Young conservatives like me are told not to attend college. That's shortsighted.

It’s no secret that American universities are steadily shifting toward the political left with no end in sight. Conservatives cringe at the massive budgets allotted to the payment of diversity, equity and inclusion staff, the rise of women’s and gender studies programs and the alleged omnipresence of critical race theory on college campuses, all gathered under conservatives’ favorite umbrella term, “indoctrination.”

It certainly isn’t an easy time to be a conservative college student; I speak from experience. At my University of Virginia, I’ve heard professors make fun of conservative viewpoints during class and seen an event featuring author and journalist Abigail Shrier hijacked by dozens of fake sign-ups from dissenters, preventing interested students from attending. Shrier had to be escorted to and from the building because of concerns for her physical safety thanks to aggressive protesters outside the event.

In its 2024 College Free Speech Rankings, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gathered some concerning statistics regarding tolerance of conservative viewpoints. For example, 37% of conservative students reported “feeling pressure to avoid discussing controversial topics,” as opposed to only 19% of liberal students. Likewise, 38% of conservative students said they were “more likely to self-censor on campus now – at the time they were surveyed – than they were when they started college,” with only 20% of liberal students agreeing.

In the face of these harrowing numbers and a steady decline in Republicans’ confidence in the university system, young people on the right are told to run screaming from higher education.

The college system is wounded. Education ought to expose students to diverse viewpoints, challenge beliefs and provide an opportunity to explore other schools of thought. Education ought to make students more open-minded and compassionate toward differing opinions, but many American universities are becoming hubs of self-censorship and narrowmindedness, a trend that is only abetted by the shrinking number of conservatives attending these institutions.

Anti-college conservatives often cite the dozens of studies suggesting that a college degree is unnecessary for the vast majority of jobs, as even prestigious corporations such as Apple and Google have removed a degree requirement for some jobs.

A survey by The Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work found that more than half of Americans with degrees are overqualified for their jobs, rendering their degree irrelevant to their work.

College degree still carries economic benefits

I’m not here to argue with the statistics. All of this is true.

Like it or not, though, those with college degrees still make more money than the less educated, averaging 86% more earnings than those with a high school diploma. Whether that is worth going into debt is a personal and serious choice.

Regardless, many of my fellow conservatives are convinced that college is a waste of money because, in addition to brainwashing, a university education won’t launch you cleanly into the upper middle class like it used to. And if it doesn’t guarantee you a steady career or disposable income, why bother?

There you go, folks – higher education is unwelcoming to conservative perspectives and it’s only getting worse. Therefore, don’t go to college. Case closed.

DEI is unraveling at our universities. Good riddance to a failed and divisive bureaucracy.

Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative think tank Turning Point USA, defends this point in his 2022 book, “The College Scam: How America's Universities are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth.” The title tells you everything you need to know, but interestingly, Kirk isn’t opposed to all college education.

When interviewed by Fox News about his book, Kirk encouraged today’s youth to become entrepreneurs or to opt for a “community college or a tech school,” even as he claims that a “massive closure of college campuses” is “desperately" needed.

More than STEM degrees have value in the marketplace

Kirk views college education in a purely utilitarian light, asserting that the only worthwhile degrees are in science, technology, engineering and math because of the job stability they provide. He recently posted a TikTok video (now with 2 million views) in which he tells college students that the humanities are “one of the great wastes of time and ... societal poisons and cancers that are happening in our society.”

What?

Conservatives like Kirk have lost sight of why we study the humanities in the first place: Philosophy, poetry, music and literature make us human. STEM is about the machinery, the mechanisms; the humanities are about us.

The conservative anti-college narrative treats education as a means to an end. Education, however, is an end in itself.

We also underestimate the value of learning for its own sake. So what if most English majors (myself included) don’t land jobs that involve reading books all day? So what if most history majors don’t spend their lives traveling the world and visiting historical sites?

They learn to think analytically, to write well, and to recognize and appreciate beauty in human culture. In the grand scheme of things, that is not time wasted.

Gen Z voters don't trust you. And they may pick your next president.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everyone should throw caution to the wind and get a degree in the arts. STEM and the humanities spearhead technological and cultural advancements respectively, both of which are necessary for the flourishing of society.

But undervaluing the humanities is dangerous territory. A society that does not appreciate its historical and philosophical foundations will inevitably face a decline in culture as its members lose sight of their communal identity.

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This disdain for the humanities only exacerbates the lack of conservative presence on college campuses as students are told that a liberal arts degree is a reckless waste of time and money. What many on the right fail to recognize is that the anti-college narrative perpetuates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Its response to intolerance of conservative perspectives has been to discourage young conservatives from pursuing higher education, further skewing the system toward the left.

And if fewer conservatives attend college, then of course the college system will become more liberal. This isn’t rocket science, but the right prefers to bemoan the tragically liberal state of modern academia.

Civil discourse cannot exist on campuses without intellectual diversity. The best thing we can do for the American university system is promote the presence of a wide array of worldviews and encourage respect for all. But if conservative college students aren’t there to ask for respect for their beliefs, who will?

Christine Schueckler is a USA TODAY Opinion intern and a rising third year student at the University of Virginia, where she studies English and French. At UVA, she writes for The Jefferson Independent and performs with the UVA University Singers.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Conservative students like me are told to skip college. Don't listen