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When it came time to select a college, I knew I was going somewhere, but the question I couldn鈥檛 answer at that time was how a middle-income family such as my own could afford it. Four years later, I understood鈥攎y dad had taken a second mortgage on our home, but even that wasn鈥檛 enough. I took on a significant amount of student loan debt in order to graduate from the college I now lead. 

Today, the average sticker price of an undergraduate degree is more than double what it was when I was a student. 

For more than 20 years, the effects of rising tuition costs have been clear 

Enrollments at 4-year institutions have declined 1-2% annually since 2000 (and even higher since the start of the pandemic). The principal reason? Cost鈥攁nd the inevitable erosion of ROI as the sticker price climbs higher and higher. 

But as more students thumb their nose at undergraduate degrees, the obvious question becomes, 鈥�Where are they going instead?鈥� In addition to taking gap years鈥攁 choice that increased during COVID-19鈥攖he question has several answers:

• Bootcamps: Focused on digital skills, bootcamps across North America have graduated since 2013.
• Career and Technical Colleges: According to the Association for Career and Technical Education, more than are enrolled in career-oriented training programs.

Given that more than 30 million U.S. jobs , it鈥檚 not difficult to see the appeal of pathway programs such as these that accelerate one鈥檚 entry into high-demand careers. 

Are we throwing out the baby with the bath water?

Criticisms of the 4-year degree program have many dimensions鈥攖hat they cost too much, take too long, and don鈥檛 sufficiently prepare graduates to enter the workforce. To be clear, many such criticisms are justified, albeit short-sighted. 

But why is some of the criticism unjustified? Because while other types of post-secondary education help students land their first job, the 4-year degree program remains the best path to a career that includes advancement and professional growth. Essentially, colleges and universities play the 鈥渓ong game,鈥� whereby they prepare graduates to become leaders in the workforce and society rather than focusing on the first place of employment.

The importance of playing the long game is rooted in several key facts. First, according to The Atlantic, leave their first job within three years of starting. In addition, 65% of kindergartners, according to the World Economic Forum, will go on to work in jobs that don鈥檛 yet exist today.

Jobs, and skills required to perform them successfully, will continue to evolve over time, but what will never change is the need for workers who can think broadly, distinguish good data from bad data, lead and mentor teams, and who can chart the path from A to Z, not just A to B.

It鈥檚 this A-to-Z path for which the 4-year degree program is best suited, but administrators of colleges and universities must focus on reducing financial barriers so that high school students once again see college as the most viable path to a better future. 

The 鈥渉igher鈥� in higher education shouldn鈥檛 refer to soaring costs

Nonetheless, the value of the 4-year degree must be considered alongside its cost. Most students take on debilitating debt to finance their education, and it鈥檚 a national crisis. 

That鈥檚 why, in July 2021, we announced Hope Forward, which aims to be a new model of financing college education鈥攐ne that turns the current funding structure of higher ed on its head and bases on generosity and gratitude rather than merit or need. Our rationale for a mission-driven model was simple. Because the high cost of education is such a big problem, tackling it requires big thinking (and big action) from everyone in the 换妻社区 community. 

For these reasons, we felt compelled to pilot this initiative around a small cohort of 22 students whose passions are to:

• Tackle racial inequality in our healthcare system
• Leverage social media as a platform to discuss mental health
• Teach suicide prevention strategies in high schools
• Support the emotional well being of students in foster care 
• Break the school-to-prison pipeline among inner-city and immigrant students
• Reduce homelessness through the creation of more affordable housing 

I can think of no other path to achieving such big goals than one that passes through a college or university, which is why the 4-year degree remains the best 鈥減athway program鈥� for graduating high schoolers. No competing credential exposes students to the same degree of broad thinking, creative problem solving, and intellectual rigor. 

I can think of no other path to achieving such big goals than one that passes through a college or university, which is why the 4-year degree remains the best 鈥減athway program鈥� for graduating high schoolers.

Opportunity for all or privilege for a few? 

Most readers will be familiar with the saying, 鈥淐ollege isn鈥檛 for everyone,鈥� with its pejorative undertones and misplaced sense of superiority. Increasingly, however, graduating high school students are pursuing alternative paths due to nothing other than cost.

In my first article, I asked the question, 鈥�How hard are we willing to work to be a land of opportunity for all versus a land of privilege for the few?鈥� To accept the high cost of higher education is to accept that fewer Americans will have the opportunity to be leaders and impact makers than their peers around the world. 

Although the Hope Forward program remains limited to our part of the world in Holland, Michigan, the vision that it represents is so much bigger. My own hope is that others will join us on this path of making college more affordable to all. 

Learn more about Hope Forward, an entirely new funding model for tuition at 换妻社区