Growing Number Of Americans Questioning The Value Of College Degree

With inflation hitting American pockets hard, and tuition costs rising, many students are rethinking higher education. NBC News’ Steven Romo reports on why more and more Americans are questioning whether a college degree is worthwhile.

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[eshbena]

Being an American is expensive in so many ways.

[spacyg]

It's not that people don't want to go to college and have a degree, people just really don't want to be in debt and have to spend years paying off a student loan (if they get one). For the most part, the cost of college is just too high. Not to mention that many degrees require unnecessary courses that have nothing to do with the chosen degree/profession.

[PacifierMusic]

Pretty much lost faith in college when they charged us the same amount for online classes vs in person. Makes me think it’s all just about a piece of paper, not learning

[bionicleanime]

As someone who spent 10 years in college, I can attest that the value of college degrees has been diminished. The great recession hit college, even community ones, pretty bad. I literally saw the amount of classes offered cut in half while the amount of people going to college sky rocketed. Coupled with questionable practices like retaining terrible instructors who do more to hinder students than to help them succeed, having people take too many courses not only unrelated to their fields but will never be used in the work force, and overall just making everything so expensive. I was able to get my associates and bachelor degrees but ended up not working in my field and feeling like all the sacrifices made in progress of getting a higher education meant nothing. It sucks and I've only heard that things have only worsen since leaving college behind.

[ashram]

I think there are at least two problems here: first of all, a lot of basic jobs, like receptionist for instance, require a college diploma even though you could do the job fine with basic education. Secondly, a lot of colleges overvalue their diploma. I studied art in school, and I briefly looked to get a masters in an art program. Two year tuition would have coast $120, 000. You CAN make a living as an artist, but for the majority of us, we're never going to earn enough a year to justify spending 6 figures on a diploma (at least, that was my thought process. I think a lot of students are unrealistically optimistic about their future job prospects). If colleges were honest, they'd charge a rate that matches what people in the field actually earn.

[TheseEyesSeeDarknessClearly]

Have a computer science degree but it’s so hard to find a job. Entry level jobs requiring 5 years experience is wild.

[RobertMJohnson]

everyone is making this way too complicated. College in the US is a good decision for

1. PRE-PROFESSIONAL degree students (accounting, business, computer science, engineering, pre-law, pre-med, nursing, pre-nursing, architecture, pre-dental/orthodontic, etc)

2. RICH KIDS who can afford it and come out with no debt; students who get enough financial aid

3. ANY SCHOLARSHIP student or student-athlete


everyone else is at quite a disadvantage

[enerpro]

College tuition outpaced inflation by 6x since the 80s and top 15 universities sit on $10B+ in cash nowadays. That's insane for nonprofits!

[doloresmontano]

I worked hard for my degree for science and let me tell you some labs won't pay more then 18hr and expect you to do so much its crazy. Having a bachelors degree to get jobs that pay under 20 is crazy.

[mikeneil]

I'm 54. When I was a kid a college degree during the 70s was a HUGE accomplishment. Now a college degree is basically a HS diploma. Yes I'd like cheese on that (Job waitingf for a CG - BA in English )

[ayasreviewsandtoycolection]

What most college aged kids don't realize is that you don't necessarily NEED a degree for everything. Go to college and see what technical certificate programs they offer and decide if it's right for you. It will only take 1 year to complete and it should be no more than $5, 000. You'll make just as decent pay as anyone else who went to college and you won't be in debt. You can also qualify for grants as well.

[chad]

I'm working a job that "prefers" a Masters Degree with an Associates degree and its one of the easiest jobs I've ever worked. Advanced degrees are important for certain jobs (engineering, Doctor, Law, Psychology, etc.) but many fields don't require it to actually do the work. You learn most, if not all, the skills at the job.

[samzam]

To be honest college now a days really doesn’t give you a “good job” right off the bat you either need to know someone or you start your own business .

