Is College Still Worth It? Many Americans Say No

Jordan Reconnu, 23, of Dallas, Texas, has no regrets about not getting a college degree.

During the one semester of college she attended after graduating from high school in 2019, she felt like she wasn't learning anything new.

The idea of continuing did not appeal to her, and realizing how much her college education would end up costing, she quit and now works as a manager of a fast-food restaurant.

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"I wasn't thrilled with taking basic classes for two years and wasting even more money going to the same classes that we covered in high school," she tells Newsweek.

Higher education would not have improved her career prospects, she said, adding that she feels it is only worth pursuing for those hoping to work in fields that require it. "I feel like experience is what makes people marketable," she said.

Her mother, Jacque Abron, agrees with the sentiment.

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Abron earned a college degree before becoming a teacher, but she is glad her daughter won't be saddled with student debt that for her has soared to more than $100,000 with added interest over the years.

College is "overrated," Abron tells Newsweek. "I don't see the use of a degree in this day and age. Employers are demanding higher education, and they serve no purpose."

Reconnu and Abron are among many Americans who have little faith in the value of a college degree, seeing universities as places where political agendas are pushed and where students are not taught the skills they need to succeed in life, but put on a path to a lifetime of oppressive debt.

According to a recent Gallup survey, a growing proportion of Americans are losing confidence in higher education. The survey, released in July, found that only about a third (36 percent) of Americans said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education, while 32 percent said they had little or no confidence. The numbers are significantly down from a decade ago, when 57 percent reported having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education and only 10 percent said they had little or none.

For those who said they had very little or no confidence, 41 percent talked about colleges being "too liberal" or trying to "indoctrinate" or "brainwash" students. Some 37 percent were critical of colleges not teaching relevant skills or graduates not being able to find employment, while 23 percent cited concerns about cost, such as the hefty price tag for tuition or the mounting debt that follows those who can't afford to pursue a degree without taking out student loans.

Another survey, conducted by EAB, formerly the Education Advisory Board, found that parents of students applying to college were most concerned about college costs (60 percent), receiving scholarships (40 percent) and the amount of student debt (39 percent). After that, their biggest concern was for the safety of their children on campuses, a concern that was higher for families of color.

Some parents would also prefer their children get some life experience—by getting a job, pursuing vocational training, starting a business or doing community service—instead of going straight into higher education. About 46 percent of parents said in a 2021 Gallup survey that they would prefer their children not enroll in a four-year college immediately after high school.

Abron said she would urge her other children, aged 4 and 12, to "check out trade schools or invest in other ways to build wealth." But ultimately, she said it would "come down to what they decide to do for their career and the requirements necessary."

Prioritizing Skills Over Education

But some good jobs don't require a degree, either. Aria Razfar, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Education, notes that some young people are seeking in-demand jobs in the booming technology industry where a college education isn't always a requirement.

"Over the last decade there has been a significant shift in access to knowledge as well as a shift in industry expectations," he tells Newsweek. "The rise of the tech industry, with less reliance on college certification, has led to many Generation Z students and their families wondering whether they really need a college education."

New America's 2024 Varying Degrees survey found that a majority (63 percent) of young Americans in Generation Z agree that there are plenty of well-paying stable jobs for people with just a high school diploma. However, many more agreed that it would be easier for those with some kind of college degree.

Some companies are dropping requirements for a bachelor's degree, a reflection of how more hiring managers are valuing skills and experience over education and wanting to attract more diverse talent.

One in three companies in the U.S. say they have eliminated bachelor's degree requirements from some positions in 2024, according to a survey of 750 U.S, businesses by Intelligent, a college preparation company. While the majority (59 percent) did so for entry-level positions, 54 percent removed degree requirements for mid-level roles and 18 percent for senior-level roles.

"Eliminating bachelor's degree requirements from the hiring and recruiting process is becoming increasingly popular across many industries," says Huy Nguyen, Intelligent's chief education and career development advisor. "The trend shift shows a broader recognition that practical skills, real-world work experiences and the ability to self-learn can be more important measures of potential success than four years of formal college education in many job functions."

By removing degree requirements, Nguyen says companies "gain access to larger and more diverse pools of talent, especially when looking to fill roles in industries facing labor shortages or seeking specialized skills that students may not have learned in college."

The Confidence Disconnect

Sean Reardon, a professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford University, tells Newsweek that it is striking "not just that confidence in higher education has declined, but that it has declined in an era when the economic value of a college degree remains very high."

In the 1950s and 1960s, those without a college degree could find good jobs in manufacturing or the auto industry, for instance, he said. However, "our labor market is very different now—most well-paid jobs require a four-year degree or more; without such a degree, one is likely to find only low-pay work," he said. "So you'd think folks would see much more value in higher education."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, those with a bachelor's degree earn about 65 percent more per week than those with just a high school diploma. Furthermore, unemployment rates among high school graduates are almost twice as high as those who have a college degree.

And despite the decreased confidence in higher education, college enrollment numbers have been going up over the past year.

Colleges nationwide saw undergraduate enrollment plummet during the COVID-19 pandemic. But while undergraduate enrollment figures remain behind pre-pandemic levels, they increased this spring and last fall, according to the latest report from the National Student Clearinghouse. More than half of the growth was due to community colleges, but the report said enrollment at public and private nonprofit four-year institutions also grew this spring after years of decline.

