14-07-2025
Most teens — girls especially — see college as key to jobs and life skills, AP-NORC poll says
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The survey also found that many teens think it will be harder for them to achieve major life milestones, like
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For Ry-n Uyeda, 17, the biggest concern about college is the prospect of being away from her home in Waianae, Hawaii. Uyeda is already taking college-level courses in high school and hopes to play softball at a university on the West Coast.
Uyeda said she wants to develop time management skills and endurance to handle the pressures of being a student-athlete, but she hopes the college experience does not change who she is.
'I want to remember where I came from and the values that I've learned from here,' said Uyeda, who attends Waianae High School. 'Going to a new place with new people in a new environment, I just want to still be myself.'
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Seven in 10 teenage girls in the survey said it was at least 'very' important to them to graduate from college, compared with 54 percent of teenage boys.
The disparity reflects a growing gender gap in college degree completion. In 1995, young men and women were equally likely to hold a bachelor's degree. Since then, a gap has emerged, with 47 percent of US women ages 25 to 34 completing a bachelor's degree compared with 37 percent of men, according to
Teens raised in households with higher incomes and parents who went to college themselves are also more likely to view higher education as important.
Jalena Crawford, a 16-year-old high school junior, said she hopes to attend Grand Canyon University or Arizona State University to become a professional American Sign Language interpreter. She said her plans have been encouraged by relatives with college degrees, and it would be 'weird' not to consider higher education.
'I didn't really start thinking about college until I started liking ASL. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do,' Crawford said.
Most teens see a college education as a vital step for their future career prospects, although they see other benefits as well.
About seven in 10 teenagers said completing college is 'extremely' or 'very' important for getting good jobs, and about six in 10 teenagers said a degree is valuable for learning necessary life skills. About half of teens see college as key to either becoming a more informed member of society or forming their personal identity, according to the survey.
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Teenagers have many of the same life goals as adults, such as
But few teenagers believe those goals have gotten easier to achieve for their generation compared with their parents.
About seven in 10 teenagers believe owning a home has become harder to achieve for them compared with their parents, according to the poll. Just over half of teenagers say it's become more challenging for their generation to raise a family. About half say that about having a good standard of living, having a successful career, or traveling the world. Fewer, about four in 10, say it's grown harder to graduate from college or be able to pursue what they enjoy.
Evarist Bego, 22, graduated earlier this year from the University of Southern California with a joint degree in business and film. He said he recalls wanting to go to college and then work his way up in his chosen industry, but 'that's just not how it works anymore.'
It's harder than he anticipated to find a job, which he said may be partly due to the creative industry he chose. He sees mostly temporary positions, like internships or fellowships.
'So many jobs that I see are entry-level, but then they require three-plus years of experience. I have interned in school, I had some experience, but it's not enough,' he said.
The AP-NORC poll of 1,060 teens ages 13-17 was conducted April 30 to May 14, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based
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