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Education United States

Young Men in US Abandoning College Education at Record Rates (bloomberg.com) 169

Male college enrollment in Lake County, Ohio plummeted by more than 15% over the last decade -- the steepest decline among any large U.S. county. Nationwide, men now constitute virtually the entirety of the 1.2 million student drop in college attendance between 2011 and 2022.

Financial concerns dominate decision-making, with even public in-state education costing approximately $25,000 annually. One high school senior secured a $15/hour collision repair job, Bloomberg reports, calculating he'll earn "upwards of a grand every other week" while avoiding student debt.

Social media significantly influences these choices. "You see a lot of influencers saying you don't need to go to college, and when people see that, they listen," explained one student from Perry High School.

Young Men in US Abandoning College Education at Record Rates

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  • youtube loser (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ihavesaxwithcollies ( 10441708 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:17PM (#65328311)

    "You see a lot of influencers saying you don't need to go to college, and when people see that, they listen," explained one student from Perry High School.

    If you're making life decisions based on what some loser says on youtube...

    • Re:youtube loser (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:26PM (#65328359) Journal

      > If you're making life decisions based on what some loser says on youtube...

      Arguably, they're listening to what some winner says on YouTube. Nobody ever hears from the real losers because they don't have a following.

      What most of the people basing their life decisions on what an influencer says fail to understand, though, is the concept of survivorship bias and that they are far, far more likely to end up as losers.
      =Smidge=

      • Re:youtube loser (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Nrrqshrr ( 1879148 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:43PM (#65328433)

        "Arguably, they're listening to what some winner says on YouTube."

        You hit the nail on the head. Who, exactly, are kids supposed to listen to if not the successful (At least outwardly) people?

        Sadly, parents are often lost themselves when it comes to career plans and choices. If your parents are of the successful kind, then listening to them is a good choice. Plus, they're probably setting you up to have a cushioned safety net for your eventual failure, and the possibility of bouncing back from failure is the biggest contributor to success anyway.
        If your parents aren't the successful kind, then whose advice are you supposed to listen to, really? There might be lessons to be learned from their failures, but the world is moving so fast that their own future prospects are alien to them, let alone their children's future. Teachers and school councilors are probably also off the list since they're just regular people living regular paycheck-people lives, which is seen as a failure today anyway.

        The guy sitting in front of a camera spewing bullshit for a living is arguably the most successful person in the kid's life.

      • you misspelled whiner.

      • Re:youtube loser (Score:4, Insightful)

        by ScooterBill ( 599835 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @04:50PM (#65328811)

        So I went to college. Not because I wanted an education but because my dad said you want to hang around with smart, motivated people.

        He was so fucking right.

      • Arguably, they're listening to what some winner says on YouTube. Nobody ever hears from the real losers

        Yes you do hear from the real losers - they are on YouTube telling everyone that they are winners.

    • "You see a lot of influencers saying you don't need to go to college, and when people see that, they listen," explained one student from Perry High School.

      If you're making life decisions based on what some loser says on youtube...

      Also, I imagine those "influencers" work harder/more than it appears in their posts for the opportunities and I also imagine that very few of them are successful enough to make on their own, living the life they portray, w/o help from family, etc... (Although, what do I know?) Personally, if you're posting about your hobby or actual job and experience some online success from that, great I applaud that and wish you well, but not so much for people who are or want to be rich and famous just because they'

    • > making life decisions based on what some loser
      > says on youtube...

      Still better than making decisions based on the malignant narcissists who fancy themselves "influencers" over on tiktok.

  • I'm not one to suggest anyone listen to an influencer, but they might actually be doing a public good here.

  • If your college-degree-requiring job will soon be done by a chatbot by just prompting it, why go into college and debt?
  • My Two Sons (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GlennC ( 96879 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:31PM (#65328385)

    I have two sons. My older son is finishing his junior year of college and working part-time in his chosen field. My younger son went to a vocational high school for his final two years, where he learned HVAC, got his OSHA 20 hour card, and became certified to handle all manner of refrigeration systems. He's currently working as a residential HVAC installer and is one of the youngest employees in his company.

