Pro Quotes

Con 1: College is not a guarantee of a job or better life.

Many college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require college degrees. According to the Department of Labor, as many as 17 million college graduates work in positions that do not require a college education. One in three college graduates had a job that required a high-school diploma or less in 2012. More than 16,000 parking lot attendants, 83,000 bartenders, 115,000 janitors, and 15% of taxi drivers have bachelor’s degrees. College graduates with jobs that do not require college degrees earn 30–40% less per week than those who work in jobs requiring college degrees. [5][6][40]

Too many students earning degrees has diluted the value of a bachelor’s degree. Rita McGrath, associate professor at Columbia Business School, stated, “Having a bachelor’s used to be more rare and candidates with the degree could therefore be more choosy and were more expensive to hire. Today, that is no longer the case.” A high unemployment rate shifts the supply and demand to the employers’ favor and has made master’s degrees the “new bachelor’s degrees.” According to James Altucher, venture capitalist and finance writer, “College graduates hire only college graduates, creating a closed system that permits schools to charge exorbitant prices and forces students to take on crippling debt.” [68][69]

College degrees also do not guarantee learning or job preparation. Many students graduate from college with little understanding of math, reading, civics, or economics. In 2011 35% of students enrolled in college reported they studied five hours or less per week, and there was a 50% decline in the number of hours a student studied and prepared for classes compared to a few decades ago. 36% of students demonstrated no significant improvement on Collegiate Learning Assessments after four years of college. In 2013 56% of employers thought half or fewer of college graduates had the skills and knowledge to advance within their companies. 30% of college graduates felt college did not prepare them well for employment, specifically in terms of technical and quantitative reasoning skills. A Pew Research survey found that 57% of Americans felt higher education did not provide students with good value compared to the money spent. [25][56][57][58][59][60]

The market glut and lack of job preparation, means many recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates (4.0%) exceeded the average for all workers, including those without a degree (3.6%) in 2019. The underemployment rate was 34% for all college graduates and 41.1% for recent grads. The underemployment (insufficient work) rate for college graduates in 2015 was 6.2% overall: 5.2% for white graduates, 8.4% for Hispanic graduates, and 9.7% for Black graduates. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 44% of recent college graduates were underemployed in 2012. [42][101][129]

Underemployment or unemployment also translates into fewer workplace benefits. In 2013 68.9% of employed new college graduates did not receive health insurance through their employers, and in 2011 27.2% received retirement coverage (down from 41.5% in 2000). [41]

The total cost of going to college means more than tuition, fees, and books; it also includes an opportunity cost which equals at least four years of missed wages and advancements from a full-time job—about $49,000 for a four-year degree and $20,000 for a two-year degree. [8]

Con 2: Student loan debt strains college graduates, their families, and society.

Tuition has risen quicker than income, making college unaffordable for many and forcing students to take out loans. A Mar. 2017 study found that 14% of community college students were homeless and 51% had housing insecurity issues (inability to pay rent or utilities, for example), while 33% experienced food insecurity (lack of access to or ability to pay for “nutritionally adequate and safe foods”), though 58% of the students were employed and 42% received federal Pell Grants. From the 1986–87 school year to the 2016–17 school year, the average cost of one year of college (including room and board) increased 109.6% for four-year private schools and 125.7% for four-year public schools, while median family income only increased 10.0% between 1986 and 2015. From the 1976–77 school year to the 2016–17 school year, annual tuition rates rose for community colleges (173.1%), four-year public colleges (271.2%), and private four-year colleges (213.5%). [111][112][113]

In spring 2023 there were over 17 million college students in the United States, and over 43 million borrowers owe a collective $1.75 trillion in total student debt. 45% of people with student loan debt say college was not worth it. 10% of students graduate with over $40,000 in debt and about 1% have $100,000 in debt. In Feb. 2018 undergraduate college graduates had an average of $37,172 in loan debt. According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, approximately 60% of college graduates have student loan debt balances equal to 60% of their annual income. Missing loan payments leads to lower credit scores and additional fees, worsening the debt problem. [36][37][107][123][133][134]

