Debate- Colleges

In a 7-way debate over the idea of which colleges matter the most, we get to hear two sides. Some responses speak of the great opportunities at elite colleges, while the other responses speak of the unimportance of elite colleges.

After reading through all of the responses, I found two. One was very persuasive to me and the other was not. 

The response that was the least interesting to me was "Numbers Favor Top Schools" by Richard D. Kahlenberg. He makes some points in which he talks about how the elite colleges were not even about teaching their students anything. He says that people who attend elite colleges are there more to meet people than to take the classes.

 "At selective institutions, a student is surrounded by talented and high achieving peers, a fact illustrated by the story of physicist Freeman Dyson, who many years ago asked his daughter Esther, a Harvard undergraduate, why she was ignoring her coursework. “Dad, we’re not here for those classes,” she replied. “We’re here to meet each other.”

I think that Kahlenberg does not do a good job by adding in a story. If he's trying to prove a point, then he is basically opposing the elite colleges which is not what he is trying to say throughout the rest of his response. Therefore, I think that this response is the least persuasive.

The response that was the most persuasive was "Skip the Admissions Game" by Kevin Carey. He has strong points because he mainly talks about how it really doesn't matter if you go to an elite college or not because you can still get a good education if you look at the right places. Community colleges can give you good opportunities as well as elite colleges can.

"It turns out that the best community colleges do a better job than the average elite research university at teaching freshman and sophomores. That means that even if you're not among the chosen few, you can still get a great college education -- if you know where to look."

I found this response to be the most interesting and the most persuasive because he tells his readers about the greatness of community colleges as well and how they can turn out to be a place where you can learn a lot without it being an elite college or Ivy League school.