    Both of my sons have found their niche, and I am very proud of both of them. Not everyone is cut out for college, and we need to understand and accept this.

    • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      Who doesn't understand that? The problem isn't that college has grown unaffordable for people who aren't suited to it, but that it's grown unaffordable for people who are.

      When young people cannot justify a college education for any, we end up with an uneducated, incompetent society. We're all happy you think you've solved your YOU problem but you haven't. Lack of viable education is a problem for all of us, a strong middle class is what makes a country great, not a con man that spews lies and destroys ed

    • We're collapsing the middle class. Your son is generally selling AC units to people who graduated college. That's because without a college degree in our current economy you're going to top out around 20 bucks an hour and you're going to be using a window unit.

      You need ultra high productivity workers in the form of college graduates to support high-end service jobs like what your son with the HVAC cert is doing. It's not sustainable for us all to just be plumbers and HVAC installers.
      • by GlennC ( 96879 )

        Where did I say that NOBODY should go to college?

        Where did I say that EVERYONE should be in the trades?

        Yes, there is an issue with the high cost of post-secondary education, and it does need to be addressed. However, that's no reason to dismiss those who find their niche elsewhere.

        I have one son who will be getting his Bachelor's in about a year. I have another son who is happily working in his chosen field who may or may not ever go to college.

        Let's help our children be the best version of who they are i

        • Of this entire article and it's what I'm pointing out even though people don't want me to.

          Higher education is under massive attack in America right now. And the rest of the world is pretty iffy on it too.

          As I pointed out on another thread many if not most of these kids are dropping out because of Financial reasons. And needing the work while you go to school is just a disguised Financial reason.

          We are not going to be able to maintain the blue collar class while we destroy the White collar class.
    • Why don't you provide for them the rest of *their* lives? When did they sign a contract with you that you could stop providing for them when they were 18 (or whatever)?

      Besides, when did your older son consent to have to compete for his parents resources, energy, time etc with a sibling?

  • by Hasaf ( 3744357 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:37PM (#65328405)
    I have been doing quite a bit of reading and am considered my district's best resource on this topic. Most of the research papers came out in the early 2010s'. Since then, they have been slowing.

    The problem is what to do with the information. Several papers use throw-away lines like "use gender aware/specific pedagogies [teaching methods]." The problem is that there are almost no gender aware/specific pedagogies. The OECD has A, as in singular, paper on the issue, as it applies to male students, and literally hundreds of papers on the topic as it applies to female students.

    When I have spoken on the topic, it gets a handwaving response and the sure to be said form of "well, we need to be doing something to help the girls." Then there is the implication that it is unmanly to seek, or provide help to boys. This is perpetuated and seen in the failure of young men to seek assistance in their college years.

    I looked at working on this on my EdD, but there is a dearth of resources in the What to do about it" column.
    • Reminds me of a compilation of articles I wish I could find again, where a feminist researcher/journalist wrote an article with the title (paraphrasing) "Girls are surpassing boys in everything, including school, and that's a good thing!"
      But then about 8 years later she wrote an article titled "My sons are failing in school and I don't know why!".

      My own SO is an English teacher at the university level, and in her desire to improve her lesson plans, she reads many gender aware pedagogy papers. When asking he

  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:37PM (#65328407)

    One high school senior secured a $15/hour collision repair job, Bloomberg reports, calculating he'll earn "upwards of a grand every other week" while avoiding student debt.

    In other words, about $500/week which is $26,000/year -- or $31,200 if he can work full-time. If he gets married and they have a kid they'll be just above the poverty level of $26,650 (for 3). Sure he's avoiding student debt, but he's probably also eligible for other financial that he wouldn't have to pay back and student loans don't have to be paid back until he graduates (or bails) and, depending on the degree, he could end up making a lot more.

    All this should be based on his long-term interests, not simply making a quick buck and avoiding student debt. Maybe this will job will help him figure that out and decide one way or the other. If he's set on the non-college trade route, he might want to also consider electrician, plumber, etc... starting as an apprentice.

