--- title: Most Americans Say College Is No Longer Worth the Cost description: Is college worth it? In a new survey, most Americans say they no longer believe the cost of college pays off due to higher-paying jobs. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy has eight years of experience in personal finance journalism. At Money, he’s written extensively about student loans, including guides, explainers and breaking news. MuckRack named Adam one of the top 10 journalists covering student loans in the nation. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-03-31T17:42:05.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T14:40:47.000Z' section: Education tags: - College - News word_count: 552 canonical: https://money.com/college-costs-no-longer-worth-it-survey/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Man studying at school library](https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-College-not-worth-1.jpg) A college degree, long lauded as a crucial rung on the ladder to the American Dream, is no longer worth it for most Americans, according to a new survey. The steep [cost of attendance](https://money.com/estimate-college-prices-tools/) and dwindling faith in a secure job for grads are to blame for the plunging confidence in four-year degrees. ## What the research says According to a [survey](https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-are-losing-faith-in-college-education-wsj-norc-poll-finds-3a836ce1) conducted by *The Wall Street Journal* and the [University of Chicago](https://money.com/best-colleges/profile/university-of-chicago/), faith in a four-year college degree has plummeted starkly in recent years. - The survey found that 56% of Americans no longer believe a four-year college degree is worth it. - Specifically, respondents were asked to choose one of two statements: A four-year college education is “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more income over their lifetime” or “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.” - Of those who responded to that question, 56% chose the latter statement saying college is not worth the cost, while 42% said college is worth it. - Young Americans aged 18 to 34 are particularly skeptical of a four-year college education, with more than 60% saying that the degree isn’t worth the cost. This is the third time the *Journal* surveyed Americans on that question — once in 2013, again in 2017 and now in 2023. The latest survey, which polled more than 1,000 people from March 1-13, reflects the first time a majority of respondents told the *Journal* that college isn’t worth the money. - In 2013, 40% said college wasn’t worth the cost, and that number jumped to 47% in 2017. The latest results mark a 9 percent point increase in the share of folks who say they don’t believe a four-year degree is worth it. ## Key context The *Journal*’s surveys underscore a trend in growing disenchantment with the [value of a college education](https://money.com/college-roi-low-income-students-report/). As [college costs continue to rise](https://money.com/colleges-increase-tuition-inflation/), that disenchantment appears to deepen. According to the latest [data](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_330.10.asp) from the Education Department, which is for the academic year of 2020-2021, the average cost of tuition, room and board at a four-year institution was about $29,000, an inflation-adjusted cost increase of more than 11% compared to a decade prior. Over the years, Gallup has similarly tapped Americans’ perceptions of a college education. When [the firm asked](https://www.gallup.com/education/272228/half-consider-college-education-important.aspx) about the importance of a college education in 2013, 70% of respondents said it was “very important.” When asked again in 2019, only 51% of respondents said the same. More recently in 2021, the [American Association of Colleges and Universities](https://www.aacu.org/research/is-a-college-degree-worth-it-despite-the-time-and-the-money-involved) found that 60% of adults said that a college degree is either “probably” or “definitely” worth the time and money. However, in that same survey, an overwhelming majority of employers, 87%, said a degree is worth it. And employers are the ones ultimately determining the financial worth of a college education — in the form of [higher paying jobs](https://money.com/highest-paying-jobs-in-technology/). A study from the New York Federal Reserve last year found that [recent college grads earned $22,000 more](https://money.com/wage-gap-college-high-school-grads/) annually than their counterparts with only a high school diploma. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/college-costs-no-longer-worth-it-survey/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "College", "item": "https://money.com/college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Most Americans Say College Is No Longer Worth the Cost" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/college-costs-no-longer-worth-it-survey/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/college-costs-no-longer-worth-it-survey/", "name": "Most Americans Say College Is No Longer Worth the Cost", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-03-31T17:42:05.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/college-costs-no-longer-worth-it-survey/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/college-costs-no-longer-worth-it-survey/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T14:40:47.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Most Americans Say College Is No Longer Worth the Cost", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-College-not-worth-1.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-College-not-worth" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy has eight years of experience in personal finance journalism. 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