Americans are rightly waking up — much of higher education is now a scam
November 30, 2025
More Americans are wising up to the fact that higher education has become a raw deal for all too many young people.
A new NBC News poll finds that a full 63% of voters believe a four-year college degree now isn’t worth it, since many students graduate with “a large amount of debt” but no “specific job skills.”
That’s up markedly from 2013, when a majority took the opposite view, as 53% called a degree “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime.”
That was the case for generations of Americans, who saw college as a key step to higher-paying jobs and a better life: “Upwardly mobile” was almost entirely synonymous with “college-educated.”
But over the last few decades, the dynamic has shifted: Far too many college degrees guarantee nothing … except onerous debt.
