For a few generations now, the conventional wisdom in America has been that you should find a way to go to college. Young people are told that getting that precious piece of paper from a university opens the door to a plethora of opportunities, opportunities that would not be possible if they didn’t attend college.
Getting a college degree can open the door to a wide array of possibilities. But many Americans, particularly younger Americans, have come to the realization that lacking one doesn’t actually prevent a person from accessing a wide range of paths towards success. Furthermore, many young Americans have come to the realization that college can create more problems than possibilities in life. So that begs the question: Is college even worth it anymore?
It depends.
And that is the answer because college, now more than ever, is what you make of it. Granted, college has always been what you make of it to some extent. But seventy years ago, if you had a college degree, you were all but guaranteed to be employed and probably well paid in that line of employment. Plus, that degree was relevant to your job and made sure you were prepared for it. That’s not the case anymore because more people than ever are getting a degree—supply goes up, demand, or, more specifically in this case, unique value to the market, goes down—and technology keeps the world changing so quickly that large portions of what you were taught during college could be essentially irrelevant within a few years. It’s probable that the industry you’re trying to enter into changes—because of technology—in massive ways from the time you were a freshman to the time you’re a graduating senior. And on a slightly different but still related note, seventy years ago, you also didn’t have to enter into large amounts of debt to attend college like many young people do today.
Lower certainty of employment, employment unpreparedness, and substantial debt are all part of an potential equation that is not pretty for today’s young Americans, especially when the housing market and cost of living are both quite pricey. So if you’re still in high school and you know you’ll have to incur debt to attend, the answer to whether college is worth it or not is a resounding NO.
But let’s say you are able to attend college without incurring the debt. In that case, it may be worth it to go; the key word being, “MAY.” And a large part of that “MAY” has to do with what you study and how you engage with the campus community.
Let’s start with the field of study.
Don’t go to college if you plan on getting a degree in fashion. That’s a really dumb idea, especially if you’d have to incur debt. When it comes to picking a major, you should ideally be picking one where you’re A) entering into a field where a degree is required, B) all but guaranteed employment, and/or C) entering into a field where the professionals are well-paid. Oftentimes, if A is a must, it usually leads to C (on account of high specialization typically)—the teaching profession is likely to be the exception here. Unfortunately for a lot of college students today, what they choose to study is not going to lead them to point C; far too many students pick a broad degree (e.g. English) instead of one that is specialized (e.g. chemical engineering).
A more pressing issue, however, is that point A is becoming less and less relevant as an increasing number of fields of employment (degree-related or not) are doing away with the requirement of possessing a college degree. Furthermore, a lot of recent college graduates are entering into the workforce and getting jobs unrelated to their major. Given that this is the case, you could make a strong argument that these kids have wasted four years of their time and tens of thousands of dollars; the professional preparation side of college was not worth it for them.
For statistical proof, just take a look at these key takeaways from a survey conducted by ResumeBuilder from 2022:
The sample size for college graduates in this survey is 1,000. Based on the results, 340 of the respondents have jobs where a college degree (or potentially, any formal education) isn’t necessary; 200 have jobs unrelated to their major; 840 had a ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ difficult time finding a job; and 400 have lowered their salary expectations. To sum up: not good.
However, despite the (increasingly) horrible outcomes on the professional preparation side of college, there may have been one saving grace for these college students.
And that saving grace may have come in how they interacted with the campus community. Maybe some of these college students were heavily involved in extracurricular activities. And maybe this led them to engage in useful networking for the future. Or maybe some of these college students met their spouses during college. Maybe they did both. These possibilities could mean that college was definitely worth it for these students, the meeting of a spouse for sure. But many don’t engage in either of these. For many college students, extracurricular activities consist of wild partying (and everything that goes with that), which is not the type of environment where you’re likely to develop a strong network or meet your spouse. So between this and an increasingly dismal professional preparation side, college ends up having been a complete and total mistake for many students.
These types of outcomes, outcomes resulting from attending college, are happening more and more in modern America. And they are going to continue to frequently happen unless we frame college accurately based on what it is currently and what it is going to continue being in the future. So going forward, let’s frame college accurately. College is now a place that is a potential risk to attaining success in life, just as it can be a direct pathway to it.
If you’re curious about the survey:
https://www.resumebuilder.com/one-third-of-recent-college-grads-are-working-at-jobs-that-dont-require-a-college-education/