In the short story “College Pressures," William Zinsser describes the many trials college students of the 1970s faced. The pressures of society, parents, peers and themselves are all relevant to what college students today are challenged with. College students from the 1970s-2015 all deal with student loans, self-achievement and multiple pressures. In the 1970s, the students dealt with all of these problems, but on a smaller scale. The problems have become even more prevalent in the recent years. Young adults are expected to go to college after high school and when they do the have various pressures they are forced to deal with.
In the 1970s the average loan debt after all four years was $5,000. In 2015 the average student loan debt after all four years is $35,000. College is becoming more and more expensive. If a student wishes to go out of state then the tuition and housing will be around $35,000-40,000. If a student stays in their home state and wishes to go to a private school its also $35,000-40,000. If he/she goes to a state school it’s around $20,000 and if he/she goes to community college it’s around $5,000-8,000. Students have to take out student loans if they want to go to college. College has become so expensive it is nearly impossible to attend without taking out loans, receiving scholarships and grants. Senior year of high school students are applying to as many scholarships as possible, so they are able to attend college. The short story “College Pressures” is very relevant because the students also had to take out loans to attend college. In the 1970s, $5,000 was a very large amount of money. Zinsser states, “Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time in the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years — loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation." Students even working part-time in the school year and full-time in the summer are still in debt. Working during the school year means less activity on campus and less study time. In college you have to decide how to spend the little spare time you receive. Zinsser says “Academically they have 1,300 courses to select from; outside the class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it”. Your social and academic life start to suffer if you work a job during college. If you participate in clubs and sports your academic and financial parts in life to start to suffer. It is difficult for college students to balance.
In college it is difficult to find a balance with your time. Your parents are paying for your tuition and education. You do not want to disappoint them. Your happiness can be in trouble and you won’t even realize it because of how busy you are. This is a problem in today’s society and in the 1970s. Choosing a major, you want it to be something that will guarantee you a job after college. You have to take the required courses for the major and minor. If you love art but know it isn’t a practical major or minor, you may never take an art class in college. You start to sacrifice the things you love in order to pursue a future career that will get you a job out of college. As a student there is all this debt that needs to be paid off and you need to look for a job immediately after graduation. Zinsser says, “Poor students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean well; they are trying to steer their sons and daughters towards a secure future. But the sons and daughters want to major in history or classics or philosophy — subjects with no 'practical' value." More often than not a student's happiness is sacrificed for a practical job and secure future.
Securing a job after graduation is only one of the many pressures that college students face. Zinsser states, “I see four kinds of pressures working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure and self induced pressure." The pressures for college students in the 197’s up to 2015 are endless. College students are constantly bombarded with clubs, organizations, part-time jobs, friends, parents and academics. Most college students' parents are paying for some, or all, of their tuition. The average student faces the pressure of which major to choose, getting good grades, studying and living up to their parents' standards. Their parents only want the best for them and for the student to have a secure job in the future. Economic pressures are huge in a college student’s life because that can decide their major. If there will be a large job opportunity when they graduate college for becoming a teacher, they will major in education, if it is a biologist they will major in biology. The point of college is to further your education, to obtain a secure job in the future. Then a college student faces peer pressure. Their first time being away from home they want to make friends. Peer pressure can be something at a party, or skipping your classes to hang out with them or not studying for a test to be with them. Peer pressure takes on many different forms in today's society. With all of these different pressures you have to also deal with yourself. You are your own enemy. You put pressure on yourself to get great grades, make good friends, make your parents proud and be involved at school. These all can make one person explode with stress, if they were focusing on all of these things at once. Pressures in college today are still very relevant to the short story “College Pressures” that was about the students in the 1970s.
In the short story “College Pressures” by William Zinsser he describes the issues that college students in the 1970s were facing. The issues these students were facing forty years ago are almost identical to what students in 2015 are facing. Both sets of students had/have to deal with student debt, their own happiness and the multiple pressures that college can bring on. Students are very willing to change their major for the parents' sake or the economy's sake. The whole point of college is to further your education with the end goal of receiving a job after graduation. The short story “College Pressures” is very relevant to what students are dealing with in today’s society.
