Not Retiring

[CP87]

You just beat me to the punch I was going to post something very similar. I’m a GenXer and you were almost expected to go to a 4-year college and if you didn’t, you felt that “less than” societal stigma that @CP87 was talking about. I grew up in an era where community college was referred to as “glorified high school”. That is definitely not the case now.


That stigma is still there, but as you stated, it has been fading for a while now. Baby boomers, who went to college thinking they would come out and be able to change the world are dead or really, really old. GenXers started to re-think the idea of college with their own children, and as you stated, it has completely changed now.

On the flip side, more and more jobs REQUIRE a 4-year degree, even if it doesn't really make sense as a requirement. For some jobs, the 4-year degree makes sense because the educational program teaches them specifically how to do the job (nursing, accounting, teaching, engineering).

But outside of that fairly narrow band of occupational outcomes, the degree just doesn't matter, the skillset and the character matter. Employers just use the degree as a filter to narrow down the pool and make their search easier. Most, but not all, students that have earned a 4-year degree will have adequate learning, problem-solving, and communication skills, and enough maturity to get through 4 years of college without going off the rails.

As employers are having a harder time filling open positions, they are starting to pull back on some of the requirements for a 4-year degree.