PHOENIX (AP) — A recent survey reveals that the majority of American teenagers believe graduating from college is crucial, with young women particularly viewing it as an essential milestone for achieving their life ambitions.
Despite worries about high tuition fees, increasing student debt, and the politicization of higher education, teenagers tend to have a more positive outlook on college compared to adults.
The survey conducted this spring by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which included teenagers aged 13 to 17, found that approximately 60% of teens consider graduating from college as “extremely” or “very” important. In contrast, a UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll from 2022 indicated that only around 40% of adults felt the same way.
The survey also found that many teens think it will be harder for them to achieve major life milestones — like owning a home, raising a family or reaching a good standard of living — than it was for their parents.
For Ry-n Uyeda, 17, the biggest concern about college is the prospect of being away from her home in Waianae, Hawaii. Uyeda is already taking college-level courses in high school and hopes to play softball at a university on the West Coast.
Uyeda said she wants to develop time management skills and endurance to handle the pressures of being a student-athlete. But she hopes the college experience does not change who she is.
“I want to remember where I came from and the values that I’ve learned from here,” said Uyeda, who attends Waianae High School. “Going to a new place with new people in a new environment, I just want to still be myself.”
Far more girls than boys see value in college
Seven in 10 teenage girls in the survey said it was at least “very” important to them to graduate from college, compared with 54% of teenage boys.
The disparity reflects a growing gender gap in college degree completion. In 1995, young men and women were equally likely to hold a bachelor’s degree. Since then, a gap has emerged, with 47% of U.S. women ages 25-34 completing a bachelor’s degree compared with 37% of men, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data.
Teens raised in households with higher incomes and parents who went to college themselves also are more likely to view higher education as important.
Jalena Crawford, a 16-year-old high school junior, said she hopes to attend Grand Canyon University or Arizona State University to become a professional American Sign Language interpreter. She said her plans have been encouraged by relatives with college degrees and it would be “weird” not to consider higher education.
“I didn’t really start thinking about college until I started liking ASL. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do,” Crawford said.
Most teens see a college education as a vital step for their future career prospects, although they see other benefits as well.
About 7 in 10 teenagers said completing college is “extremely” or “very” important for getting good jobs, and about 6 in 10 teenagers say a degree is valuable in learning necessary life skills. About half of teens see college as key for either becoming a more informed member of society or forming their personal identity, according to the survey.
Teens think life milestones will be harder for them to achieve
Teenagers have many of the same life goals as adults, such as owning a home and raising a family, the poll found. About 8 in 10 teenagers value being able to pursue what they enjoy, having a good standard of living and having a successful career.
But few teenagers believe those goals have gotten easier to achieve for their generation compared with their parents.
About 7 in 10 teenagers believe owning a home has become harder to achieve for them compared with their parents, according to the poll. Just over half of teenagers say it’s become more challenging for their generation to raise a family. About half say that about having a good standard of living, having a successful career or traveling the world. Fewer, about 4 in 10, say it’s grown harder to graduate from college or be able to pursue what they enjoy.
Evarist Bego, 22, graduated earlier this year from the University of Southern California with a joint degree in business and film. He said he recalls wanting to go to college and then work his way up in his chosen industry but “that’s just not how it works anymore.”
It’s harder than he anticipated to find a job, which he said may owe partly to the creative industry he chose. He sees mostly temporary positions, like internships or fellowships.
“So many jobs that I see are entry-level, but then they require three-plus years of experience. I have interned in school, I had some experience, but it’s not enough,” he said.
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Sanders reported from Washington.
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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,060 teens ages 13-17 was conducted April 30-May 14, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel Teen Panel, which is designed to be representative of teenagers in the U.S., and interviews from opt-in online panels. The margin of sampling error for teens overall is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
