Are we sending too many unprepared/underprepared students to college?

Here’s a link to an article from 2019 with a bad headline: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees - CBS News

Maybe that is what you saw? Because the article definitely DOES NOT say that 66% of people with college degrees regret going to college. It says:

Two-thirds of employees report having regrets when it comes to their advanced degrees, according to a PayScale survey of 248,000 respondents this past spring that was released Tuesday.

Student loan debt, which has ballooned to nearly $1.6 trillion nationwide in 2019, was the No. 1 regret among workers with college degrees. About 27% of survey respondents listed student loans as their top misgiving, PayScale said.

College debt was followed by chosen area of study (12%) as a top regret for employees, though this varied greatly by major. Other regrets include poor networking, school choice, too many degrees, time spent completing education and academic underachievement.

This is not the same as regretting going to college at all. A small number of people wish they had majored in something else (88% do not have that regret). This article doesn’t indicate regrets about attending college vs not attending college. A lot of them regret student debt. Most people would rather not go in debt so that’s not surprising.

Here is the link to the survey results: Biggest College Regrets - Compensation Research | PayScale

Note that regretting going to college at all was not one of the options on the survey.

2 Likes