Further, student loan debt often forces college graduates to live with their parents and delay marriage, financial independence, and other adult milestones. 20% of millennials are homeowners, and most millennials say their student debt has delayed home ownership by seven years on average. Student loan borrowers delayed saving for retirement (41%), car purchases (40%), home purchases (29%), and marriage (15%). In 2000 fewer than 50% of women and 30% of men had passed the “transition to adulthood” milestones by age 30 (finishing school, moving out of their parents’ homes, being financially independent, marrying, and having children); in 1960 77% of women and 65% of men had completed these milestones by age 30. [38][39][121]

Student debt also overwhelms many seniors. Whether they cosigned for a child or grandchild’s education, or took out loans for their own educations, in 2012 there were 6.9 million student loan borrowers aged 50 and over who collectively owed $155 billion with individual average balances between $19,521 and $23,820. Of the 6.9 million borrowers, 24.7% were more than 90 days delinquent in payments. Almost 119,000 of older borrowers in default were having a portion of their Social Security payments garnished by the U.S. government in 2012. [51][52]

Student loan debt may not be forgiven in bankruptcy and may not have the same borrower protections as other consumer debt. A study found 60% of people attempting to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy were unsuccessful. Medical, legal, credit card, loan, and even gambling debt can immediately be discharged in bankruptcy, but getting student loan debt discharged is much more difficult and rare. Private student loans often do not have the same protections as federal loans like income-based repayments, discharges upon death, or military deferments. [61][70][71]

College graduates aren’t the only ones overwhelmed by debt. Many students do not graduate and waste their own and their government’s money. About 19% of students who enroll in college do not return for the second year. Students who drop out during the first year of college cost states $1.3 billion and the federal government $300 million per year in wasted student grant programs and government appropriations for colleges. Overall, 41% of students at four-year colleges and universities did not graduate within six years: 41% at public schools, 34% at private nonprofits, and 77% at private for-profits. Students who did not graduate within six years accounted for $3.8 billion in lost income, $566 million in lost federal income taxes, and $164 million in lost state income taxes in one year. [50][117]

Finally, student debt could cause another financial crisis. As of 2012 student loan debt was over $1 trillion dollars and more than 850,000 student loans were in default. According to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, student loans are “beginning to have the same effect” on the economy that the housing bubble and crash created. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett agrees that the student loan debt crisis “is a vicious cycle of bad lending policies eerily similar to the causes of the subprime mortgage crisis.” On Feb. 3, 2012, an advisory council to the Federal Reserve also warned that the growth in student debt “has parallels to the housing crisis.” As of Jan. 2013 the rate of default on student loans hit 15.1%, a nearly 22% increase since 2007. [61][62][63][64][65]

Con 3: Many people would be better served learning a trade or pursuing work right out of high school.

Trade professions are necessary for society to function, require less than four years of training, and often pay above average wages. The high number of young adults choosing college over learning a trade has created a “skills gap” in the U.S., and there is now a shortage of “middle-skill” trade workers like machinists, electricians, plumbers, and construction workers. One survey of U.S. manufacturers found that 67% reported a “moderate to severe shortage of talent.” “Middle-skill” jobs represent half of all jobs in the U.S. that pay middle-class wages. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “middle-skill” jobs made up 45% of projected job openings through 2014, but as of 2012 only 25% of the workforce had the skills to fill those jobs. [53][54][55]

Many people succeed without college degrees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 30 projected fastest growing jobs between 2010 and 2020, five do not require a high-school diploma, nine require a high-school diploma, four require an associate’s degree, six require a bachelor’s degree, and six require graduate degrees. The following successful people either never enrolled in college or never completed their college degrees: Richard Branson, founder and chair of the Virgin Group; Charles Culpepper, owner and CEO of Coca-Cola; Ellen DeGeneres, comedian and actress; Michael Dell, founder of Dell, Inc.; Walt Disney, Disney Corporation founder; Bill Gates, Microsoft founder; Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple; Wolfgang Puck, chef and restaurateur; Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple; and Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. [43][44]