December 10, 2025
Faith in the American Dream is fading as a new poll shows more Americans believe college isn’t worth the cost.
A new poll reveals declining confidence in college, with two-thirds of registered voters saying a bachelor’s degree isn’t worth the cost.
Only 33% of voters believe a four-year college degree is “worth the cost” for better job prospects and higher lifetime earnings. In comparison, 63% agree it’s “not worth the cost” because graduates often lack specific job skills and face significant debt, according to a new NBC News poll.
In 2017, U.S. adults were nearly evenly divided on whether a college degree was worth the cost, with 49% saying yes and 47% saying no. In 2013, CNBC’s All American Economic Survey found 53% believed a degree was worth it, while 40% disagreed. Today, as the labor market faces challenges from AI growth and trade tensions, confidence in the value of a four-year college degree is declining.
Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who surveyed with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, says the sharp decline reflects a major shift in Americans’ belief that higher education is a pathway to the American dream.
“It’s just remarkable to see attitudes on any issue shift this dramatically, and particularly on a central tenet of the American dream, which is a college degree,” Horwitt said. “Americans used to view a college degree as aspirational — it provided an opportunity for a better life. And now that promise is really in doubt.”
Beyond a softening economy and job market, the high cost of college is a key factor. While tuition has dipped slightly in some areas over the past decade, College Board data shows that, adjusted for inflation, the average in-state tuition at public four-year colleges has doubled since 1995. Tuition at private four-year institutions has risen 75% over the same period.
Jacob Kennedy, a 28-year-old server and bartender in Detroit, said he believes “an educated populace is the most important thing for a country to have,” but carrying massive student debt diminishes the value of a degree. Kennedy, who holds a two-year degree, noted that many people he’s met in the service industry with four-year degrees often quit their “grown-up jobs” within a year to return to the work they had before graduating.
“The cost overwhelms the value,” he said. “You go to school with all that student debt — the jobs you get out of college don’t pay that debt, so you have to go find something else that can pay that debt.”
Jessica Burns, a 38-year-old Iowa insurance worker with a bachelor’s degree, says millennials are “now saddled with a huge amount of debt, even as successful business professionals,” which will likely shape how they fund their children’s college. Gallup polls also show a notable decline in public confidence in higher education over the past decade, with a slight uptick in the past year.
“This is a political problem. It’s also a real problem for higher education,” Horwitt said. “Colleges and universities have lost that connection they’ve had with a large swath of the American people based on affordability. They’re now seen as out of touch and not accessible to many Americans.”
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