Even after adjusting for inflation, the cost of a four-year college education has doubled in the US over the past 40 years. However, even though the benefits of a college diploma are beginning to be called into question relative to the cost, we as a nation still send nearly 70% of our high school graduates to college immediately. Locally, the numbers go even higher. 90.4% of the NA class of 2017 planned to attend a two- or four-year college.

For many teenagers, college is an rewarding investment, where they will spend four years not only exploring various in-depth topics about our world but preparing to make a comfortable living. In 2015, median college earnings were 64% higher for degree-holders than for those with just a high school diploma ($50,000 to $30,500 in 2015), and unemployment was 7% lower (5% to 12% in 2016) for the same demographic. Beyond just the numbers, a strongly educated population, especially post-secondary-wise, is one of the hallmarks of an advanced and wealthy country, and the US embodies it in every graduating class.

For other students, however, the cost of going to college can quickly turn into a financial nightmare. In the 2015-2016 school year, the average cost of a year of tuition, room, and board(food) at a public university was $16,757. For a private university, the cost ran roughly 2.5 times higher, at $43,065. This is only the bare minimum. Additional charges for things like clothing, travel to and from campus, and recreation can quickly add up. Over four years, these financial burdens can pile up, even with generous government aid and such. In addition, the burden of thousands of dollars in loans can potentially cripple a young adult for years to come, hampering other important future goals such as owning a house or causing them to struggle to simply pay all the bills on time.

Something important to note is that these values are for those with a college diploma. American colleges have a shockingly high dropout rate compared to their international peers. According to large studies conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and Times Higher Education, only 41%/61% of public/private college students have earned their degree at the end of four years, while these numbers are in the high 70’s, even 80’s for countries like England, France, and Germany. Almost nobody considers the possibility of dropping out when they make their plans for college, but nearly 25% eventually do. And they get the worst of both worlds — a pile of debt with little to nothing to show for it.

However, let’s not undercut the value of college. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are commonly cited as proof of extremely successful college dropouts, but we as a society tend to glorify the outliers. Gates and Zuckerberg are exceptions who believed they could do more on their own than at an institution. The vast majority of dropouts have different and much less appealing causes. College has historically been, and still is, among the most reliable and  reputable ways of moving up in the world.

What other options are there? In lieu of a traditional college education, there remain valuable and accessible ways to get education or training for the future. Trade schools provide professional training in a wide array of fields from plumbing and electrical work to nursing and hospital tech at a significantly lower cost, while apprenticeships pay you to learn and work simultaneously. Community colleges are also a viable option to earn legitimate and often transferable college credits at a fraction of the cost. Although these options may seem less desirable on the surface, results, rather than appearance, are ultimately what should matter, and these alternatives pose a completely valid way of getting there.

Although the benefits of college have been widely known since its conception, it’s only now that we begin to question whether they are justified by its rapidly increasing cost. With so much of our generation seemingly college-bound, it’s important that we take more time to analyze the rewards and also provide plenty of alternatives to what seems to be an unsustainable rise in the cost of a diploma.

Unless otherwise specified, data is from the National Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov), 2015.