As a wise man once said, “Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” As we ponder the value of a college degree in 2025, one cannot help but wonder: would that wise man have been quite so pithy if he were staring down the barrel of $30,000 in student loan debt? Welcome to the Great College Debate of 2025, where the only thing more inflated than tuition prices is your sense of optimism after freshman orientation.
Let us start with the good news. The College Wage Premium — yes, that is a real thing and not just something your parents made up to get you out of the house — still holds strong. A 2015 study shows that men with bachelor’s degrees rake in about $900,000 more over their lifetimes than high school grads. Women make around $630,000 more. That is a lot of avocado toast — even if you never get to afford a house to eat it in.
Thanks to the internet doing what it does best (reducing complex decisions to clickable dashboards), students can now also compare over 30,000 degree programs with ROI tools that analyze everything from graduation rates to post-grad earnings. The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity recently released an innovative online tool that allows users to compare the ROI of over 30,000 bachelor’s degree programs, factoring in costs, graduation rates, post-graduate earnings and more. STEM fields? Solid bets. Interpretive dance theory with a minor in 18th-century Icelandic poetry? Maybe look twice.
But despite this data, skepticism about the universal value of a degree is mounting. Tuition growth has far outpaced inflation and wage growth for decades now, leaving many students and families drowning in debt. The average student loan burden for a bachelor’s degree recipient is now over $30,000. Stories abound of debt-saddled graduates working as baristas and Uber drivers, struggling to make loan payments with jobs that do not require their costly degrees. One cannot help but wonder, would some of those students have been better off pursuing shorter, more affordable vocational or technical training pathways directly aligned with in-demand careers?
Thus, alternative pathways are out here staging a quiet revolution. Bootcamps, micro-credentials, YouTube tutorials with suspiciously cheerful instructors — they are all gunning for the traditional four-year throne. Even Peter Thiel, tech investor and professional college skeptic, famously said, “Learning is good, credentialing is bad.” (He said this while probably sipping overpriced coffee in a Wi-Fi-enabled treehouse made of stock options). Some see a future where the traditional degree is displaced by lifelong, skills-based learning pathways more responsive to the dynamic needs of employers and learners… especially if it means avoiding debt, soul-crushing finals and group projects where one guy ghosts and still gets an A.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer. College can be a golden ticket — or a gilded trap. Like any investment, much depends on individual variables — the student, the institution, the program of study or the career goals. A low-income, first-generation student who graduates from a top-tier university debt-free thanks to financial aid and goes on to a lucrative banking career has realized an unequivocal return on investment. If you land a full ride to a top school, major in something employable and graduate on time (miracles happen), you are probably set. But if you rack up six figures of debt majoring in something you cannot explain to your grandmother, well… see you in the barista union.
The best advice? Treat college like any other expensive, life-altering purchase. Crunch the ROI numbers. Research like you are stalking your ex on LinkedIn. And when in doubt, remember: you can always move back into your parents’ basement. I hear it is all the rage in 2025.
College is still a big decision, make it wisely. Or at least make it with good Wi-Fi and a backup plan.