2012托福考试复习：双语阅读篇三

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-14 23:21:39

Daniel Schwartz could have attended an Ivy League school if he wanted to. He just doesn't see the value.

Mr. Schwartz, 18 years old, was accepted at Cornell University but enrolled instead at City University of New York's Macaulay Honors College, which is free.

Mr. Schwartz says his family could have afforded Cornell's tuition, with help from scholarships and loans. But he wants to be a doctor and thinks medical school, which could easily cost upward of $45,000 a year for a private institution, is a more important investment. It wasn't 'worth it to spend $50,000-plus a year for a bachelor's degree,' he says.

As student-loan default rates climb and college graduates fail to land jobs, an increasing number of students are betting they can get just as far with a degree from a less-expensive school as they can with a diploma from an elite school -- without having to take on debt.

More students are choosing lower-cost public colleges or commuting to schools from home to save on housing expenses. Nearly 25% of students from families with annual household incomes above $100,000 attended public, two-year schools in the 2010-2011 academic year, up from 12% the previous year, according to a report from student-loan company Sallie Mae.

Such choices meant families across all income brackets spent 9% less -- an average of $21,889 in cash, loans, scholarships and other methods -- on college in 2010-11 than in the previous year, according to the report. High-income families cut their college spending by 18%, to $25,760. The report, which is released annually, was based on a survey of about 1,600 students and parents.
The approach has risks. Top-tier colleges tend to attract recruiting visits from companies that have stopped visiting elsewhere. A diploma from an elite school can look better to many recruiters and graduate schools, as well. And overcrowding at state schools means students could be locked out of courses and have difficulty completing their degrees in four years.

Mr. Schwartz started at the Macaulay Honors program at Queens College this fall with 'nagging' disappointment but has come to terms with his decision.

'I have to grow up. I have to incorporate what I want and what I can have,' he says. 'Even though people say money shouldn't be everything, in this situation, money was the most important thing.'

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-14 23:21:40

He says he had grown enamored with the 'prestige' of an Ivy League degree. His teachers cited the networking opportunities and academic rigor. It didn't help that his father attended Princeton University and his uncle, Columbia University.

'I thought that the Ivy League title would really, really boost my chances of getting into a good med school,' Mr. Schwartz says. Now, he is aiming for top grades at Macaulay to remain competitive with Ivy League candidates.

There is little question that having a college degree gives candidates an edge in the job market. The unemployment rate for people with a bachelor's degree was 4.9% last month, compared with 10.5% for high-school graduates with no degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But a degree from a private college also is expensive. The average debt load for students who took out loans hit a record $27,200 for the class that graduated this year, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of student-aid websites Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. That comes as general per capita debt reached $47,260 in the second quarter, a figure that has been dropping in recent years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Jesse Yeh, a 20-year-old California resident, chose the University of California at Berkeley over Stanford University. Tuition at Berkeley, a state school, is about $14,460 for in-state students. At Stanford, it's $40,050.

Now he worries about graduating on time, having been locked out of some overcrowded courses, including Spanish and a public-policy elective. Berkeley says 71% of students who entered in 2006, the latest period available, graduated within four years. At Stanford, that number is closer to 80%.

Attending a private university still can pay off. Schools with large endowments have beefed up their aid programs in recent years, which can make them less expensive than their public, cash-strapped counterparts. Brown University, for example, offers grants instead of loans for students whose families earn less than $100,000 a year.

But Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, says graduate outcomes often have more to do with major and how a student takes advantage of networking and internship opportunities, than with school choice.

Natasha Pearson, 19, questions her decision to attend the City University of New York's Hunter College. She says she turned down an offer from Boston College after the school said her family would need to pitch in $30,000 annually.

She says there's a 'wide variety' of academic ability among her Hunter classmates and that many of her courses are taught by graduate students, rather than by full professors.

'I can't help but wonder, had I gone to BC, where that could have taken me,' she says.

如果愿意的话，施瓦茨（Daniel Schwartz）本来是可以去一所常春藤联盟（Ivy League）院校读书的。他只是认为不值。

18岁的施瓦茨被康奈尔大学（Cornell University）录取了，但他最终却去了纽约市立大学麦考利荣誉学院（City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College），后者是免费的。

施瓦茨说，加上奖学金和贷款的支持，家里原本是可以付得起康奈尔的学费的。但他想当医生，他觉得医学院是更有价值的一项投资。私立学校医学院一年的花费动辄就要4万5美元。他说，不值得为了一个本科文凭一年花5万多美元。