    My experience is that the harder you work when you're younger, the easier things will be when your older.

    • All this should be based on his long-term interests, not simply making a quick buck and avoiding student debt.

      I suspect the people who don't plan long term and lack the intelligence to do something with a university degree overlap greatly. I still remember one of my highschool class mates rubbing it in our faces that he was earning $70k / year installing AC units out of school while we were struggling through university, and then graduated making only $60k / year. He was so smug having a 3 year financial headstart. Fast forward 2 decades and he's earning closer to $90k / year while the rest of us are clearing $250k

  • by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Thursday April 24, 2025 @02:45PM (#65328447)

    When the 12 million "illegal immigrants" are deported, then they will have to pick fruit and vegetables and do shifts at Wendy's.
    That is, if all the farmers didn't go bust because of the tariffs until then.

  • Because without that piece of paper you have to be very lucky to get into the better paying jobs. Obviously, you find that out much, much later.

  • All these posts and so far nobody is blaming woke.

    • All these posts and so far nobody is blaming woke.

      I will.

      I used some GI Bill money for hopefully getting into a "big data" program, coursework towards a degree or certificate in dealing with large data sets as a matter of computation or statistical analysis. Once on campus "woke" permeated everything.

      I had a computer science class where the first lesson was on reading some global warming propaganda on how computers were warming the planet, which was apparently intended to get the students thinking that if they didn't get their code optimized then they'd b

  • In 2025, the average student is being told to take on a ton of debt to do this. Debt levels that we would have considered completely stupid and horrifying for an 18-22 year old. Levels that, 25 years ago, could have literally bought you most of a small house in much of the country.

    Look at the job market, look at those numbers, and tell those young men they're stupid for preferring $15/hr with no debt to $25/hr with a lower interest rate credit card bill that large hanging over their heads for a degree that

  • by organgtool ( 966989 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @03:02PM (#65328519)
    The cost of college has far exceeded the rate of inflation and at the same time, the competitive advantage college offers over local trades is rapidly diminishing. Either of these things is bad by itself, but together they largely negate the value of a college education. Why go six figures into debt and spend almost the rest of your life paying it off for a job that can often be offshored or possibly performed by an AI?

    In addition to that, colleges have become environments that are increasingly less friendly to men. Men (and young people in general now) are more likely to be Republican while colleges keep pushing agendas further to the left. I wasn't comfortable bringing up some centrist viewpoints in classes back when I was in college over 20 years ago - I can only imagine what that would be like today. Over the past several decades, colleges have increasingly created environments that are more appealing to female students, and while there's nothing inherently wrong with that, they've done it in a way that makes men feel less comfortable.

    Overall, this could be a good thing. Colleges may be forced to get tuition levels back down to earth as well as welcome viewpoints from all sides of the political spectrum instead of resorting to being left-wing echo chambers.
    • by eepok ( 545733 )

      The cost of college is cheap. The cost of living near a quality 4-year brick-and-mortar university is expensive.

      The University of California system, for example, has 256,000 students throughout 10 campuses including UCLA and Berkeley. All 10 campuses are designated "R1" (highest tier of research university). Tuition and fees to attend ANY UC campus is under $18,000/year for California residents. The cost of rent within a non-driving distance to any UC campus, however, will run about $800-$1500/month ($9,600

      • You don't need a college education to understand that the cost of living for everyone in California is high, regardless of whether or not that person is a student. Colleges exist outside of California and yet their tuition is still far more expensive than it is in most other civilized nations.
    • you say that as if colleges, just decide what gets talked about on campus. as if they are some sort central master dictating who says what.

      they are not. People are going to talk about what they are going to talk about. Sure the college can set certain regulations and rules, and they can have professors of every stripe who teach various ways and hold various viewpoints.

      any group of people is going to eventually become an echo chamber. Being open to more than one side of things is difficult for any group be

      • It really got out of hand when colleges started implementing policies in which they declared themselves "safe spaces". At face value, it sounds great - colleges should be safe havens for exploring different political and philosophical beliefs. However, in practice it became a tool which could be weaponized to silence viewpoints that made some students feel "unsafe" (i.e. any viewpoint that deviated too far from their own). I initially laughed this off, because the real world isn't a safe space and these
  • by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Thursday April 24, 2025 @03:06PM (#65328529)

    The current mainstream narrative is that young US men are failing and that is reflected in their college attendance.

