College is a less practical decision than it used to be, and those who choose to abstain from higher education may be making the right choice.
One reason is because of the rising price of higher education. As of March, the average student debt loan was $38,375 per person, not even including private loan debt. In terms of the whole country, students owe $1.693 trillion to the federal government, with 42.7 million borrowers.
Additionally, college tuition has risen at a faster rate than wages have. Between the 1999-2000 year and the 2019-20 year, average college tuition showed an increase of 84 percent. At the University of Iowa, the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state’s public universities approved a tuition increase of 3 percent for the 2024-25 academic year. Meanwhile, average, nationwide household income increased by 15.7 percent.
Despite this, many people go to college to avoid being in difficult financial situations. The chance of living in poverty with only a high school degree is 13.1 percent, compared to only 4 percent with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
But there are alternative paths to college that are definitely becoming more popular, like apprenticeships and going into the trades. In fact, many of these options might even pay more than an entry-level, post-college position, and anyone in those positions doesn’t have to worry about all their student debt. People who don’t go to college are also able to be successful in areas outside of just trades.
Oliver Weilein just won a seat on the Iowa City City Council, defeating property developer Ross Nusser — a definite sign of success. Weilein didn’t attend college and instead gained his knowledge through travel and experience, defying the rhetoric of higher education being a one-way path to a successful life.
Jack Fassbender, a high school junior in Madison, Wisconsin, is committed to his decision to take a less conventional path when he graduates high school. Although he faced some backlash from friends and family, Fassbender decided college wasn’t the path he was meant to take.
“I saw that there was not a necessity to go to college to be successful,” Fassbender said.
When it comes to his decision, it may have been a harder one to make living in Madison. There is more pressure to go to college for those who live there; it’s a progressive and highly educated area, especially considering it’s home to UW-Madison. Higher education is seen there as a civic duty and a necessity.
However, in Iowa, there’s less pressure — Iowa is an incredibly rural area, and oftentimes, many people who graduate from high school don’t pursue higher education due to their abilities to get jobs in agriculture.
With Fassbender, another factor came into play: his return on investment, or ROI. The Education Data Initiative found that, in the first decade after graduating college, graduates have a negative ROI, meaning it takes roughly 11 years in the workforce to regain their investment for obtaining a bachelor’s degree.
Fassbender said his decision to forgo the conventional path is because what he wants to do — become a firefighter — doesn’t require a specific degree that costs thousands of dollars and might leave him unqualified in the end, anyway.
But aside from the debt that might be owed, many believe college is more than just tuition. It’s often something that is sold as being a transformative life experience. However, this isn’t a universal perception, especially when you factor in the academic component.
Caroline Kruk, a nursing student at the UI College of Nursing, said she often feels like her academics restrict her ability to have the college experience she wanted.
“There are times when I have exams coming up, and I need to cancel plans with friends, so I can study. Other times, I choose not to hang out with friends due to stress from assignments building up,” Kruk said.
It’s also important to note the societal pressure many high schoolers face to go to college. As I previously suggested, the area someone grows up in has a great effect on what they choose to do when they graduate from high school.
Jake Kapel, a third-year student at the UI, said growing up in Wheaton, Illinois, he felt college was his only option.
“It was the direction my parents wanted me to take. You don’t really see kids from the area I grew up [in] not going to college,” Kapel said.
Like Kapel, many students think their only option is college; all they’ve ever known is academics, and high school counselors and courses work solely to prepare students for college life.
I’m not saying college is inherently bad or that you should avoid it at all costs. But it isn’t a one-size-fits-all experience — and for many people, it’s the last thing they see themselves wanting to do.
Society needs to stop pushing college as the only option, and we need to redefine what it means to be successful before more people lose time and money to something that may not be worth it.