Is college worth it anymore?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is college worth it anymore?". Your opponent's style: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

College is worth it because of the importance of specific knowledge for specific careers and also in a general sense with liberal arts to teach people how to think. It can be expensive, but the rewards are innumerable

Look, you're selling a fantasy that stopped being true a decade ago. Yes, some careers need degrees—doctors, engineers. But you're pretending liberal arts teaches critical thinking when most students are just racking up $30k in debt to sit in lectures they could watch free online. The "rewards are innumerable"? Tell that to the philosophy majors working retail. And here's the real kicker: employers don't care about what you learned, they care that you have the credential. So we've basically built a $1.7 trillion scam where people pay for a piece of paper instead of actually learning. Why not skip the debt and build a portfolio in tech, trades, or literally anything else where you earn while you learn?

Not all colleges are unaffordable and you need to choose accordingly. There's always a choice of whether or not to go to college, and I think more and more people may be deciding that they don't want to risk the potential of a large student loan. However, in my experience, people who have college degrees are better at critical thinking and more understanding of other points of view which is important in the world we live in. It certainly is not a direct dollar for dollar equation, but rather a quality of life?

You're conflating correlation with causation, and that's exactly the problem. People who go to college aren't smarter thinkers because of college—they went to college *because* they already had resources, stability, and educated parents modeling critical thinking at home. A self-taught person grinding through books, debate forums, and real-world problems develops sharper thinking than someone passively absorbing lectures. And your "quality of life" argument ignores that the stress of debt *destroys* quality of life. Someone making $60k without loans lives better than someone making $70k drowning in payments. You're measuring the wrong metric. Pick an actual measure—happiness, freedom, stability—and suddenly college looks way less magical.

That is incorrect, studies have shown that in the long run, people with college degrees earn more than those without college degrees. And again, it is not absolutely a requirement to spend more than you can afford. For college. There are various levels of college, all of which will be helpful in the long run.

You're right that degrees correlate with higher earnings—but that's becoming obsolete fast. Tech workers without degrees now out-earn college grads. Plumbers make six figures. Meanwhile, you're ignoring opportunity cost: someone who skipped college and invested those four years into building a business or trade skill at 22 is miles ahead by 30. And your "choose accordingly" handwave doesn't work—even cheap state schools leave people with $20-30k debt that delays homeownership, marriage, everything. The earnings gap exists, sure. But it's shrinking every year as employers realize they don't actually need your diploma. You're defending an institution based on what *used* to be true, not what's happening now.