Most persuasive response and the least persuasive

Throughout the week, students at ASTI read seven responses that answered the following question, "Will you have a better life if you graduate from an elite college or university?" We were to decide which was the most persuasive and the least persuasive out of the seven of them.


After reading the responses, I thought that the  was "Merit and Race" by Luis Fuentes Rohwer. His main point was that going to an elite college  is better than going to a "weak" school. He says that going to a elite school would place you in a spot where you have a higher graduation rate and a higher probability of going into graduate school. I know that more people tend to graduate elite colleges and universities more but I thought that the probability or graduation depends on your effort at college/ university. Luis also states that if a person goes to an elite college, they have lower divorce rates and a better health. That was extremely random. I do not even know how those two are even related to education. He didn't even put evidence to support his evidence. The most terrible thing that he said was that quality in a college or university does not matter. This ticked me off because quality is one of the most important things in colleges and universities. Would you go to an elite college that contains bad teachers and a dirty campus? I wouldn't.


 I believe that the least persuasive response was called "Graduate School Matters More" by David W. Breneman. His main point of his response is to communicate to others that the ranking of a college does not matter but the importance lies withing the students capabilities of attending elite schools. He says that all those that are college ready and created a goal for themselves may go to an elite college sooner and continue to move on to graduate school to achieve their goal. He notes that the students that are not ready to continue on to a elite college or university after high school graduation. He says that they would have a higher chance of being lost in the institution and the probability of graduating and/ or going to graduate school is much lower. He suggested that those who aren't ready should attend community colleges where it focuses on student development towards a college environment. Finally, he notes that elite colleges tend to have a high intuition so the family might not be able to afford it. David W. Breneman's response convinced me the most because it changed my mind about whether going to an elite school is important. The response made me think, "If I'm not even ready to attend an elite college or university yet, what is the point? It's going to be hard for me to stay alert if I'm not adjusted to a new environment. I should be patient and use more time to prepare myself."