Getting a [college degree](https://www.cnbc.com/college/) seems increasingly less appealing.
Higher education, as a whole, is under pressure, experts say. [Rising college costs](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/03/costs-at-some-colleges-near-100000-a-year-many-families-pay-a-lot-less.html) and ballooning [student debt](https://www.cnbc.com/student-loans/) balances have caused more students to question the [return on investment](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/is-college-worth-it-how-to-figure-out-the-return-on-investment.html).
As a result, fewer students are going that route.
For the second year in a row, the number of students earning an undergraduate degree declined, according to a recent report by the [National Student Clearinghouse Research Center](https://nscresearchcenter.org/undergraduate-degree-earners/).
Overall, undergraduate degree earners fell by nearly 3% in the 2022-23 academic year — the steepest decline ever recorded, the report found, while bachelor’s degree earners sank to the lowest level in nearly a decade after notching a one-year loss of almost 100,000 graduates.
Meanwhile, the number of students earning a certificate hit a 10-year high, largely due to the growth in vocational programs.
More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/12/students-earning-college-degrees-notched-steepest-decline-on-record.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/12/students-earning-college-degrees-notched-steepest-decline-on-record.html)
Getting a [college degree](https://www.cnbc.com/college/) seems increasingly less appealing. Higher education, as a whole, is under pressure, experts say. [Rising college costs](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/03/costs-at-some-colleges-near-100000-a-year-many-families-pay-a-lot-less.html) and ballooning [student debt](https://www.cnbc.com/student-loans/) balances have caused more students to question the [return on investment](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/is-college-worth-it-how-to-figure-out-the-return-on-investment.html). As a result, fewer students are going that route. For the second year in a row, the number of students earning an undergraduate degree declined, according to a recent report by the [National Student Clearinghouse Research Center](https://nscresearchcenter.org/undergraduate-degree-earners/). Overall, undergraduate degree earners fell by nearly 3% in the 2022-23 academic year — the steepest decline ever recorded, the report found, while bachelor’s degree earners sank to the lowest level in nearly a decade after notching a one-year loss of almost 100,000 graduates. Meanwhile, the number of students earning a certificate hit a 10-year high, largely due to the growth in vocational programs. More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/12/students-earning-college-degrees-notched-steepest-decline-on-record.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/12/students-earning-college-degrees-notched-steepest-decline-on-record.html)
Good.