When I was in high school 15 years ago, the chatter was all about working toward a four-year college degree. That was what we were all supposed to aim for. These days, Americans don’t share that same perspective. In fact, a recent poll by NBC News showed that two-thirds of registered voters are down on their thoughts about four-year degrees being worthwhile. You can all gasp and pretend to be shocked now.
How Are Americans Feeling According to the Poll?
NBC’s poll uncovered that only 33% of registered voters agreed with the notion that a four-year degree is “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime,” while 63% veered more toward the idea that those degrees are “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.”
The only real surprise here is that this isn’t just one cranky demographic skewing the results. Every group — degree-holders, non-degree-holders, Republicans, Democrats, younger voters, older voters — shifted in the same direction. (Did we finally find a common ground?!) Even people with college degrees are now side-eyeing the price tag. Less than half of degree-holders believe their own diploma was worth it. Yikes, guys.
Why Is Such a Dramatic Shift Happening?
The cost of college is the clearest culprit. Tuition has doubled at public universities since the mid-90s and climbed 75% at private colleges, and that’s after adjusting for inflation. People aren’t making up the struggle. Wages haven’t kept pace, and the jobs many graduates land aren’t matching the debt they took on to get them. Perhaps if you just take your entire annual salary and apply it to your tuition bill, and find a way to get someone else to pay all your other bills, that seems feasible. (Not likely, right?).
At the same time, the job market keeps changing faster than the curriculum. When a degree costs as much as a luxury SUV but doesn’t guarantee you can keep up with a world run by AI and automation, people understandably start to reconsider the whole plan.
What’s the Latest, Greatest ‘Valuable’ Thing for Professionals?
People aren’t giving up on learning, they’re just choosing different paths. Trade schools, technical programs, and apprenticeships are booming. Community colleges are seeing renewed interest because they offer practical, job-ready training without the financial blowback of a four-year school. Certificates in fields like IT, healthcare, HVAC, welding, plumbing, and data analytics are becoming the new golden tickets, partly because they slot people directly into jobs that actually exist (and can’t be done by AI).
Even employers are changing. Major companies have quietly dropped degree requirements for huge swaths of roles, opting to judge candidates on skills instead of diplomas. Google, IBM, Walmart, GM, and even some federal agencies have shifted toward “skills-first hiring.” And honestly, workers are following the incentives. If you can earn $80K as an electrician, dental hygienist, or cloud support specialist without hemorrhaging $100K in student loans, why wouldn’t you?
In a country where everything feels expensive — rent, groceries, the privilege of breathing near a Starbucks — people want a path that doesn’t bury them in debt before their life even starts. For a growing number of Americans, that path no longer looks like a four-year college.
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