[christine]

In my country in Europe, they have implemented a DUAL system.
After compulsory schooling of 11 years you are 16 and either go to learn a TRADE as an apprentice or choose HIGHER education. Many jobs don't require higher education, are more manual and the skills are best acquired through an apprenticeship. We only pursue higher education, with emphasis on a SPECIFIC degree, that is required for the job we want to have. So, in the end we have qualified workers. The enrollment of post-secondary education is low compared to other countries, only 20% of the student population enrolls. Because enrollment is low, the government pays for our tuition, so we only have low semester fees of a couple hundred $.

It's inefficient to have high enrollment of university students, not only because many jobs don't require such a degree, but it also makes the job market oversaturated with uni students that have nice but unnecessary humanity degrees, which leads to higher rate of unemployment and searching for jobs they are overqualified for and have nothing to do with their actual degree.

We should normalize not making college a degree a requirement and government should invest more in trade education. Our society depends on both. Plus a trade in my country, puts you in middle class, if you also have the ambition to take over or found a small business, it's also doable.

[jlcii]

I watched my eldest sister go to college, get three associates, a bachelor's, and a masters, just to end up getting a job at elderly Care facility making less money than I make as a bus driver with a class b license that I obtained after I dropped out of college due to financial hardship at the time. The necessity to further your education is really subjective depending on things like your financial background, what field you're going into, if you have the means and ability to complete the curriculum for the degree, and if you actually have opportunities made available to you once you graduate. My mom went to school for medical administration and got her bachelor's degree in the field, only for no employer to want to even offer her an internship when she applied because they felt she was "too mature of age" to be invested in (in her late 40s). My other sister recently got her bachelor's degree in business, so time will tell how that pays off, but overall, it just seems to me that unless you come from a background of privilege, nepotism, and things like networking and inside connections working in your favor (or if you're just really smart and go into the field of engineering or science), it just seems more likely than not that you'll end up not much better off or on about equal footing as somebody who just gets the right good paying job opportunity, or even a basic license or certificate with their high school diploma or GED.

[ashantidalton]

I’m still upset that there wasn’t any sort of adjustment to tuition during the prime of COVID because we didn’t get to experience classes as we should’ve. I personally felt like all of my professors got lazier and turned to pre-recorded videos and open office hours- with many emails requiring clarifications on this topic- or slight adjustments to that topic- or learning AFTER an exam that the topic was “actually like this!” when it was not clear in the presentation/videos… it was just frustrating and I do feel like my grades suffered some because of that.
I also feel like it was an excuse for professors to give a lot of filler work to make up for not being in class which was extremely draining mentally, just sitting at my desk all day and waking up to do it all over again the next.

I do feel like the value of college is questionable in certain I just graduated this spring and job hunted for a while- everywhere I interviewed I still felt like I was being offered bottom dollar prices (mind you I took a STEM major) just because I did not have as much experience. Luckily I’m finally finding a job I’m settling with now- but it was frustrating that I was either getting rejected or offered a lower value due to what I have/haven’t done. We’re barely crawling out of one pandemic (and may be be crawling into another one soon tbh) where many have been laid off and lost their jobs (like me) so I struggled to find the best opportunities I could that still related to the career I wished to pursue. While I know it’s not exactly what they’re asking for, they’re still going to need to train me on the specifics regardless- so why do they need to be so stingy?

[andrewca]

Why do we need two years of “gen eds” when we had four years of them in high school. Stop the college scam.

[jackiepaper]

My wife and I both have degrees and together about 100 thousand in student debt. Neither one of us work in our fields. We own a business. I agree.

[macharper]

It is NOT worth it. I always thought a college education was an expensive joke. Not worth the time, cost or effort. You end up in debt for the rest of your life.

[rabidfollower]

Whether you go to college or not, you still have to study and learn constantly throughout your life because the world keeps changing and adding new knowledge and you have to keep up to stay employed, especially in tech fields. One advantage of colleges is that they train you to be better learners. All the reading and researches you have to do and reports and papers you have to write make you a more disciplined, efficient learner of high-level knowledge. I suggest everyone at least take an affordable local or online college course or two just to see what that's like.

When I graduated from computer science, all the computer tech I learned the previous four years had already become obsolete because tech goes obsolete very quickly as we all know. Did that make my college experience worthless? Of course not. It gave me a great foundation and made me a better learner and better prepared me for the future.