[ CYPHER CODE #1204 ]
The college degree used to be a ticket to the middle class. Now it’s often just a very expensive entry fee.

[ CYPHER CODE #1205 ]
When everyone has a degree, the degree stops being special.

[ CYPHER CODE #1206 ]
Student debt changed the game.

BRIEFING

Grant here. For decades, the message has been beaten into every young person's head: go to college, get a degree, and your future will take care of itself. It was basically treated like a law of nature... a guarantee. Parents repeated it, teachers reinforced it, and the broader culture treated the college diploma as the safest path to success. But the latest data is in, and a growing number of young Americans are starting to really question the old doctrine. Let’s break it down.

A recent survey from Indeed highlighted a pretty striking generational shift in how younger workers are having some major regrets when it comes to those pricy degrees. According to the data, more than half of Gen Z respondents say their college degree was a complete waste of money. However, just to add further contrast, the level of regret and skepticism drops big time among older generations, where fewer workers still prize their college education.

SOURCE

While only 20% of Baby Boomers consider their degrees a waste of money, that number increases by about 10% with each generation, jumping to 51% for Generation Z respondents.

Why such a dramatic difference? For decades, getting a degree meant substantially higher wages. From 1980 through about 2010, the gap between college and high school graduates’ earnings grew significantly, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. But recently, what economists have termed the "college wage premium" has plateaued.

At the same time, college has become dramatically more expensive. U.S. News reports that tuition and fees across all universities in the United States over the past two decades have jumped between 32% and 45%—public, private, in-state and out-of-state—even after accounting for inflation. 

For many, this financial burden follows graduates long after they receive their diplomas. Over half (52%) of our respondents reported graduating with student debt. Millennials were hit particularly hard, with 58% of those surveyed carrying education loans into their careers.

The consequences extend beyond monthly payments. Nearly four in ten respondents (38%) believe their student debt hindered their professional growth more than their degree helped, a devastating assessment of what was supposed to be a stepping stone to success. Unsurprisingly, respondents with student debt (41%) are more likely to think that their degree was a waste of money than those without debt (31%).

Part of the problem in the equation regarding the value of college degrees may be simple math: more people have degrees now. As sociologist Jonathan Horowitz explains in his research on the relative advantage of degrees, "When college degrees are more common, there may not be enough highly-skilled jobs to go around; some college-educated workers lose out to others and are pushed into less-skilled jobs.

"The combination of stagnating wage benefits, skyrocketing costs, degree saturation and debt may explain why younger generations increasingly question whether college is worth it. 

Then, to add more frustration to Gen Z's plate, there's the growing realization that for most jobs, a college degree isn't even useful. They spend thousands of dollars, time, and resources at a university only to enter the workforce completely unprepared. Or the tasks are so mundane that basically any high school grad off the street could handle them with zero problem.

At the same time, while most college graduates acknowledge learning valuable skills during their education, an increasing majority believe they could perform their current roles without their degrees—in fact, 68% of Gen Z respondents confirmed that they believe they could do their job without a degree, versus 64% of Millennials, 55% of Generation X and 49% of Baby Boomers. 

Hiring Lab’s research suggests that a majority of employers might be on the same page—as of January 2024, 52% of job postings on Indeed no longer include formal education requirements, up from 49% in 2019. This suggests that employers may increasingly view high school and college graduates as more interchangeable than they once were. 

Despite this growing tacit agreement between employers and job seekers on the necessity of degree requirements, two-thirds (67%) of respondents in our survey would be bothered if they found out their colleagues obtained the same or a similar role without a degree. 

The resulting cognitive dissonance reflects the frustration many degree holders may experience after investing substantial time and financial resources into credentials only to discover the competitive advantage they expected from their educational investment has significantly diminished in practice.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, college graduates are entering a job market where conditions have deteriorated considerably for college graduates, further reducing the wage advantage that made college such a clear economic choice for previous generations.

DEBRIEFING

So looking at these surveys and the shifting standards in the workforce, the growing regret around college degrees is clearly less of a passing frustration and more of a complete deterioration of the promise that a degree was the "golden ticket" in life.

For eons now, the college diploma has acted as a powerful chess piece in the job market. Employers treated it as proof of discipline, intelligence, and specialized knowledge, and those efforts were often rewarded with higher wages and better career paths.

But now? That's not the world we're living in.

Universities dramatically expanded enrollment, including programs like H1-B, which means that degrees became far more common, and it created far more competition. Then, at the same time, tuition prices surged, and student debt skyrocketed.

So it's easy to understand the frustration many younger workers are feeling now. They followed the instructions they were given, they happily took on piles of debt, spent years earning the credentials, and then stepped into a labor market where the degree didn't mean diddly-squat.

Of course, for some professions, college is still viable. Heck, it's even required. Fields of work like medicine, finance, or law still require a formal degree. But nowadays, so many things can be learned online, through trade schools, or even just through sheer grit and determination.

NOW YOU KNOW

Higher education is changing, and it may soon be a thing of the past.