Why US Men Think College Isn’t Worth It Anymore
Rising tuition, the spread of more traditional ideas of masculinity on social media and a desire for an immediate income are working together to set boys on a different path.
Caden Yucha’s dad didn’t go to college. His uncle didn’t either, and they both have jobs. Of his male friends, Yucha doesn’t think a single one is enrolling in a four-year program next year when they graduate from high school in Madison, Ohio, 45 minutes east of Cleveland near Lake Erie. Yucha himself considered continuing his education only once, when he briefly mulled whether a degree could fast-track a firefighting career. But he quickly quashed that idea when he realized it would have contributed debt, not income, to his paltry teenage balance sheet. With college off his radar, Yucha, 18, has instead lined up a full-time job at an automotive collision and restyling shop where he says he’ll be making a “pretty penny”—$15 an hour. He’s already saving up to buy his dream car, a 2013 Scion FR-S.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but I have done the math already, and I will be making upwards of a grand every other week, which is not bad fresh out of high school,” he says, before returning to pulling dents out of a white Chrysler at a career technical school, where he’s been taking afternoon classes on collision repair. College seems like a “lot of money,” he says, “when I can get the same education for free.”