More than half of Americans don’t believe a college degree is worth the cost, according to a new Wall Street Journal-University of Chicago NORC poll.
The poll found that 56% of all Americans viewed getting a college degree as a bad investment, while only 42% of Americans see a degree as worth it.
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The highest skepticism of the group that was surveyed came from young adults in the 18 to 34 age range.
“Women and older Americans are driving the decline in confidence. People over the age of 65 with faith in college declined to 44% from 56% in 2017. Confidence among women fell to 44% from 54%,” the poll said.
However, Democratic voters with college degree “earning more than $100,000 a year” are the only groups which valued their higher education degree.
The confidence in college degrees has been on a steady decline. In 2013, 53% of Americans were supportive of the degrees while 40% weren’t. In 2017, the support narrowed to only 49% in support and 47% who didn’t.
The Wall Street Journal noted that their poll found that many of the surveyed felt a degree was “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.”
Student loan debt has reached $1.7 trillion, and now the graduation rate at four-year colleges is down to 60%.
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“Enrollment in U.S. colleges declined by about 15% over the last decade while the growth in alternative credentials, including apprenticeships, increased sharply,” the Wall Street Journal reported about their study.
The pandemic and 2008 recession made it hard for college graduates to actively find jobs in their field of study, adding to the skepticism of the degree’s usefulness.
