Pew Research: 47% Say College Isn’t Worth Taking on Debt, 29% Say Not Worth Cost at All

Forty-seven percent of Americans don’t believe that college is worth taking out loans for, as attendance declines amid increasing tuition costs, chaotic campus protests, and an unprecedented job market.

As more people find career success without bachelor’s degrees and the student debt crisis surpasses $1.6 trillion in federal loans, many have begun to question whether the exorbitant fees to go to college are worth it.

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Of a pool of U.S. adults surveyed in late 2023 by Pew Research Center, 47 percent said that college is worth it — only without taking out loans — and 29 percent said it’s not worth the cost at all. Only 22 percent of respondents said the cost of getting a four-year degree is worth it even if one must take out loans.

Even among those with four-year college degrees, only about a third say that higher education is worth the cost even if one has to take on debt.

The share of non-college-graduates living in poverty has significantly dropped over the last decade, with research showing that 12 percent of young men with high school diplomas were below the poverty line in 2023, down from a peak of 17 percent in 2011. Young women saw a similar decrease, from 31 percent in 2014 to 21 percent by 2021.

Perspectives on college often differ on partisan lines, with 50 percent of Republicans saying it’s not too or not at all important to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job, compared to 30 percent of Democrats.

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When asked if a college degree is less important now than it was 20 years ago, 57 percent of Republican respondents agreed, compared to 43 percent of Democrat respondents.

In terms of getting a well-paying job, 42 percent of Republicans said it is “extremely or very likely” for non-graduates, while just 26 percent of Democrats said the same. 

College attendance has already been on a “steady incline, led by women,” according to MarketWatch. 

With the Biden administration quietly gutting a little-known regulation that protects U.S. graduates from the fly-in migrants who use temporary visas to obtain jobs, American degree-holders are losing out on careers.