42% of people with college degrees said it didn’t end up being worth it

42% of people with college degrees said it didn’t end up being worth it.

A survey from the WSJ and the research organization NORC at the University of Chicago found that 56% of Americans say earning a four-year degree isn’t worth the cost. They tie their skepticism to mounting student debt — and the idea that tangible job skills aren’t always gained during time in college, according to the survey.

The survey’s findings highlighted a swelling skepticism about the value of higher education and underscored a decade-long decline in college enrollment. Those who are closest to this college-age demographic — people between the ages of 18-34 — were particularly prone to questioning of the value behind a college degree, the survey found.

Even those with college degrees are weighing whether or not it was really worth it. The WSJ survey found that 42% of people with college degrees said it didn’t end up being worth it. This percentage swelled more than 10 percentage points, compared to findings from two polls from the last decade, the WSJ reported. That’s why GOBankingRates conducted a survey on whether or not Americans have regrets about going to college. Some 500 Americans with college degrees were polled about how they feel about their decision now, whether or not paying for college was worth the money and what they might do differently if they had a chance to do it all again. Keep reading to learn more about how they answered and what they do and don’t regret about their college decisions.

On balance, a little over two in five Americans feel that their time at college just wasn’t worth the debt it created. That might not be so surprising given the size of the student loan debt crisis. The total amount of student loan debt in America clears $1.5 trillion across nearly 45 million people, and borrowers in the class of 2017 are facing an average student loan debt of $28,650.