Posted on 11/03/2025 8:48:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Jessica Iannacchino landed on Madison Avenue in New York City, but a career in her chosen field just wasn’t in the cards.
The 21-year-old from Poughkeepsie, New York, attended public colleges in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, to complete a bachelor’s in advertising, paying out-of-state tuition and committing to monthly student loan repayments for years to come.
She moved to Manhattan to get her foot in the door somewhere, but none opened.
Iannacchino delivered food to pay the rent and found enjoyable work in acting, appearing in a few small roles. She has several friends who also haven’t secured jobs in their fields, and are saddled with sky-high debt from attending Columbia and New York University.
“We moved here for career opportunities and then found everything was so competitive and the job market wasn’t what we thought it would be,” Iannacchino told The Epoch Times.
“It’s a lot of financial stress, and you don’t know if you’ll get a break.”
A recent Pew Research Center survey underscores Iannacchino’s situation: Seven in 10 adults say America’s higher education system is headed in the wrong direction, up from 56 percent providing that response five years ago. Policy experts, federal lawmakers, and President Donald Trump, all aware of national doubt about whether college is worth the cost, are pushing for more transparency over its return on investment.
“A college degree isn’t what it used to be,” Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, said.
“It’s no longer an automatic ticket to the American Dream and the middle class. It’s been that way for a while now, but public perception is still catching up.”
The Pew survey said 79 percent of the 3,445 respondents indicated that colleges and universities are doing an unsatisfactory job of keeping costs affordable, and more than half rated higher education institutions as fair or poor in preparing students for well-paying jobs in today’s economy.
The College Board’s most recent “Education Pays” report indicates that 39 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 had a bachelor’s degree in 2021, up from 22 percent 40 years prior. It also listed the median income for a four-year degree at $73,300 compared to $44,300 for a high school diploma and $52,100 for an associate’s degree.
However, those figures, commonly cited by high school guidance counselors, are very general and don’t pertain to all programs of study. Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, published research earlier this year that noted that 23 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 43 percent of master’s degrees had a negative return on investment.
“All universities should strive to uphold the educational Hippocratic oath,” Cooper wrote in his April report. “Students should not be worse off financially for having attended college.”
The U.S. Department of Education’s online College Scorecard tool provides median earnings information by degree type, academic major, and institution.
A search of bachelor’s degree programs in sociology, for example, yielded 1,003 colleges and universities that offer the program, but most did not list the median earnings and debt of graduates. One of those that did, Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut reported median earnings at $42,513 after four years in the sociology program and median student loan debt for that program at $34,360, based on responses from 17 graduates.
In 2020, Gillen reported that more than 3,700 U.S. college degree programs failed a “debt-to-income test,” and at least 7,000 programs were at risk of failing.
Given that more than 100 higher education institutions have closed since then, and millions more students are struggling with student debt, a return-on-investment calculator should, ideally, be available for every major and school in the country based on federal income tax data, not just voluntary responses from graduates, he said.
“It opens the door for a better way to think about college,” he told The Epoch Times.
Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, offered to several schools across the country, would provide preferred consideration for federal funding if the institution agrees to several conditions related to admissions and hiring practices, institutional neutrality, and affordability and transparency. One of the stipulations is publicly listing the average graduate income by program and major.
A panel of university professors, during an Oct. 28 Heterodox Academy webinar, indicated support for cost controls, transparency, and accountability as proposed in the compact.
“There is an erosion of academic excellence,” said Anna Krylov, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California. “That’s a big problem we need to address.”
In Congress, the bipartisan College Transparency Act, was reintroduced in the House and the Senate in late July. If enacted, it would task the National Center for Education Statistics with analyzing higher education costs and financial aid, as well as evaluating student enrollment patterns, completion rates, and “post-collegiate outcomes.”
Republican House members, during a recent subcommittee meeting, said that they’re aware of many young constituents in their districts who are burdened with student loan debt and struggle to find decent-paying jobs.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said 21-year-old truck drivers for Walmart in his district make about $135,000 annually, while a cashier with a master’s degree he recently spoke with at a local grocery store is paid close to minimum wage.
“It happens all the time,” he said. “It’s the norm.”
Walmart has stated that a driver for its company can make as much as $110,000 per year.
The population of traditional college-age students in the United States is decreasing. Many schools are struggling financially as their customer base shrinks, and an increasing number are expected to close in the years ahead.
A look at websites for K–12 districts, state university programs, and workforce development partnerships reveals that high school students across the nation have access to college degree credits before they complete their diplomas, which further affects income and enrollment at higher learning institutions. Additionally, vocational education and apprenticeship programs are enjoying a resurgence.
Gillen said that even if colleges and universities resist Trump’s push to disclose average graduate incomes by program of study, market forces will eventually exert themselves. Schools can’t afford to maintain “ghost majors” with low enrollments and little return on investment.
“The way colleges are set up, you basically need a crisis to start changing something,” he said. “I think we are going to see that happen.”
Regardless, opportunities exist for those willing to abandon teenage career dreams as adults.
Nathan Sharpe, of Rome, New York, enrolled in Mohawk Valley Community College’s computer science program after seeing an advertisement there touting career prospects for $60,000 a year.
