Survey: Second-guessing Often Accompanies Degrees June 1, 2017 By Catherine Morris Read Time Strada Article Advising Consumer Voice Research Research Team Value of Education ... More than half of adults in the U.S. would change at least one aspect of their higher education experience, according to a new survey from Gallup and the Strada Education Network. Common regrets were choice of institution and major or field of study. Comparatively, relatively few regretted their degree type. The survey interviewed 90,000 randomly sampled U.S. adults from age 18 to 65, covering people of all educational backgrounds, from those with less than a high school diploma to those with a postgraduate degree, shedding light on how students perceive the value of their education. Brandon Busteed is executive director of education and workforce development at Gallup. While the higher ed landscape is home to a diverse array of institutions of all types and categories, too often institutions do not systematically track the career outcomes of graduates, according to Brandon Busteed, executive director of education and workforce development at Gallup. “This is a voice that’s missing — and in many ways tragically missing — from the landscape of what we do and don’t know about higher ed,” Busteed said at the Education Writers Association (EWA) meeting on Thursday. Adults least likely to regret their choices are graduates in the STEM fields, vocational and technical education, and post-graduates. These three types of graduates share a certain commonality, according to Carol D’Amico, executive vice president of mission advancement and philanthropy at Strada. “They attended with a purpose,” D’Amico said. “They had a plan. They had a path they were going to go down.” Across degree types, 36 percent of all adults said that they would choose another major or field of study and 28 percent said they would choose another institution. Only 12 percent said they would choose another degree type. Intriguingly, graduates with a bachelor’s who were age 30 or older were less likely to regret their choice of field of study than younger graduates. The cost of a college degree has risen dramatically in recent years, causing more students to take on debt in their pursuit of a college education. Students and graduates have accumulated a total of $1.3 trillion in student loans from the federal government alone. In other words, choosing a college degree has never been a more weighty decision. Adults with student loan debt are more likely to say that they would make a different choice about their education given the chance, with the majority expressing dissatisfaction about their choice of an institution. However, only 14 percent of adults who have at least some student loan debt said that they would change their degree if given the chance. . . . “This is a voice that is missing – and in many ways tragically missing – from the landscape of what we do and don’t know about higher ed” -Brandon Busteed at the Education Writers Association (EWA) meeting. . . . Income after attaining a degree also impacts graduates’ perception of their educational choices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, graduates who earn less are more likely to say that they regretted some of their choices, but even high earners express some doubts. Nearly a third of graduates who earn $250,000 or more said that they would change their major. Higher ed might benefit from the same sort of analysis that other industry sectors, such as retail and the service industry, frequently apply to their own consumers, according to D’Amico. “If you think about what consumer insights have done in other sectors, you can begin to understand the potential and the power of consumer insights if applied to higher education,” D’Amico said. “We know that in healthcare there were many transformations made in practices in hospitals when they started doing a lot of consumer surveys.” Staff writer Catherine Morris can be reached at cmorris@diverseeducation.com. Group 13 Group 11 Group 12 To create a PDF of the webpage, choose in opened window 'Save as PDF' option in 'Destination' select or something like that and click to save or print button. Got it Catherine Morris Diverse: Issues In Higher Education Learn More Latest From Research September 21, 2022 The Great Resignation: Workers’ Experiences with Job and Education Transitions Amid all of this disruption, the number of U.S. workers leaving or changing their jobs sharply increased. Known variously as the Great Resignation, Reshuffle, or Realignment, the trend has been cast in the cultural imagination as a collective desire on the part of the American workforce for more rewarding or meaningful work. September 21, 2022 New Research on the “Great Resignation” Offers Surprisingly Good News New Study from Strada Education Network Reveals a Silver Lining at a Challenging Time July 20, 2022 Success Beyond Completion: How Can We Best Measure Student Outcomes? Over the past 80 years, our nation has made great strides in improving access to college, and then ensuring that many more students could complete a college degree. June 15, 2022 Education Expectations: Views on the Value of College and Likelihood to Enroll Spring 2022 enrollment numbers from the National Student Clearinghouse reveal a fifth straight semester of enrollment declines, with more than 1 million fewer students enrolled compared to spring 2020 March 16, 2022 The Power of Work-Based Learning Applied connections between education and work are increasingly a part of undergraduate education in the United States. March 16, 2022 New study shows paid internships boost first-job salaries by $3,000 and student confidence about their careers Disparities in securing paid internships persist for women, people of color, first-generation college students, and students with low incomes — even when taking into account their fields of study February 16, 2022 The Significant Value of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Two centuries after the first historically Black colleges and universities were founded, the 101 accredited HBCUs in operation today continue to deliver on their legacy of expanding educational opportunity for Black students that leads to successful and fulfilling lives. January 19, 2022 How Colleges Help Students Succeed Beyond Completion As a field, higher education has experienced a continuing evolution in how to measure success. For nearly five decades success efforts were focused on access, followed by the past decade and a half pursuing completion, and the field now has a growing focus on the value of a degree and student outcomes beyond completion. January 5, 2022 5 Ways To Integrate Career Connection Into College Experience Recent Strada research points to a striking disparity between first-year students’ aspirations for career planning in their undergraduate years and seniors’ actual experiences. December 8, 2021 Understanding Undergraduates’ Career Preparation Experiences Strada’s prior research on undergraduate perceptions of the value of their education demonstrates that students value their education most when they receive support to connect their education and career interests.