The Cost of College: Is It Worth It?
Setup
Americans now owe a staggering $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, according to Forbes. With growing online opportunities catered to self-taught learners and the ever-evolving digital nature of work in the modern world, do we still need to sit in classrooms to get a college education? Are companies and government institutions rethinking the long-standing requirement of a four-year degree for new hires? Or are we overestimating new forms of unconventional education? Leaders of higher ed — from private and public universities and community colleges — weigh in on some of the biggest questions facing American families today.
- 2019 Festival
- Education
Why don’t Americans trust higher ed?
Once held up as a microcosm of American values and aspiration, colleges and universities in the United States are now facing a crisis of public opinion. Trust in institutions of higher education has plummeted in recent decades, says Joshua Wyner, panel moderator executive director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute. What precipitated this erosion? Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, weighs in:
Economics 101: the value of a college degree
The most common line of attack against colleges and universities today is that the value simply doesn’t outweigh the cost. Rising tuition fees and staggering student debt don’t lead to a substantially better life, goes the argument. Angel Cabrera, president of George Mason University, and Juan Salgado, chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, want you to understand that the numbers don’t lie:
This excerpt has been lightly edited for clarity
-
Ángel Cabrera: Questions about cost are real. But questions about value are not even contested by anybody. There’s no one showing any kind of data that it's not necessary to get a college degree. To me, the key question, and what I work on with our community colleges, is actually how to remove barriers so that more people can get a college degree, not fewer.
-
Juan Salgado: Can I just double down on this? This is really important, because at the height of the Great Recession the unemployment rate for people with bachelor’s degrees never went above four percent. So to say that a college degree doesn’t matter is incredibly disingenuous, especially with our students… We can’t afford for that narrative to creep into any part of society, much less the lowest income parts of society.
Yes, some colleges and universities have a hefty price tag. But Salgado and Cabrera say the value of a bachelor’s degree is unequivocal for most.
Breaking the career readiness taboo
Education for education's sake fits in amongst the highest ideals of Western society, but is it an archaic aspiration? With more students graduating with debt and skilled jobs becoming more competitive, are colleges and universities at risk of becoming irrelevant if they don’t prepare their graduates for gainful employment? Angel Cabrera says that’s a false dichotomy:
Are virtual degrees the answer?
Online colleges offer a lot of promise — lower tuition, flexible hours, innovative learning environments. Recent decades have seen college degrees from online programs explode in popularity, especially for non-traditional students.
By the numbers
But do online degrees offer the same outcomes as traditional college degrees, and are they right for everyone? What about the crucial socialization that can happen during undergraduate years? Angel Cabrera and Janet Napolitano give their takes:
Learn More
Additional Information
Explore More
Education
Finding the national and global headlines understandably bleak lately? Whether you need mental distraction or stimulation, engross yourself in compelling topics and get a gli...
Today's kids are coming of age against a backdrop of political, social, technological and economic upheaval. While these circumstances are shaping a precocious generation that...
In “Mindset Matters,” Daniel R. Porterfield advances the argument for the value of undergraduate education and suggests ways to improve education for new generations. Three co...
The Walton Family Foundation’s latest research with Gallup shows that young people need a sense of purpose in school and work to feel happy—and the right adult mentors and gui...
Academia is beset by challenges related to free speech, admission policies, donor pressures and soaring costs. University leaders are simultaneously negotiating these minefiel...
Structural racism, reflected in uneven access to care, inequitable community conditions, and the wealth gap, drives persisting racial disparities in health. Unconscionable dif...
Mental health crises are plaguing Americans. Despite parity mandates that require mental health services to be reimbursed like any other medical service, clinician shortages,...
The Broadway musical “How to Dance in Ohio” is the true story of a group of young people with autism preparing for a formal dance. Based on a documentary of the same name, the...
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Climate next week, we caught up with Dr. Hayhoe to discuss t...
Shakespeare is ubiquitous in literature classes and theater, but the avenues of relating to his work are not always clear to young people and modern audiences. Some, such as S...
When Sal Khan created Khan Academy, he was trying to scale up the successful experiences he’d had tutoring his cousins one-on-one in math. He saw how effective it could be for...
Do American universities have an obligation to educate their students to be the next generation of citizens and civic leaders? What does it mean for a university “to offer stu...
At a moment when decades of academic achievement have been lost, can we amplify the benefits of A.I. equally across society, or will we allow a deeper digital divide to leave...
Digital skills open doors to jobs in tech, media, and across all industries. Connecting diverse students and workers with the education and training needed for the 92% of toda...
As members of the Giving Pledge, Melanie and Richard Lundquist have given more than $400 million over the past decade to critical causes ranging from educational opportunity t...
With students learning in more places and different ways than we have ever seen, the pace of change in education is dizzying. Join our panel of education experts in a discussi...
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. This year, the Supreme Court is once...
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. Debates over the content of our hist...
Why is there resistance to the idea that public funds should be used for art? What does it mean for the stewardship of cultural and educational organizations and the support o...
The desire to try and stop people from reading certain printed material has been around since material was first printed. In the modern era, book banning has waxed and waned i...