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Annotated Bibliography

The Debate of the Importance of College in Todays Society

Meredith Butler Professor Malcolm Campbell Monday/Wednesday Class, 9:30am October 12th, 2012

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Applegate, James L. "Graduating The 21St Century Student: Advising As If Their Lives (And Our Future Depended On It." NACADA Journal 32.1 (2012): 5-11. Education Research Complete. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.

This peer-reviewed, academic journal presents the statistics and data connected towards worldwide college education, focusing primarily on American statistic. Applegate goes on to state his argument that America is dropping behind the worlds standard of higher education, with South Korea leading and Canada being a close second in world ranking. With this, Applegate wished to implement what he calls Goal 2025 in which the United States must produce 278,000 graduates per year, every year: a 6.3% annual increase from where we are currently standing. In this journal, the importance is stressed upon getting American youths into college but also ensuring they complete their college education in order to reach this 2025 goal in which Applegate feels will solidify Americas status as an educated, democratic world power. James L. Applegate currently serves as Vice President for the foundation Lumina, which is the organization who created Goal 2025 and whose purpose is to promote higher education levels in America today. Aside from his work with Lumina, Applegate has also served in other education organizations and groups such as the Academic Affairs at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education from 1999 through 2008 and multiple advisory boards for organizations influencing higher education policy including the U.S Department of Education, the American Council on Education, the ACT, the Council of State Governments, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. As a whole, there is no reason to believe this information is false in its statistic or its validity

Butler 3 as Applegate has a very diverse background that calls for such knowledge and statistics. However, as Vice President for Lumina and having served for many educational boards for the government there might be a bit of a biased presentation towards Applegates argument. Compared to my other sources, this is inherently geared towards pushing the college machine forward to keep pumping out educated young adults. Im definitely using this source in my paper for the statistics alone. Additionally, it was one of my few sources that were inherently against my topic, instead of my topic of every student evaluating their own need and desire for a college education, Applegate is working on ways to increase the number going in and graduating from college. While not a negative journal, Applegate focused on the global aspect of a college education and how the United States is fairing with the world standards instead of focusing on every young adult creating their own form of college.
Hindman, Nate C. "Peter Thiel Fellows One Year Later, Income Hard to Come By." Huffingtonpost.com TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. 08 Oct. 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. In this news article from the popular news website Huffington Post, which tends to specialize in business and entrepreneurship stories, Hindman follows up on an experiment conducted last year by billionaire Peter Thiel. In said experiment Thiel gave 24 young adults $100,000 to drop out of college to test whether a college degree was inherently necessary for success. Hindmans article is exploring where these young adults are one year after. Although like any experiment, there are extremes on both sides with some young adults not fairing as well while another sold his company for six figures. However, a number of students also succeeded in starting new business and gaining certain experiences most college students would have acquired.

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Nate Hindman currently works with The Huffington Post as a business editor and has covered topic as broad as Mitt Romney and Obama to Generation X and how they will fair in the working world. Hindman does an excellent job at stating the facts and even giving in to the controversies over the head of the experiment Peter Thiel although a slight bias towards the side of a fellow entrepreneur who has a similar interest in business is understandable. The only flaw and controversy is the availability of a sum, such as $100,000, towards all youth in America. For my specific topic, this is the basis in which the idea was formed. Without a doubt this will be one of my major sources used in my piece. The Thiel Fellows are the perfect example to embody my idea and topic that college is not necessarily the best option for some young adults; a bright student will remain bright and succeed but it doesnt need to be in a classroom. The success stories of Peter Thiels experiment, explained to readers through Hindman, brings a new aspect to my topic of exploring different options towards different students based on their own skills and aspirations.

