A Pew Research Center report titled "Is College Worth It?" released Sunday shows a majority of Americans think colleges fail to deliver enough bang for their buck.
Of 2,142 adults surveyed, 57% said the higher education system in the U.S. fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. An even larger group (75%) said college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.
While the price tag may be high this year's college grads are the most indebted in history still, an overwhelming majority (86%) report college was a good investment for them personally.
Part of that reasoning seems to stem from perceived earnings. Adults who graduated from a four-year college believe as a result they are earning $20,000 more a year, on average. Similarly, the survey found adults who did not attend college believe they are earning $20,000 less per year. Those estimates are very close to the 2010 U.S. Census findings that show the median gap in earnings between high school and college grads is $19,550.
Here are some other striking findings:
Among those graduates who leave college with a substantial debt burden, 48% say paying off student loans made it harder to pay other bills; 25% say college debt made it harder to buy a home and 24% say the debt impacted their career choices
Among adults who are not in school and do not have a bachelor's degree, 48% say they cannot afford to go to college; two-thirds say the reason is because they need to support a family
The Pew Center also surveyed the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public and for-profit colleges and universities. Here's what they had to say:
While six out of 10 college presidents said higher education in the U.S. is headed in the right direction, a substantial number (38%) say it is headed in the wrong direction
58% say public high school students arrive at college less prepared than students a decade ago; only 6% of those presidents surveyed said students arrive more prepared
52% say college students study less than students a decade ago
Just 19% of college presidents say the U.S. higher education system is the best in the world; only 7% say it will be the best in the world 10 years from now
The full report is available for download here.