"Humming to Higher Ed"

College. For some of us, that word means nothing since some don't intend to further their education with that venue. For others, that word causes a high amount of stress for the next two years of high school with finding the right school, taking road trips, filling out applications, taking admissions tests, and anticipating the acceptance letter. All that stress and anticipation packed into two years and it turns out our educations really aren't being "furthered". This article by Gail Collins informs the audience of scientific research being done that proves a percentage of students who go to college don't actually gain any important learning. I was shocked to read this because college has been seen to me as an opportunity to figure out who I want to be in life and learn how to fufill a role in my career path. How can I do that if I am not learning something new? Gail Collins writes an informative, contradicting opinion piece in her New York Times article "Humming to Higher Ed".

Collins's differing techniques of writing and rhetoric appeal to the audience in different ways. In the beginning of the article, Gail Collins opens with an analogy to college searches and hummingbirds flying south for the winter. However, the language used after the comparison seemed kind of lame and lack of belief in the similarity. She then writes of her own story of choosing a college and how if she had the resources that we have today, her college that was destined for her was not the one she attended. This technique appeals to the audience as the common man or woman who went through the same experience, or a similar one. Gail Collins's also provides statistics and a scientific study done by Richard Arum called "Academically Adrift". The statistics, including a poll of three thousand students from almost thirty colleges have a forty five percentage who have not gained any new knowledge, provide a solid history of truth for the audience to go on, appealing to their logistical side. Collins's also constantly uses bias and her opinion. This is shown when Collins says, "I would rather not think that many of the most expensively educated brains in the country are already formed by their seventeenth birthday," (Collins). In the article "Humming to Higher Ed", Gail Collins uses different facts and statistics to show that students who head off to college will probably not learn too many new concepts.

Source:  Collins, Gail. "Humming to Higher Ed." The New York Times 21 Oct. 2011, sec. Opinion: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 22 Oct. 2011.