NEWSLETTER
ST. PAUL, Minn. — At the end of each school year at Central High School, seniors grab a marker and write their post-graduation plans on a glass wall outside the guidance office.
For many, that means announcing which college they've enrolled in. But the goal is to celebrate whatever path students choose, whether it's college or not.
“We have some people going to trade school, we have some people going to the military, some people who wrote ‘I’m still deciding,’” said Lisa Beckham, a counseling center staff member, as she helped hand out markers in May as the school year was coming to a close. Others, she said, are headed straight to a job.
Speaking to students as they signed, it was clear that one factor played a disproportionate role in their choice: the high cost of college.
“I’m thinking about going to college in California, and my grandparents went there for a hundred dollars a semester and got pretty low-paying jobs, but they didn’t spend years in debt because it was easy to go to college,” said Maya Shapiro, a junior who was there watching seniors write their plans. “So now I think it’s only worth going to college if you’re going to get a job that will allow you to pay for college tuition, so if you’re going to work in English or history you might not find a job that will allow you to pay for that.”
When I told him I had studied English during my college years, he quickly said, “I'm sorry.”
Even students attending some of the most well-known universities are conscious of the cost.
Harlow Tong, who was recruited by Harvard University to run track, said he had planned to go to the University of Minnesota and is still processing his decision to join the Ivy League.
“After the decision, I really realized that it is an investment and every year I feel like it is less and less worth it,” she said.
A new book exposes the shifting forces shaping what students choose after high school and argues for a shift in the popular narrative around higher education.
The book is called “amazon.com/Rethinking-College-Thriving-Without-Degree-ebook/dp/B0CC8NJZC4″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>Rethinking the university,” by veteran Los Angeles Times journalist and opinion columnist Karin Klein. She calls for an end to “degree inflation,” where jobs require a college degree even if someone without a degree could do the job just as well. And she advocates for more high school graduates to take gap years to figure out what they want to do before enrolling in college, or to seek internships in fields that may not require college.
But he admits the issue is complicated. He said one of his daughters, now 26, would have benefited from a gap year. “The problem was that cost was a big factor,” Klein told me. “She was offered a lot of financial aid from a very good school, and I said, ‘We don’t know if if she takes a gap year that offer will be on the table. And I can’t afford this school without that offer.’”
Hear more from Klein, including about the programs she sees as models for new graduate options, as well as from Central High School students, on this week's EdSurge podcast. Watch it on Spotify, Apple Podcastsor in the player below. It's the latest episode in our Doubting College podcast series.
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