"If people are increasingly unhappy with higher education, they aren't showing it in their actions," Reardon said. "That pattern further suggests that unhappiness with higher education is a symbolic position, and maybe not a deeply held one."

Return on Investment?

However, the most obvious reason for the erosion of faith in higher education over the past decade is economic, Razfar said.

Funding for public higher education has declined significantly since the 2008 recession, he said, shifting the financial burden to students and families.

"This has also put significantly more pressure on institutions of higher education to focus on raising funds and private donors rather than holistic student development," he said. "This has led to an erosion of the arts and humanities in favor of more revenue-generating fields like STEM. Universities have ironically become less humane," he said. "Thus, students and their families have serious concerns about 'return on investment.'"

Molly Blythe Doerner, 45, said her two degrees—a bachelor's degree in Art & Media Arts from the University of Montana and a master's degree in Counseling & Art Therapy from Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico—were "painfully" earned while working part-time jobs and taking out the maximum student loans possible.

She previously worked with adolescents in a therapeutic boarding school but is now working at an Amazon fulfillment center in Mississippi. Her student debt has soared to more than $150,000.

She has lost her faith in higher education because it is "historically designed for purposes of privilege and profit," she tells Newsweek. "I believe there is faith to be found in the millions of people who also took the same bait, to follow their dreams, to learn, or to succeed, only to find themselves in worse positions than they may have been when they began."

Abron would not recommend anyone go to college if they have to get loans "due to the predatory and life-draining cycle of student loans," she said. "It's a debt that follows you to the grave."

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Brooke Schwartz, a 23-year-old from New York State, tells Newsweek that she feels her college education is well worth it. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and is now studying at the Fordham University School of Law.

"Higher education allows students to learn about and examine different industries and helps students to develop an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset," she tells Newsweek. "While the costs associated with education are on the rise and quite considerable, I would not have been able to pursue my passion to be an attorney without my undergraduate and graduate degrees."

Judi Hayes, of Orlando, Florida, is also confident that a college education is worth it, though she acknowledges that it is becoming increasingly unattainable for many Americans.

Hayes, 51, graduated from Florida State University and worked as an attorney full-time before moving to part-time work after having children. Now, she is focused on getting her eldest—a high school junior—into college, possibly an Ivy League institution.

"I'm still highly confident in education but that comes from a position of privilege and as the parent of a very bright child who will probably enter a field that requires a degree," she tells Newsweek.

"The paradigm has shifted so far from when I was his age in the late '80s, and you could fall a**-backward into a great public education at a price that wouldn't leave you beholden for decades."

Among parents, there's a "huge dichotomy between the people who can afford higher education and the ones who can't, but feel compelled to mortgage their futures for it," she said.

Teaching Divisiveness

Some of the declining faith in higher education stems from universities becoming flashpoints in the nation's culture wars.

Confidence in higher education has dropped most among Republicans, the 2024 Gallup survey found.

While only 11 percent of Republicans reported having little or no confidence in higher education in 2015, that number is now 50 percent.

Republican lawmakers have been moving to defund or ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at universities, saying the programs are discriminatory and promote left-wing ideology. Opponents say the programs are necessary to ensure higher education institutions meet the needs of diverse student populations. Some administrators consider such factors when admitting students, deciding which faculty members to hire and promote or when issuing scholarships.

The decline in confidence "is the result of political polarization and the portrayal of colleges and universities as elitist by populist politicians and populist-aligned media," Reardon said.

Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, tells Newsweek that declining confidence in higher education can be linked to the far-right's "relentless campaign to demonize and delegitimize the teachers, researchers and students on our campuses. As these polls have shown, their cynical and dangerous propaganda is working."

Higher education has given Americans the chance "to transform their lives and have more security than their parents," Wolfson said. "Higher education is a pillar of our democracy. It leads to critical thinking, an educated citizenry and a better, clearer understanding of the world around us. We have to ask ourselves, why would some want to destroy that?"

Israel's ongoing war with Hamas "has exposed some of the core deficiencies of today's elite higher education institutions," University of Illinois' Razfar argues. "Rather than creating productive, public conversation around core ideological and identity issues, they have cultivated, in the perception of many, greater polarization."

There has been a "serious shift in perception as to whether or not universities are prioritizing the public good over private and sectarian interests," he argues. "This is an absolute nail in the coffin for the future viability of higher education."

This spring, colleges across the country were roiled by protests against the war, leaving universities struggling to grapple with how to balance free speech rights with protection from discrimination amid rises in antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus.

With students now returning to colleges, some schools are adopting rules to limit the protests that roiled campuses earlier this year. The American Association of University Professors has warned that enacting "overly restrictive policies" could discourage free expression.

Michael Thaddeus, a professor of mathematics at Columbia and the vice-president of the Columbia chapter of the AAUP, tells Newsweek that "fostering debate is what universities should be all about."

He adds: "It's a great strength of American society—in contrast to Russia and China, for example—that our universities serve as forums where basic disagreements can be aired.  In an increasingly polarized society, it may make some people dislike us, but that's a price worth paying."

As American society "becomes more and more splintered and polarized, it becomes harder and harder to please everyone," he adds. "Still, we in the academy remain convinced of the enduring value of a liberal arts education, which teaches students to think critically, reason logically, and write clearly. The very trends that are making universities less popular are also making higher education more vitally important than ever."