Students Increasingly Choosing Community College or Certificates Over Four-Year Degrees (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0180588442
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/15/1835210/students-increasingly-choosing-community-college-or-certificates-over-four-year-degrees
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/15/four-year-college-loses-ground-community-college-gains-steam.html
> CNBC reports that new data from the National Student Clearinghouse indicates that enrollment growth in four year degree programs is slowing down, [2]while growth in two year and certification programs is accelerating :
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> Enrollments in undergraduate certificate and associate degree programs both grew by about 2% in fall 2025, while enrollment in bachelor's degree programs rose by less than 1%, the report found. Community colleges now enroll 752,000 students in undergraduate certificate programs -- a 28% jump from just four years ago.
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> Overall, undergraduate enrollment growth was fueled by more students choosing to attend community college, the report found. "Community colleges led this year with a 3% increase, driven by continued rising interest in those shorter job-aligned certificate programs," said Matthew Holsapple, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center's senior director of research. For one thing, community college is significantly less expensive. At two-year public schools, tuition and fees averaged $4,150 for the 2025-2026 academic year, according to the College Board. Alternatively, at four-year public colleges, in-state tuition and fees averaged $11,950, and those costs at four-year private schools averaged $45,000.
A further factor driving this new growth is that Pell Grants are now available for job-training courses like certifications.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~DesScorp
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/15/four-year-college-loses-ground-community-college-gains-steam.html
Cost? (Score:5, Insightful)
Community colleges are a *hell* of a lot less expensive, and in some communities, they're free.
Meanwhile, outsourced HR departments, who have NO CLUE what the hiring managers actually need, keep asking for more and more useless and pointless certifications, *and* qualifications the managers don't need.
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At every company I've worked at, the hiring managers tell HR what the qualifications for the proposed role are.
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We recently lost a large fraction of our best Project Coordinators because somebody decided to change the requirements to include a 4-year degree, and suddenly they were no longer qualified for the jobs they'd held for years. It's not like they were summarily dismissed or anything, but there was zero possibility for promotion.
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It's probably coming from management. HR is usually just an administrative function. They do what they are told. Real power comes from senior management, and they very often make unpopular decisions that get blamed on HR.
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If HR implements those decisions, then HR is a fair target for blame. Your argument only means that one shouldn't ONLY blame HR, and that's definitely correct. Management deserves the blame for every mistake that it doesn't rapidly correct.
The dumbing down of America continues (Score:4, Informative)
When people get college educations, they get uppity and want bullshit like progress and rule of law. This gets in the way of the owner class's fun. Fuck that. Let's say how useless and wasteful college degrees are. When people stop getting educated, they're easier to control. In fact, they'll believe anything.
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Most colleges are not for profits. Some top admins make great livings, but they are not centimillionares fucking the rest of us over. Colleges have flaws, but the right massively overstates the flaws.
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hashtag eyeroll.
I'm in an engineering field. If I had a nickel for every time some "self-educated engineer" who "didn't need formal education" came up with a bright idea that violated the second law of thermodynamics......
I wouldn't be rich, but I would have a small jar of nickels.
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Then you'd be in the owner class, fucking the rest of us over.
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Incel much?
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Ya know who's not going to trade schools and community colleges? Rich people.
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You're in your parents' basement.
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A third of the US is college educated. Half of youngsters do college. Then, you add the 2-year and certificate education on top. The truth is that the younger generations are better educated and healthier, and thus probably straight-up smarter and harder working because of all these things.
Overall, our population is getting smarter, not dumber.
"smarts" can be trained up (within limits) and nearly everyone understands that smarter usually means more success. The few right-winger businessmen who flog
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> A third of the US is college educated. Half of youngsters do college. Then, you add the 2-year and certificate education on top. The truth is that the younger generations are better educated and healthier, and thus probably straight-up smarter and harder working because of all these things.
> Overall, our population is getting smarter, not dumber.
An alarming trend we're working hard to stop.
I Did This (Score:5, Interesting)
I did exactly this waaaay back in 1980. I went to the local community college instead of university. Like the OP said, it's much cheaper. I think I was paying $600/semester plus books and lodging. But when you're living at home like I was, it's really just books. I had to sell my Les Paul to pay for books one year - I wonder if a Les Paul these days can cover a semester's-worth of college books.
I was also in a highly desirable specialty - computer programming - so I had a job before I got out. If you're in a highly-desirable area these days, college instead of other options can make very good sense!
starting college vs overall college: a distinction (Score:5, Insightful)
It's worth being mindful that in a lot of cases community college may simply be an entry way into upper education -- IOW, "more people are choosing to start their post-high school education with community college" is not the same as "more people are choosing community college instead of universities."
As an example (and I'm aware it's one point, but I'm not making a data argument, just an example to clarify what I mean), my sister was kind of a fuckup in high school. She ended up going to community college ... for two years, and the to university for two years, and then to law school until she got her JD.
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Be careful this. Sure, stuff will transfer. But, that won't mean you get two years off your four year degree.
Why?