A decade later, Sharpe hadn’t received a single job offer in that field. Instead, he worked his way up from a payment processor to a business analyst at a local bank before taking a job in a copper product manufacturing plant, where he now works as a trained chemist.
“It [the degree] was essentially useless outside of the fact that I can brag about being the first in my family to finish any sort of college,” Sharpe told The Epoch Times.
“I will raise my son to lean more toward a skilled trade—plumber, electrician, type of thing. I don’t want him falling into the same mistakes that I did. It set me back years.”
“STEM or it’s worthless.”
Prolly a bit strong as we still need some of the softer curriculums (history, art, teaching, etc) but in terms of lifetime earnings potential, STEM rules. “Studies” degrees are a joke.
I’ve mentored a few nephews and nieces in my day… my advice coming from my background has always been going to THE electrical field. Electrical workers… there will always be jobs for electrical workers because everybody uses electricity. I’s not for everybody , but it’s very stable, there’s a technical component, HVAC opportunities if desired... even if you’re just pulling wire in new construction. It’s a good thing to have a trade to fall back on and one that folds nicely into infrastructure.
My son got a college degree, and it got him a commission as an Air Force officer. He went to pilot training, and said, the first time he climbed into his first aircraft, he knew aviation was going to be his life’s work.
See, now THAT is a worthwhile career path.
College was a worthless option for both my sons. So one learned a trade the other went into the Army. Both are happy making some dough and doing well.
As are those in restaurants, or children of them born over 20 years ago. . What is missing is that based upon mt view from the street (where I word on bikes for free, by the grace of God) raised in America youth typically lack much initiative to be productive, industrious, and have an attention span of seconds, plus being overweight, and addicted to smartphones.
Meanwhile, the helper on the local trash pick up said he made 130,000 last year, though the average pay is listed as $39K-$61K/yr
Many youth show disconnection from work and education, with higher rates of unemployment or being neither in school nor working, contributing to lower productivity and industriousness. The average attention span of American teens has decreased significantly, reportedly from about 12 seconds in 2000 to less than 8 seconds recently, partly due to multifaceted screen usage and constant multitasking on smartphones.
Obesity rates among teens have dramatically increased, with about 1 in 3 teens now overweight or obese, correlating strongly with excessive screen time and sedentary lifestyles.
Excessive smartphone use (more than 2 hours/day) is linked to poorer health outcomes, increased weight, reduced sleep quality, and attention difficulties.
Digital media's dopamine-driven reward system influences youth behavior, decreasing motivation for effortful, mundane activities and increasing impulsivity due to underdeveloped executive functions in adolescent brains.
Surveys and studies also show young adults struggling with lower motivation and attention, affected by technology and broader socio-economic factors impacting employment and education engagement.- https://www.perplexity.ai
The left ruined education at all levels. Kids enter the workforce dumber than ever.
They haven’t ruined technical colleges because those that can do...those that can’t (the entire left) destroy everything they touch.
“If your degree path is in hard science, medical and some technology you will have a good job waiting“
Now that the H-1B visa has been curtailed what you say may be true.
For most Americans college is simply post high school upper level indoctrination.
Until an h-1b replaces you.
Do you want a non papered engineer designing bridges? Your post is silly.
“...STEM or it’s worthless...”
^THAT^ pretty much sums it up, except for the lefitist BS required within STEM programs themselves. Other than that, NO, it’s definitely not worth it. Depending on a student’s abilities, they’d be much better off going into the trades, become an expert in that trade and starting their own businesses.
Even in the STEM curriculums, most STEM school divisions now require their STEM undergraduates to take at least 18 semester-hours of Social Justice Warrior/Climate change courses in order to graduate.....18 semester-hours of total complete BS that should be going towards their specifc STEM studies, not a bunch of unadulterated leftist BS. The STEM divisions were force to do this in order to maintain the school’s overall accreditation in most cases.
In order to get the equivalent STEM undergraduate education prior to this leftist BS would now require the undergrraduate to take additional STEM courses/hours as a graduate student.
EVERTYTHING this basstids touch, they ruin......EVERYTHING.
Just when you think you can’t despise them enough, they come up with even more BS. Spit.
“A civil or mechanical engineer cannot talk to an electronic engineer...”
That’s interesting ... I observed the exact opposite, technical people have no problems talking across technical disciplines ... if anything, an “engineer’s engineer” may need some coaching on how to communicate [technical] information to non-technical team members [sales, some managers, et al] without getting too far into the weeds or use language that can make the concepts, results, etc understood. A few of these who master their craft and develop such communication skills (with some personality) make good expert witnesses. At the end of the day, their engineering skills to build bridges, jets, engines, reactor vessels, distillation columns, semiconcductors fab lines, etc ... it starts with the paper (degree).
One of the most commonly heard phrases in a breakroom is”and I told that engineer”
Today, there are whole YouTube channels devoted to the premise that workers are smarter than engineers.
You were also in charge of hiring and firing?!
Regards,
There is still a lot of resistance to that career track in the minds of many young people. To be sure, some simply lack the mental capacity. But there is also some ingrained impedance that needs to be overcome.
Regards,
Most of the best I have worked with were self-taught. That process never stops.
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