The following is a recommendation from the dean at Foley College, a small liberal arts college, to the president of the college.

“Since college-bound students are increasingly concerned about job prospects after graduation, Foley College should attempt to increase enrollment by promising to find its students jobs after they graduate. Many administrators feel that this strategy is a way for Foley to compete against larger and more prestigious schools and to encourage students to begin preparing for careers as soon as they enter college. Furthermore, a student who must choose a career path within his or her first year of college and who is guaranteed a job after graduation is more likely to successfully complete the coursework that will prepare him or her for the future.”

The dean at Foley College asserts that the college should make promises of job placements in order to increase the number of students who want to enroll for the programs offered by the college. The dean supports his assertion by stating the opinion of administrators who feel that this is a way for competing against larger and more reputed colleges. Additionally, this would also encourage students to start preparing for their careers as soon as they join college. The dean concludes the argument by stating that students who are assured of a job after graduation are likely to pay more attention to their studies and successfully complete the coursework. The facts that have been presented by the dean do not succeed in convincing the reader that the argument is well-reasoned. A careful scrutiny of the given facts will reveal numerous fallacies that make the given argument sound unconvincing.

Firstly, Foley College is a small college that conducts courses in liberal arts. It is possible that students may be joining it because of their interest in leaning Arts as a hobby and they may not be motivated to look for jobs related to Arts. They may be keen to pursue other jobs that are more lucrative and well-paying as compared to a career in liberal arts. Therefore, offering job placements would do little to attract more students to the college.

The assumption of some of the administrators that this strategy will help them to compete against reputed colleges that are much larger than Foley College is baseless. A prestigious college earns its reputation after years of being established and a small college cannot compete against it just by increasing its intake of students and offering them job placements. In order to be at par with a prestigious college, it is necessary that Foley College improves its standard of teaching and ensures that its students are well trained to pursue a career in Arts. Therefore, this assumption made by some of the administrators fails to support the claim made by the dean.

Finally, a major loophole in the given argument is that a promised job on completion of graduate studies does not ensure that the students will successfully complete their coursework. On the contrary, it is likely that the students will ignore their studies. Rather than paying attention to their studies, they will ignore their coursework because they know that they will be able to get a job even if they barely manage to scrape through their tests. This, on the other hand, may bring down the reputation of the college as there could be a large number of students who have not got good grades. Additionally, this will also mean an increase in the workload for the college as they will now have to find suitable jobs for their students who have not done well in the course and who are not skilled enough for any kind of job.

Therefore, after considering all the aspects of the argument that have been discussed above, one comes to the conclusion that the given argument cannot be deemed as reasonable under any circumstances. Hence, the claim of the dean that promises of job placements on completion of graduation would lead to an increase in enrollments stands on evidence that is doubtful and therefore, the given argument fails to convince the reader.