Is College Really Right for Everyone?

Recent decades have brought public agreement that higher education is, if not a cure for, then at least protection against underemployment and the inequality it engenders. This attitude is typified by growing enrollment. Over a third of American adults now hold at least a bachelor’s degree, and many have paid the price: Americans currently owe $1.56 trillion in student loans, more than two and a half times what they owed a decade earlier. Young people and their families tolerate debilitating debt because they’re taught that the key to job security is a college degree. In reality, however, this is not always the case. Since 2000, growth in the wage gap between high school and college graduates has slowed to a halt: 25 percent of college graduates now earn no more than the average high school graduate. 

A study conducted by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research finds that the greatest determinant of income is not a bachelor’s degree, but childhood economic status. On average, college graduates born into poverty earn only slightly more than high school graduates who grew up middle class. Over time, even this minimal advantage dwindles: by middle age, male college graduates raised in poverty earn less than high school graduates born into the middle class. The study concludes that “Individuals from poorer backgrounds may be encountering a glass ceiling that even a bachelor’s degree does not break.”

A college degree is not the answer for everyone — nor should it be. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 20 percent of American jobs actually require a bachelor’s degree. There’s an indisputable oversupply of graduates, as high schoolers are encouraged to attend college by everyone from teachers to politicians. Technology has increased the demand for educated workers, but the growth of that demand has been consistently outpaced by the growth in the number of college graduates prepared to meet it. Instead of teaching young people that a college degree is an economic imperative that they must strive to attain, we should be steering them toward a far more pragmatic track: vocational education.  

University for university’s sake is a pointless endeavor. Not everyone is suited for a traditional liberal arts education. Many students excel in an active setting, like a studio or workshop. In an economy as dynamic as ours, we should embolden these interests, not squash them. The manufacturing sector is expanding and modernizing, producing a plethora of challenging, lucrative, highly skilled jobs for those with the skills to do them. The demise of vocational training in high school curricula has brought about a skills shortage in manufacturing, and with it, a wealth of career opportunities. These manufacturing jobs do not require expensive four-year degrees for which many students are ill-suited. They can be realized through apprenticeships, on-the job training, and vocational programs offered at community colleges. 

No one dreams that their child will grow up to be a plumber or an electrician. Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos are hailed as the ultimate embodiments of the 21st century American Dream. But the reality is that the former are far more essential to this country than the latter. Society can’t function without running water or electricity. If Instagram crashes, we’ll all survive. We must reinvent our social system to value vocational careers in the same way it values the careers of the college-bound. 

I don’t say all this to suggest that college is a terrible thing. I myself have elected to attend a four-year liberal arts school. But I did so because it made sense for my circumstances, my skill set, my interests, and my aspirations. The same is not true for every young person, and we must change what we tell young people and expand their horizons by letting them look at all the opportunities available to them.