Pew tracks rising number of Americans who today question cost of college vs. its value

May 23 (UPI) -- Americans report mixed opinions on whether the cost of college is worth it, and almost half say a degree is only worth the expense if students don't require a loan to attain it, a new study from the Pew Research Center shows.

Almost a third of the respondents say the cost of a four-year college degree is not worth earning if students have to borrow to get the degree, and a quarter say it's important enough for which to borrow money.

The survey comes at a time when many Americans are questioning the value and the need for a four-year degree, and it comes at a time when trade schools and apprenticeship programs have made gains in helping produce marketplace-ready workers in much less time than most colleges or universities.

Many students are also opting for degrees from community colleges, most of which are less expensive than traditional colleges. And today many community colleges also offer four-year degree programs in addition to the standard two-year and associate degree courses for which they are best known.

Incomes and outlooks for young adults are also improving, the Pew study said.

"After decades of falling wages, young U.S. workers (ages 25 to 34) without a bachelor's degree have seen their earnings increase over the past 10 years. Their overall wealth has gone up too, and fewer are living in poverty today," the report said.

The study said the wage gap between young adults with and without degrees is narrowing. Almost half the people surveyed by Pew said it's less important to have a four-year college degree today in order to get a well-paying job than it was 20 years ago.

A third said it is more important and 17% said it's just as important now as it was 20 years ago.

Some workers are doing slightly better wage-wise without a college degree than they have in recent years, according to the study, which showed that earnings for these workers had been mostly down from the mid-1970s until about a decade ago.

Large public universities have seemed to parry growing questions and public skepticism about the importance of traditional four-year colleges, and many continue to raise tuition, fees and other associated costs, contributing to a spike in student debt loads and complaints that even freshly minted graduates can't find meaningful employment in their field of study when they owe so much.

Still, despite the growing public sentiment and higher costs, a majority of respondents said the degree was worth the cost.

"Four-year college graduates (58%) are much more likely than those without a college degree (26%) to say their education was extremely or very useful in giving them the skills and knowledge they needed to get a well-paying job," Pew said.

Nine-percent of the respondents said that question did not apply to them.