toefl / why collges?

People attend college or university for many different reasons (for example, new experiences, career preparation, increased knowledge). Why do you think people attend college or university? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

People are attending a higher eduction institution for various reasons. In this essay I will develop the reasons mentioned above as examples with my viewpoints and also, I will argue that why college education is losing its traditional advantages of knowledge production and distribution.

First of all, college eduction is our way of developing our social identity. Previously College education provides a setting for young people to experience adulthood together in a rather socially accepted way. Students will develop extensive networking which could affect their lives after graduation. The name of your university can show a lot of things, your nationality, your grade in high school, your political preference, your ethnic group, your parents finance, your interest and etc. This indicator helps people to understand you easily or sometimes trap you in a bias.

Also, the job market demands a degree. The increasing number of people hold degrees for entering a job market. When the competition is fierce, not having equivalent qualification as the other job seekers can be a major mistake. More and more companies require a college degree instead of experience to the candidates. Many studies show that degree holders earn more income than the ones without.

At least in developed countries even though the tuition fee of college is rising considerably, parents nowadays can afford to pay for their children. Many companies provide a financial support to college education of employee's children as a benefit package.

However I would argue that the final point of increasing knowledge is now challenged because of the use of ICT. Many universities now upload their lecture video and materials online. The access to various academic journals becomes very easy and cheap. Therefore it is now actually possible to acquire high level of knowledge without leaving your house.

Regardless of the last point, university serves still a very important role in society. It still creates opinions, educates future leaders by providing an institutional setting to share knowledge. We surely need to consider how to use the technology in order to enhance its purpose. The college should function above its social benefit of a graduation certificate.

Leisure time

In your view, how accurate is the statement above? Use relevant reasons and/or examples from your experience, observations, or reading to support you viewpoint.

"Leisure time is becoming an increasingly rare commodity, largely because technology has failed to achieve its goal of improving our efficiency in our daily pursuits."

The viewpoint gives us an important insight towards how our social and economic structure should look like, however it is very arguable to consider the statement was well balanced. The technology HAS achieved the structural change in our daily pursuits in various ways.

First of all, it is unclear what the author meant by efficiency. It seems that the our working hours are increasing, regardless of technology. This observation fails to see which factor causes this notion. The labor market has been changed more flexibly, and currently popular business model is based on increasing stockholder's interest above the other stakeholders. Less people can handle more work, and after introduction of new technology productivity would be enhanced. This will result in a management decision of less employment.

When new technology is spreading, sometimes it seems that its operational efforts overtake its benefit. The manual for a digital camera is a thicker than the one for a car for instance. However the sophistication is not an inefficiency.

We cannot deny that what communication technology has brought to increase efficiency. Some technology is surely changing the way we conduct a business.

Therefore the statement above should be modified. It is not a technology hinders an increase of leisure time, but an institution is.

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument.

The following appeared in a memorandum written by the vice president of Nature's Way, a chain of stores selling health food and other health-related products.
"Previous experience has shown that our stores are most profitable in areas where residents are highly concerned with leading healthy lives. We should therefore build our next new store in Plainsville, which has many such residents. Plainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and exercise clothing are at all-time highs. The local health club, which nearly closed five years ago due to lack of business, has more members than ever, and the weight training and aerobics classes are always full. We can even anticipate a new generation of customers: Plainsville's schoolchildren are required to participate in a 'fitness for life' program, which emphasizes the benefits of regular exercise at an early age."

I would argue that the statement above was generally well reasoned but as for a marketing entry strategy, this should be refined, and throughly analyzed.

It is reasonable to assume that Plainsville can have the targeted consumer group of Natures's way. The increasing concern for health can lead to more consumption in Health related problem.

However it is important to find out beforehand how many competitors are in there. The memorandum did not present any figures. Population, purchasing power, location

It needs to figure out if the new trend would last long. Increasing sales of sports related products can be fashion

If the nature's market can have enough information of the market, opening of new store seems to be a reasonable management decision.

being an academic?

Since, I am going to drop my high flying career soon,(I think my colleagues also gave up on me, but I am not that thick faced to enjoy this awkward situation either) I am now doing quite a research on an academician, as a life style(Rehn 2006)

Even though he claimed in his book that you don't expect to get the quality of work you think you should out of your ph. D work, I am very skeptical about my capacity as a scholar. I would like to be one, that is for certain.

I do not have an enough foundation for pursuing an academic goal, it is rather shame that after hitting big by my experience in a corporate life, I am trying to get back to where my parents always tell me to do. However I don't think that proved anything. I was not a good fit, that was all.

I am also worried that if I would be too old when I finish the degree, it would be a long way to go, but the anticipation is high. Maybe I am living in a fantasy world I created, I cannot say.

As a self help industry might say, don't talk about becoming a one, be the one.

Wow.. I cannot believe what I just wrote. But seriously I am now really done with being miserable.