Uh oh. Actually the second half is about the latter. Is that not clear?

I read it as 23 paragraphs making strong statements about the former, and 3 paragraphs making weaker statements about the latter. But that's just me. Someone who sees college as a stamp of destiny would say you made a strong statement about the latter.

In general, I find myself a poor judge of what will or won't be clear to other people in a given essay; I read differently from most. I discover what did and didn't work in your essays from reading comments. I have a hard time extracting general communication principles from each essay's success or failure, because audiences differ. Still, I hope to learn something; writing is important.