Is College Worth It? How COVID Changed Everything (Part 1)
“Students and their families are left wondering what is most important to them and is college really worth the investment anymore”
Growing up, college was a dream instilled in me from a young age. Growing up with parents who immigrated from Brazil, they saw education as a ticket to success. I’ll admit, I never loved school that much but with the help of a few mentors and two degrees later, I’m thankful my parents pushed me. However, as an educator, I see our educational landscape in the US and wonder if we’re headed in the right direction.
Higher educational institutions were forced to switch to remote learning and take additional safety precautions for their faculty, staff, and students once COVID-19 affected our world. Students who were forced to pay full tuition rates questioned their education and wondered if it still held the same value. Student loans were put on freeze with many wondering if the new administration would offer loan forgiveness.
Fast forward a year and a half later, after the vaccine was made available to the public, most institutions went back to “normal” despite criticism from the public. Many students and families are still left wondering if college is the best economical decision for them. They are questioning if the knowledge students learn is worth the price tag. Online certifications and bootcamps ensure certification for half the price. Not to mention, Gen Z students in high school are considering different career paths. Lastly, public opinion about colleges have seemingly become negative over the past decade, particularly around Operation Varsity Blues. The college admissions scandal across the country shined a light into the still present elitist system and was highlighted in the Netflix documentary by the same name.
In the article Pulling the Plug on Philosophy, Moody describes how university administrators are scrambling to balance budgets and department cuts (particularly Humanities majors) due to increasing under-enrollment rates, or potentially face closure. COVID has changed (and some say accelerated) the current outcome in the educational landscape. The question is, are we headed in the right direction?
What’s the Purpose of College?
Looking at the American history of higher education, students had a lot of power steering their education. It wasn’t until the 1820’s-1850’s, during the classical denominational college period that colleges relaxed their discipline and students gave up power (Bastedo, Altbach, Gumport, 2016). Fast forward to the 1970’s, and there was a debate between traditionalists and progressives.
Traditionalists believed students learned best when given a lot of structure, performance standards, and rote memorization. Progressives argued that students need time and freedom to pursue academic and personal interests. While progressives had some early success, traditionalists ultimately won and much of our educational structure has remained the same.
For some, college is the promise of a career for a stable life (like my parents believed). For others, it’s “just what you do” and you have the typical college experience. Educators argue it’s about developing critical thinking and career oriented skills. Well, what do you think? Throughout the history of higher education, there has never been a clear agreement about its purpose. These questions have been exacerbated due to COVID. Students and their families are left wondering what is most important to them and is college really worth the investment anymore.
Have College Costs Become Too Much?
It seems that one of the main topics circulating around higher education is student debt. Institutions have invested their money in nicer dorms, massive stadiums, and other amenities to attract students. These decisions, in addition to others, have caused the price of admission to skyrocket in the past 40 years. Let’s take a look at the average cost of attending college today:
Retrieved from Average Cost of College & Tuition
For most students attending a 4-year in-state institution, it will cost an average of $25,856 per year (not including financial aid, grants or scholarships). A private 4-year nonprofit institution is about $54,000 per year (not including financial aid, grants or scholarships). These prices are not only increasing dramatically every year, they don’t seem to be slowing down.
Retrieved from Average Cost of College & Tuition
The rising cost to obtain an education resulted in students pulling out student loans causing a crisis in our country. This is a crisis our nation needs to pay attention to before it’s too late and the repercussions ripple through society. In the past 17 years, between 2003–2020, the national student loan debt has increased by 1.37 trillion dollars for a total of 1.7 trillion.
Retrieved from Student Loan Debt Statistics
Here are some concerning statistics regarding student loans:
- 43.2 million student borrowers are in debt by an average of $39,351 each
- Approximately 42.9 million Americans with federal student loan debt each owe an average $37,105 for their federal loans
- The average public university student borrows $30,030 to attain a bachelor’s degree
Here are some statistics that have affected student loan debt during COVID:
- In May of 2020, 9% of borrowers who attended public institutions were behind on their student loan payments.
- By July, 11.2% of adults with student loan debt reported they were unable to make at least one student loan payment that year-to-date.
- In early 2020, 75.3% of private student loans were in repayment while 20% were in deferment.
If these statistics sound alarming, it’s because they are. Student loan debt has particularly affected millennials which results in beginning families and buying a home later in life. How can educators and families expect the upcoming generation to want higher education when 4 years may cost them the next 15. With technology creating new opportunities, Gen Z could shake the educational landscape.
How Does Gen Z View College?
“While celebrities continue to exist, what classifies as one is changing and Gen Z have shown more allegiance with their time and money to individuals they feel connected to online.”
In regards to how a generation views higher education, Gen Z is in an interesting category. Some of them are currently in college while many are still attending K-12. This is a generation who has grown up with technology and seen its advances in culture. YouTuber’s have become the new celebrities, influencers have transformed social media, while Twitch has opened up the pathway for successful gaming careers. While celebrities continue to exist, what classifies as one is changing and Gen Z have shown more allegiance with their time and money to individuals they feel connected to online. With streamers and influencers providing a new career path, where does college fit into this?
Gen Z has also brought many social problems to the forefront and colleges have had to adapt. Gen Z is passionate about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work as well as mental health topics. If institutions do not have a history of caring about these topics, there is a likely chance they will prefer to go somewhere else. Unfortunately, many colleges and universities were built on elitist foundations and only until recently, especially since the George Floyd protests, have they taken vocal stances on these issues.
On a personal note, I have two family members who currently are in high school and have mixed feelings about college. They have seen older siblings obtain an undergraduate degree but don’t feel like they necessarily need to. One family member doesn’t quite know what the future holds and doesn’t believe college can provide the answer. He has stated he might potentially take a few community college courses in the meantime. The second family member has ambitions of pursuing a gaming streamer career.
This sentiment is felt throughout much of their generation. While we cannot exactly predict how Gen Z might shift education, COVID is playing a big role in creating change and its effects will be felt decades from now.
The Effects of COVID Are Here To Stay
In 2020, COVID forced people to stop and think about their careers and lifestyles, educators included. Many were unsatisfied with their lives and decided to make a change, pushing forward the “Great Resignation”. Pressured with financial constraints due to COVID and colleges closing down (particularly small, liberal arts colleges), institutions have seen educators quit and pursue different, but related, career paths like in tech ed companies. While many factors contribute to educators leaving an institution, I believe the biggest one relates to lifestyle.
For my fellow educators and readers, how many of us really believed remote learning and work could actually work before COVID? While some universities like Southern New Hampshire University already were taking an initiative towards this direction, most educators felt like it only benefited a small population of learners (particularly non-traditional students). Now, online learning is becoming the norm and staff and faculty have advocated for remote and hybrid positions.
Working remotely gave educators a chance to step outside of traditional roles and analyze what could be changed. While many faculty and staff members love our students and working with colleagues in person, having time at home is a way to recharge our mental health and in turn, increase productivity. While some schools have offered trial periods to test out a hybrid approach, most institutions went back to “normal” (while adhering to COVID safety protocols). This left many faculty and staff frustrated believing that the trial run was the 2020–2021 academic year. Luckily, there are some institutions making radical changes to ensure employee satisfaction, like D’Youvile College’s 4-day, 32-hour workweek idea. The tension between the need to go back to “normal” and the push for integrating technology and remote learning/work continues building as we determine the future of higher education.
Where do we go from here? We’ll take a look at potential outlooks for the educational landscape in the next decade. Stay tuned for part two coming soon.
Sincerely Yours,
A Curious Educator