Because for most majors, there are specialized courses for that major that will happen during the first two years: often ones that are needed for upper level third and fourth year classes. Two year schools don't offer them. So, transfer students often spend their first year catching up on such courses (eg, sophomore level special relativity and quantum mechanics for a physics major), then th
Market forces but maybe not those market forces? (Score:2)
While the past five years of college price rises are nominally less than inflation, they’re taking up an ever larger chunk of discretionary spending (discretionary = what’s leftover after rent, food, and other necessities).
So the rise in community college popularity arguably isn’t really because community colleges are cheaper per se - or at least that’s not the root cause - it’s that folks have less money to burn.
It's a trade off (Score:2)
I was in university through the mid 80s getting my BSCS, which is still all I have. Certifications weren't really a thing then, so community college would have been the other option. And while it would have been less expensive, I'm sure the ones around here wouldn't have had the resources that my university had -- large mainframe, numerous PCs, a VAX 11/785 running 4.3BSD, Sun servers/workstations and a Xerox 1108 LISP workstation, on which I did work for a NASA grant on automated programming techniques.
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Except, nowadays, if you don't know what you want to do then going to a traditional 4-year university is an absolute and complete waste of money. The inflation-adjusted cost of a 4-year degree has, on average, tripled since the 80s. You probably either didn't take on much debt, or only a very small amount, that was able to be quickly paid off. If you went to college now to do roughly the same exact courses (modernized where necessary), you'd be in more debt after one year than all 4 years of the 80s. At the
So another news (Score:3)
People are increasingly choosing hamburgers over black truffle encrusted filet mignon ...
This is your monthly reminder that when baby boomers went to college the government paid 70% of tuition and now the government pays 20%.
Also remember rich people are constantly reminding you that your kids don't need to go to college but do they skip college for their kids?
These are the questions someone who thinks critically will ask. Remember that thinking critically is about questioning the information you are being given.
Makes sense (Score:2)
In a world where we're expecting to need to retrain every 15-20 years, why would you saddle yourself with the kind of debt that a University degree demands.
Why do you think? (Score:3)
It's insane that the routine expectation is for an 18 year old still in high school to commit to 5 figures of debt before they've even had their first real job (no, McD's doesn't count as a real job). Even moreso that it's the one debt that cannot be discharged by bankruptcy.
Insane to the point that any councillor or teacher that tells them it's fine should be fired for educational malpractice.
Further the schools that re-assuringly pat the kids on the back and tell them it's OK because they'll get a high paying job due to their degree should be forced to eat the loss when a student graduates with a degree and can't do better than Starbucks.
Duh! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's because they can't afford the cost of a four year degree! Unlike most civilized countries, where university education is free. (I've had coworkers tell me my daughter should move to Europe so she can get a free education.)
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It's a lot more complex than even that.
Small colleges can generally pay more attention to individual students, but can't afford really expensive tools. So many fields can't really be taught at a small college. (Computing used to be that way. Small schools would mail the programs the students had written in to a central site which would run them and mail the results back. Not a good learning environment.)
It's a simple question of weight ratios [Re:Duh!] (Score:2)
Non-instructional staff should not exceed a ratio of more than 1.25 times the number of bona fide instructional staff.
If this is too tight, I don't have a problem increasing the ratio slightly if those extra numbers are students on temporary work-study programs. (Supplemental janitors, library staff, IT staff, dining hall staff, etc.)
The 1.25 number is from eyeballing a bar graph at [1]https://www.aei.org/education/how-many-administrators-do-colleges-have/ [aei.org]
[1] https://www.aei.org/education/how-many-administrators-do-colleges-have/
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So many ways that I want to respond to this post.
First, let me state my opinions: we've got enough advanced education in the US, and we don't need any more. Half of our youngsters go to college. That's great. I'm all for education. The other half isn't interested or truly isn't ready for that level of academics. Why force them? College isn't for everyone. The world needs all sorts of people with different skillsets - academic skills is only one type of many.
Certificate programs and community college
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> All those European countries that provide free college education? That's not free. They pay for that with tax dollars. Who pays? The taxpayers.
Firstly having a nation with college educated people is good for everyone rich to poor. Poor people need doctors, engineers and other professional people just as much the educated people need labor and tradesmen. It's the same exact reasoning everybody has to pay for K-12 education, it's in societies benefit top to bottom to have educated children regardless of their ability to pay. Also Europe has a much deeper system of apprenticeship for non-college careers (which is also covered)
Secondly this is a rea
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1.You're saying someone can pay tuition and living expenses for $10 - $12k a year? A dorm without the meal plan is going to be $5k-7k or more at any major university. So to hit your number, students would have to get most to all of their tuition covered. They could possibly hit your number if they live at home. Meaning you have to be in driving distance to a quality university.
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> A rock-solid college degree from a reputable mid-tier state school, with totally solid employment prospects, can be had for 40-50k, living expenses included. That's 4 frikkin years.
Can you give some examples? I live in GA and researched a few. This is in-state tuition and living on campus with living expenses.
Kennessaw State - $28k/yr Georgia Southern - $18k/yr Georgia State - $29k/yr
I ballparked a few other states and all had higher costs than what I was seeing in GA if collegetuitioncompare.com