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In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost
(www.nbcnews.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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To be clear, this is an issue with the cost, not with the degrees
The cost is so high because companies require degrees for jobs that don’t need them.
how else am i going to get that perfectly seared and crusted smash burger without 4 years of university experience?
Art majors need jobs too.
It's an issue with cost, but that also extends to the perception of the degree itself. Even a few decades ago I always found American culture to be generally more disdainful towards degrees and degree holders than most of Europe or Asia.
One of the worst things you can be in America is "elitist"; it's a loaded word that describes a fundamentally Un-American attitude. And you can see why - there's plenty of idiots with rich parents and a degree, and a lot of intelligent people with poor parents and no degree. So elitism and intellectual snobbery also imply classism and racism.
In countries with free/cheap tertiary education, it's less controversial to say that people who are qualified to do a thing are likely to be better at that thing, and that getting qualifications is inherently a good thing.
Ah, murika: where its bad to be elitist, but being a racist is just fine
depends on what kind of racist. We're racist about our racism.
the known colleges that produce elitists, tend to be the ivy league ones. and i heard employers will often reject these candidates based on thier attitudes
The degrees are also bad, they are often filler material now.