    The exact opposite is true. Cost/Value has flipped entirely, no chance whatsoever in scoring a mate for life and a corporate career that lasts a lifetime for a simple degree to build and support a family. I wouldn't be attending college in the US either were I a regular young man today.

  • by Pezbian ( 1641885 ) on Thursday April 24, 2025 @03:38PM (#65328611)

    There has never been a better time to become a Skilled Craftsman in a given trade. You know, Electrician, Welder, Plumber, Carpenter, Mechanic, Landscaper, Blacksmith, etc. Decades of "The world needs ditch-diggers, too." derisive bullshit is biting society in the ass, via degradation of crucial infrastructure, and we're paying for it now. You don't need a college degree to make damn good money. You just need to be willing to get your hands dirty and fix the kind of problems people with college degrees will throw money at, just so they don't have to lift a finger.

    I'm an Electronics guy. People like me were mocked on Mad TV with those TV/VCR repair guy bits. If you never sharpen your blade, you get left behind. I get that part. But the fucked thing about Hollywood is people take that kind of shit seriously. "Huh huh. You fix things. You're beneath me and desperate for work."

    Ferrari and Lamborghini don't have TV commercials because people who can afford their products don't watch [scripted "reality" drama show], [herp derp crime drama], or [short bus "talent" show with snarky judges]. I found peace when I moved up-market. No more dumbasses trying to pay me with a bottle of Vicodin/Oxycontin for getting their porn machine back online. No more assholes wanting a refund on a modem just so they can go buy some crack. No more whining about my education and experience allowing me to fix an all-day problem in ten minutes while only charging the base two-hour service call fee. Instead, I focused on serving businesses and high-tier individual clients. Billing went from pulling teeth to getting performance bonus tips and perks.

    Perks? How about data recovery for a law firm? I was paid my rate, but I was gifted pro bono help for any legal troubles I may face in the future. Why? Because they want to keep me around. And I've done Data Forensics work for them on several occasions since. That paid some bills, to put it lightly. "If you need anything at all. 24/7. Just ask." was music to my ears. A team of Honey Badgers the size of Tigers itching to flatten anyone dumb enough to step to me is a form of "'Fuck you' Money" I never imagined.

    And I'm not complaining...

  • Saw so many "old times were better" stuff on social media during the campaign it was insane. Now pulling rug from under education and new message men are suppose to do everything and women stay home and have babies stuff of recent weeks. The red hats falling for this are thinking it thru. Get a blue collar job and wife quit her job going to be real hard to pay the bills in this terrible economy and add in now going to have to pay for a decent education for your kids. It's not the 1950's any more.

  • They're running out of money.

    So the workload in college is has increased drastically. I put a kid through about God going on 8 years ago and their workload was about twice what mine was.

    Businesses got tired of having to train employees so they went to the colleges, paid to build a couple of buildings, and then in exchange for that the college is added a shitload of on the job training ( that you pay for by the way ) on top of all the Gen Ed stuff you were already doing. They also added a bunch of ne
  • collision repair is an trade job more TECH jobs need to go to trades and not college

  • American women will have even more certainty that their husband/partner is beneath them and will become even more bitter and unhappy with their lives. But they'll still want their uneducated man to help pay down their student loans!
  • All I hear is that companies will still be seeking my services when I'm in my 60's and possibly 70's. Which is nice, because the retirement game didn't work out for my generation very well.

  • Like with all purchases, the consumer has to consumer the likely bang for the buck. This is true for everything in life. The federal government has started to publicize some aggregate job earnings numbers for each university, but it would be better to have more detailed information so that the evaluation of bang for the buck is easier to make.

    Aside from jobs that are plentiful and have starting salaries that justify the university expenses, I personally would seriously consider community college. For exa

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