Journal Entry for Louis Menand’s: The Graduates

Journal Entry #1—Louis Menand, The Graduates

Recapping: In the beginning of The Graduates, Louis Menand starts out his essay with a childhood story sleepover and how it compares to college students today. He mentions how things are different and pushes people out of their “comfort zone.” Then Louis starts to mention how competitive college applications are. For example, this year Harvard College has almost twenty-three thousand applicants and accepted only nine percent. Then the author continues on and starts talking about how education should be two things, universal and meritocratic. Meritocratic makes stress and anxiety, and the more purely meritocratic the college is then the more anxiety it produces because there is no haven from competition. The author then implies how business today is the biggest undergraduate major in the united states and how less than four percent of college graduates major in English. Louis then talks about in his last paragraph on how college is really expensive and then the author talks about how each student has there moment in college, just like in their childhood sleepover.

Connecting: While reading the story I connected with the author when he mention the childhood story of the sleepover. When I was a kid I always thought when my friend’s mom was making me food that it does not taste the same as my mom’s cooking.

Pondering: After reading the story I came upon some questions. One question I have is why did the author decide to write about this topic or how did he come upon it. Did the author actually experience these problems when he was at Pomona College and Columbia University.

Appreciating: Something I liked about the story was when the author’s mention the childhood sleepover story. I really connected and followed along because I can relate to what he is talking about. Also, the essay is about college and I am in college so I can relate even more about it.