Is college worth it?

Washington Post -  A college education was once seen as the golden ticket to a better job, more money and a better life. But that confidence in the value of a degree has eroded in recent years. Only 15 years ago three-quarters of Americans agreed college was very important, but by this year that figure had fallen to 35 percent.

People are aware of some of the positive developments in higher education over the decades, such as the marked increase in women going to college and the career opportunities that followed. But they also recognize that a college education has become more expensive. And polarization has come for the academy, too. Many on the right seem to view colleges and universities as overpriced engines of liberal indoctrination, while many on the left treat them as redoubts of resistance to an ideologically driven assault on science and fact. Whatever the cause, a dramatic shift is underway, and today large swaths of Americans doubt if college is worth it at all.