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Title of my paper: A Brief Overview of the Effects of Attending College

Title of source: "Effects of Postsecondary Education on Family Well-Being "

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Conventional wisdom has it that attending college brings plentiful benefits and improves one's quality of life significantly. According to the research done by Kia Sorenson, a professor of sociology at Oregon State University, on the topic, this premise appears to be very accurate, although there are certain pitfalls of acquiring a college education. She begins her analysis on the topic by stating generally that college educations have both "intra-generational and inter-generational" effects, meaning that the college education can affect both one's current life and family as well as the prosperity of generations to come. The article then moves into more specific aspects of the degree's effects. Sorenson starts by describing the social benefits of the college experience, known as "social networks", which can often bring a person contacts in useful places and an easier time meeting new people and creating new contacts. This practice is very beneficial, as it is often connections and contacts that allow people to move up in their chosen fields and take positions of higher responsibility. Sorenson then moves onto the topic of time use, stating that parents who are college educated tend to "commit more time to their children", thus increasing the quality of their upbringing and hopefully setting them up for a more successful future. The article then proceeds to mention the main negative effect of obtaining a college degree, which are financial problems. Ignorance leads people to use solely the " 'straightforward' sources of income", such as loans, and prevents them from realizing that they can use interest-free or even free money in the form of grants to finance their educations. Thus, this negative aspect is often magnified by people's own laziness in financial research and less from the affordability of attending college. Sorenson concludes her article with one more positive effect of college, which are the health benefits associated with it. People who are college educated have better access to healthcare, and are generally less stressed (stress often causes health ailments). Therefore, Kia Sorenson's article provides an overview of many of the effects of having a college degree, but seems to mention mainly positive effects out of the supposed lack of negatives.

Works cited: Sorenson, Kia. "Effects of Postsecondary Education on Family Well-Being." // - The Future of Children - //. Oregon State University, 2010. Web. 04 June 2014. .