助学贷款违约率日益攀升，大量的大学毕业生找不到工作，因此越来越多的学生认定，从一所学费不太贵的学校拿到的学位和从一所精英学校拿到的文凭没什么区别，并且不必背负贷款负担。

Robert Pizzo越来越多的学生选择收费较低的公立大学，或选择住在家里走读以节省住房开支。美国学生贷款行销协会（Sallie Mae）的一份报告显示，2010年至2011学年，家庭年收入10万美元以上的学生中有近25%选择就读两年制的公立学校，高于上一学年12%的比例。

这份报告称，这样的选择意味着，在2010至2011学年，各个收入阶层的家庭在大学教育上的花费比上一年少9%，平均支出为21,889美元，包括现金、贷款、奖学金等。高收入家庭的大学教育支出降低了18%，平均为25,760美元。这份一年一度的报告是在对约1,600名学生和家长进行问卷调查后完成的。

这种做法是有风险的。顶级大学往往能吸引到那些已经不再去其他学校招聘的公司前来招聘。在许多招聘者以及研究生院看来，精英学校的文凭还是更有吸引力的。而且公立学校的人满为患意味着，学生可能会选不上某些课程，难以在四年内完成学业。

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-14 23:21:41

今年秋天，施瓦茨开始在纽约市立大学皇后学院（Queens College）上麦考利荣誉学院的课程，虽然失望情绪挥之不去，但他已经接受了自己的决定。

他说，我得长大；我必须把自己的理想和能够得到的东西结合起来考虑；虽然人们说钱不应该是一切，但在这种情况下，钱是最重要的。

他说他以前曾经迷恋常春藤名校文凭的“威望”。他的老师提到，那些学校有着很多拓展人脉关系的机会，并且学术严谨。他的父亲和叔叔分别毕业于普林斯顿大学（Princeton University）和哥伦比亚大学（Columbia University），不过这都没能影响他的决定。

施瓦茨说，我曾经认为常春藤联盟的名号确实会大大增加我进入一所好医学院的机会。现在他的目标是在麦考利荣誉学院拿到最好成绩，保持与常春藤名校毕业生竞争的能力。

拥有大学学历无疑会为求职者在就业市场提供优势。据美国劳工统计局（Bureau of Labor Statistics）统计，上个月，本科毕业生的失业率是4.9%，而没有学位的高中毕业生的失业率为10.5%。

Bryan Derballa for The Wall Street Journal19岁的皮尔森现在开始对自己就读纽约市立大学亨特学院的决定表示怀疑。她说，当初她没去上波士顿学院，因为那样家里需要每年拿出3万美元。不过私立大学的文凭也很贵。助学贷款网站Fastweb.com及FinAid.org出版人坎特罗维茨（Mark Kantrowitz）说，今年毕业的大学生里，申请助学贷款学生的平均债务负担创造了2.72万美元的纪录。据纽约联邦储备银行（Federal Reserve Bank of New York）统计，第二季度总体人均债务达到了4.726万美元，这个数字近几年是一直在下滑的。

20岁的加州居民叶杰西（Jesse Yeh）在加州大学伯克利分校（University of California at Berkeley）和斯坦福大学（Stanford University）之间选择了前者。伯克利是公立学校，州内学生的学费约为1.446万美元，而斯坦福的学费是4.005万美元。

现在他担心自己能不能按时毕业，好几门过度拥挤的课程他都没能选上，包括西班牙语和一门公共政策选修课。伯克利说在2006年（这是最近的有统计数据的时间点）入学的学生中，有71%在四年内毕了业。在斯坦福，这个数字接近80%。

就读私立大学也会物有所值。拥有大量捐赠的学校近几年加强了援助计划，这会让它们比那些资金短缺的公立学校便宜些。比如布朗大学（Brown University）就为家庭年收入不足10万美元的学生提供资助而不是贷款。

但罗格斯大学（Rutgers University）约翰·海利奇劳动力发展中心（John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development）主任霍恩（Carl Van Horn）说，毕业生的成就通常和专业以及学生如何利用人脉及实习机会有更大关系，而非学校的选择。

19岁的皮尔森（Natasha Pearson）现在开始对自己就读纽约市立大学亨特学院（Hunter College）的决定表示怀疑。她说，当初她没去上波士顿学院（Boston College），因为那样家里需要每年拿出3万美元。

她说，她在亨特的同学学术能力“参差不齐”，并且她的许多课程都是由研究生而不是全职教授来教的。

她说，现在我不禁会想，如果我去了波士顿学院会是什么样。

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[托福阅读] 2012托福考试复习：双语阅读篇三

2012托福考试复习：双语阅读篇三

2012托福考试复习：双语阅读篇三