Outline

Shane McCartney
Kevin Meek
English 101+
April 12, 2009

Outline

I. Introduction:

Are you thinking about college? Then good for you! College is very important and it is something everyone should consider. It readies you for the real world with the hopes of that perfect job of yours waiting for you at the end of your journey. But, what would you say if I told you that you don’t have to spend the extra four years and the thousands of dollars? Sounds ludicrous don’t it? But in reality, you can actually go far in life with only a high school diploma.
Many people in the world have not gone to college, or even dropped out of college and have been extremely successful in life. Most of my family in fact has not gone to college, and yet they all live very fulfilling lives. In fact, it actually really is not rare for someone who does have a college degree not to get a job in there field of training, or even at all.

II. Point One:

It’s true, many people have either not gone to college, or have dropped out and have lived fulfilling lives, wealthy lives, or both. For example, one major name of someone that does not have a college degree would be the second richest man in the world, and many who call one of the smartest men in the world, a little some one called Bill Gates. Yes, that’s right; Bill Gates does not have a college degree. He indeed went to college, but had dropped out.

III. Point Two:

It’s not only rich and famous people that succeed without going to college; those are just the one’s that are most commonly known. Many members of my own family have not gone to college. The truth is that I am the first ever on my mother’s side of the family to go to college, and only the 4th ever on my father’s side. The point here is that I am the cousin on both sides of the family that separates the older from the younger, and that I have over 40 cousins from 17 aunts and uncles. So it’s not like there haven’t been others before me that had the opportunity to go to college. In fact, most of them chose to stay out of college on purpose because they had well paying jobs coming out of high school already.





IV. Opposing View Point:

CollegeBoard.com states that, “The world is changing rapidly. More and more jobs require education beyond high school. College graduates have more jobs to choose from than those who don't pursue education beyond high school.”


V. Counterargument:
Yes, the world is indeed changing more and more each day, but with this statement from CollegeBoard.com, it doesn’t say what kind of jobs, how much the different jobs would pay, and it doesn’t say that even with a college degree there is certainly no guarantee that the college graduate will even get a job. A person with only a high school diploma can have the same opportunity to get the same job, if not an even better job than someone with a college degree.

VI. Opposing View Point:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “A person who goes to college earns more than a person who doesn't. On average, someone with a bachelor's degree earns $50,900. That's 62 percent more than the $31,500 earned annually by someone with only a high school diploma.”

VII. Counterargument:

I’m not sure who exactly the U.S Census Bureau is averaging in there statistics, but they seem to leave out that there are great paying jobs out there for anyone. Even people without a high school diploma!
A list from FindingsDirect.com shows the top ten highest paying jobs where you don’t have to spend a fortune or going to college for. These jobs rank anywhere in the range from $60K to $100K. The top ten jobs are: “Business Applications Programming, Web Design, Web Programming, Database Development, Business Analysis, Software Project Management, Software Testing, Computer Networking, Game Programming, and Data Analysis & Data Mining. It seems that there are only high paying jobs in the technology field, but the truth is, that this field of work is only a small piece of the overall product. The juggernaut of the working force is in construction, and its underlings. The average salary for someone in construction work is anywhere from only ten dollars an hour up to fifty or sixty dollars an hour. What really determines a person’s salary in the construction field are two things: 1. How much business there is, and 2. What they do for a job.
VIII. Conclusion:
College helps you to expand your knowledge and skills, it expresses your thoughts clearly in speech and in writing, it helps you to grasp abstract concepts and theories, and it increases your understanding of the world and your community.