In what is sure to be shocking news, college students feel differently about major issues than their parents did. The topic of the hour is college itself. According to many young people, the herculean four-year undertaking is no longer worth the trouble.
That’s from the point of view of Phillip Cohen, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland—College Park. The overarching attitude of today’s college students, Cohen tells Fortune in an interview, is that getting a college degree is no longer a ticket to a secure future, even if they themselves chose to enroll.
The parents of today’s college students often told them going to college would provide a path to job security, which would eventually blossom into a fruitful career. That comes with the generational benchmarks of home ownership, a vacation fund, and even the ability to provide for a family, and the next generation’s education, too. That’s what the American Dream purported to offer, at least, until Gen Z came along and upended it.
“Historically, we were told, ‘For 20 years you learn, for 30 years you lead, and maybe for 20 years, if you’re lucky, if you live this false American dream, then you get to live,’” Ziad Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Gen Z-focused consulting firm JUV Consulting, said at Fortune’s Impact Initiative conference last week. “Gen Z is taking the microphone back and saying, ‘Hell no. I want to learn, I want to lead, and I want to live simultaneously. And you’ll be damned if you tell me otherwise.’”
The idea of college ensuring success has eroded, Cohen tells Fortune. “To be sure, pursuing education and a career is still a safer bet for your future,” he says, noting that job outcomes and salary baselines are significantly improved with each advanced degree. But those material benefits are “just not a guarantee anymore.”
But while Cohen’s students expressed their disappointment and anxiety, college isn’t quite going out of style just yet. In a national Harris Poll survey of 2023 graduates, 90% said they’re glad they went to college and said they still believe a degree is their best shot at a strong future. Then again, more than half of adults—with the benefit of hindsight—told the Wall Street Journal in a survey last year that the economic benefits (or earning potential) of getting a bachelor’s degree doesn’t outweigh the cost. That’s a 40% jump from those who said the same in 2013.
The shift in attitude may partly be because college graduates have been desperately trying to pay off their hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans for years or even decades. Indeed, college—whether or not it’s “necessary” on principle—has become an exorbitant expense that about half of the country incurs—to the point where the cost isn’t worth it for some. But college students may also be seeing that employers are more and more focused on what workers can actually do in a given role. In many major industries, skills are becoming more valuable than pedigree—and anyone can learn.