Morrow, Jennifer Ann, and Margote E. Ackermann. "Intention To Persist And Retention Of First-Year Students: The Importance Of Motivation And Sense Of Belonging." College Student Journal 46.3 (2012): 483-491. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Morrow and Ackermann both present this academic journal as a way to express their concern with dropout rates, specifically college freshmen dropouts. Through their discussion and experiment they tied to determine how much the feeling of belongingness and peer activity affects a students retention and continuation of his college education. While what they discovered was more complex and needed further research, their research still stand up to the

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fact that approximately 22% of first-year college students do not return for their sophomore year and this number remains relatively low, despite the number of young adults attending college increasing. Both Morrow and Ackermann worked on the research but little is to be known of Ackermann. Morrow, however, is currently an assistant professor and focuses on program evaluation, college student development, and teaching research methods and statistics. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Statistical Association all of which pay close attention to education standards and teaching assessments. With such backgrounds I see very little, if any biased information in her and Ackermanns research. Their purpose is to research the specific causes a college freshman might encounter his first year in order to find ways to help lower the current dropout rate. This research fits with my topic as a connection between dropout rates and the idea that perhaps college isnt suited for some. This high dropout rate would help explain the new trend to look outside the box and to look for other options instead of college in many young adults today. If these rates were to continue, itd be likely to assume a new way of viewing a college education may arise and bring about an educational revolution. This alone brings in many new aspects and questions to explore in my essay so I hope to be able to incorporate this research into my paper. Ojalvo, Holly Epstein. Why Go To College At All? NYTimes.com, The New York Times Company. 02 Feb. 2012. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. In Holly Ojalvos news article in the New York Times, Holly sits down to interview Dale J. Stephens who happens to be one of the Thiel Fellows mentioned earlier in a previous

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annotation. Stephens has since created UnCollege, an organization dedicated to help young adults exploring other options instead of college hack their own education through experiences and self-discovery methods. In Ojalvos interview, Stephens gives his point of view on aspects of college many believe to be true such as gaining connections and earning a degree that correlates with future success. Stephens and Ojalvo help put a new aspect in believed truths about college by stating the point that while college can help, some people are not meant to be in such a situation and some experience and lessons can be learned just as well, if not better, outside of the classroom. Ojalvo was previously an editor for the New York Times and has since moves on to be a writer, editor, and consultant at Self-Employed as well as found News 101, LLC which serves to present new in an exciting way towards teens and young adults. While interviewing Stephens readers may pick up on some biased information and points of view simply because Stephens was one of the successful few of Peter Thiels experiment. Such success was not the same for others, but Stephens took his success and further it towards helping those struggling as well. It is inherently one-sided towards his, and mine, view point on college, especially since hes the founder of the organization directly competing against colleges. However, there are highlights to his argument and helps bring reference points towards future debates. Being a Thiel Fellow, Stephens interview with Ojalvo serves as another great example for my topic, especially since he is now the founder of UnCollege, an organization that mirrors my topic. While one-sided I do intend to use the interview and hope to use his stances and opinions to bring a wider range of information and a two-sided debate to my paper. Robinson, Sir Ken. Bring on the Learning Revolution. Ted.com. Ted Conferences, LLC, May, 2010. Web. Sept. 2012.

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In Sir Ken Robinsons popular TED Talk from the reliable and educational website Ted, Robinson expresses an overall concern of education today and how its shaping the newer generation. He goes to explain how everyone has given talents, talents that are being used poorly and wasted as human resources. According to Robinson, life and learning is organic, not manufactured but the means in which education is acting today is more like a fast food chain: manufactured and standardized. It seems to Robinson that people are enduring what they do because their natural passion has been suppressed by standardized education. In his point of view its not an evolution of education that we need, but a revolution. Sir Ken Robinson is an author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts and was Director of The Arts in Schools Project from 1985-1989. He was even knighted in 2003 for his service to education. Having had multiple TED Talks, especially centering around the need for a learning revolution Robinsons seems to have a very well rounded and educated stand point. While his talks may be more one-sided than other arguments his talks would make an argument hard to come by. Compared to my other sources, Ken Robinson presents a wellrounded and level-headed approach to push an education revolution towards his academic colleagues. This specific TED Talk correlates perfectly with my topic and research for its the more artistic approach to my research instead of all the experiments and scientific research. I fully intend to use Sir Ken Robinsons talk as a way to reach out to my readers as well; TED Talks generally have a very approachable medium and seems to connect with many so Im hoping that by referring to this talk I can reach my audience better than Id be able to with scientific research.