Article Analysis of Americas Most Rated Product: The Bachelors Degree - Essay Example

Nemko expresses that many below average high school students waste their parents’ hard-earned life savings and a substantial amount of time to go to four year degree programs in college and end up with less than satisfactory careers, and jobs that do not even require college degrees. Moreover, they do not graduate within the four year frame and learn very little from their college education. This is emphasized where Nemko (pp. 1-4) states, “ Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institution were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later.

” Hence, Nemko feels that such students should look for other career-enhancing opportunities rather than opting for an expensive education that will be worthless afterwards. Nemko also states that most students are unprepared for a college education but colleges admit them anyway. Even students who do get adequate grades in high school, struggle through college years and do not benefit as much as they should in their careers after paying for an expensive education. Colleges, besides being responsible for the proper education of students, are not held liable for what they have taught their students.

Hence, the main focus of colleges now is to make money and admit as many students as possible while keeping their costs low. An example is stated when Nemko (pp. 1-4) says, “Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item while research is a profit center. As a result many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom cost graduate students.” He further emphasizes that colleges also reward their faculty according to those that bring in heavy amounts due to their research instead of those that are professionally good teachers.

Hence, colleges are only interested in their profitability and are not concerned about whether their students have actually received the level of education they have paid for. Nemko continuously emphasizes upon the deteriorating state of American college education and the level of knowledge that college graduates hold. He uses a logical appeal to grasp the attention of the audience by repeatedly mentioning test statistics and authentic percentages to verify his opinion. An example of the way he logically presents his argument of deteriorating college graduate standards is (Nemko, pp. 1-4), “A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below proficient levels on a test that required them to do basic tasks…….

”, and where the author mentions the statistic that “About 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative skills” (Nemko, pp. 1-4). Nemko clearly mentions statistics and test results to support his opinion of the deteriorating standards of education. However, he also uses an element of an emotional appeal in his article in order to convince students of the weight of his argument and to convince colleges of the responsibility they hold towards providing a better education. An example of an emotional a