Romo, Ricardo: Credentialing

            The article “Death by Degrees” has given me a different perspective towards the new generation that wants to earn a higher education and differentiate themselves from the rest of the competition.

               What would happen to me if I didn’t graduate or attend graduate school? It's a simple question that has frozen my thoughts on how to react.  The article stated “As bachelor’s degrees become democratized, the master’s degree becomes more mandatory for advancement,” which is a given fact about how society’s youth is under pressure to go further than an undergraduate education. My opportunities would dramatically diminish in the future if I quit college or decide not to move onto graduate school, and I know that my future would be working in a dysfunctional company that would not last in this recessive economy.            

               The fact that our society is cracking down on youth’s higher education by going to college has interfered with my parent’s opinion towards college. The article emphasized “as the credentials comparison seeps down the academic ladder, universities jack up fees which would cause parents to pay whatever for an excellent test score on the entry exams." This single sentence frightens my parents's thoughts of me not accomplishing my goal of graduating college. Surely they're proud of me for graduating high school and I don’t believe they would want me to quit school and begin working, but I am so determined to finish college that it has impacted them to believe that I would keep going to school with or without their consent.

                If I do decide to quit college and take an alternative look at life without credentials I would most likely become an innovator. In the article I noticed a sentence that noted that those near the bottom of education will be fleeced while those near top will be getting a leg up. I don’t believe the editors took into account the successful billionaires without a bachelor’s degree such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. If they were successful without a degree I believe that I'll be able to do so as well, even though our society gives the innovators a miniscule opportunity to become an instant success. If I choose to be an innovator it would be caused by the fact that I dropped out of college.

               Sincerely, "Death by Degrees" is one of many articles that have attacked our political perspective towards our youth's future work force.