Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Tuesday, September 7th, 2021

A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’

Author:     Douglas Belkin
Source:     The Wall Street Journal
Publication Date:     Sept. 6, 2021 1:12 pm ET
 Link: A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’
Stephan:   Here is another data point on the emerging trend I see concerning higher education in the U.S. First, for schools ranked in the National Universities category the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2020–2021 school year was $41,411 at private colleges, $11,171 for state residents at public colleges and $26,809 for out-of-state students at state schools. Given that the average income in the U.S. is $31,133 what does that tell you? Second, The gender equality trend is causing a great deal of disorientation amongst many young men. American culture from the country's founding has been based on male dominance, and adjusting to the new equality is causing a lot of social stress.

At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5%, according to enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. U.S. colleges and universities had 1.5 million fewer students compared with five years ago, and men accounted for 71% of the decline.

Men are abandoning higher education in such numbers that they now trail female college students by record levels.

This education gap, which holds at both two- and four-year colleges, has been slowly widening for 40 years. The divergence increases at graduation: After six years of college, 65% of women in the U.S. who started a four-year university in 2012 received diplomas by 2018 compared with 59% of men during the same period, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

In the next few years, two women will earn a college degree for every man, if the trend continues, said Douglas Shapiro, executive director of the research center at the National Student Clearinghouse.

No reversal is in sight. Women increased their lead over men in college applications for the 2021-22 […]

Read the Full Article