 Proposal David Wolf

1/4

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?


2/4

Wolf 2

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 hatedwaking 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 schoolsin 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 prettybias. I hope to answer all my questions so I can make an educated decision about my future.

Working Knowledge:


3/4

Wolf 3

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 yearsin 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


4/4

Wolf 4

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 ofthe 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 teacherswouldnt let you pick a topic. This has made me believe that certain school assignments can be

interesting.

proposal david wolf

Documents