Keep your diploma — Gen Z prefers a toolbelt

Tech Insider
A participant's tool belt - one of the required materials, at the Table Saw Fundamentals class at the Hammerstone School of Carpentry for Women in Trumansburg, N.Y., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022.
As Gen Z enters the workforce, many are forgoing four-year college degrees in favor of tech training and trade school.

Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post via Getty Images

A tax on millionaires might soon pay for universal free community college in Massachusetts

Tech Insider : Politics, Politics
Massachusetts proposed state budget includes plans for free community college.
Massachusetts proposed state budget includes plans for free community college.

Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

I quit my Ph.D. program to be a wife and mother at 23. It's not what I expected for my post-college life, but I'm happier.

Tech Insider
Terryn Witherspoon-Woolfolk and her husband cutting a cake on their wedding day
The author, left, wanted to be a mother and wife – not an academic.

Courtesy of Trevor Mercer

My son decided to go to a college across the country. I'm already dreading my empty nest, but it's time to let him go.

Tech Insider
a woman hugging a person in graduation gown
The author, not pictured, is dreading her empty nest when her son goes to college.

YinYang/Getty Images

Only 1 in 4 Americans think you need a college degree to get a high-paying job: report

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy
Rear view of young student wearing graduation gown with graduation cap in her commencement day.
"Only one-in-four U.S. adults say it's extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job in today's economy," the Pew Research Center said in a report on Thursday.

Boy_Anupong via Getty Images

My high school graduation was ruined. I'm now graduating from college and getting the ceremony I deserve.

Tech Insider
the back of a college graduates head in a cap and gown
The author, not pictured, just graduated from college.

Kickstand/Getty Images

I'm a recent college graduate. No one told me it would be this hard to make ends meet.

Tech Insider
a birds-eye view of a woman typing on a calculator and looking at her bills
The author, not pictured, is a recent college graduate who can't make ends meet.

d3sign/Getty Images

I was accepted to Yale. Here's everything I included in my successful Ivy League application.

Tech Insider
Brian Zhang with the Yale dog mascot and a screenshot of his application
The author got into Yale with his successful college application.

Courtesy of Eric Gan & Brian Zhang

Americans with a college degree say they'd need at least a $100K salary to change jobs. But roles that pay in that range are getting harder to find.

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy
sad millennial man in kitchen
Americans with a college degree say they'd need a six-figure salary to consider switching jobs.

FG Trade/Getty Images

Meet the students stacking internships and battling each other to get a foot in Goldman Sachs' and JPMorgan's doors

Tech Insider
Channon Loh (left) and Goldman Sachs (right).
Channon Loh, 22, is in the thick of the internship hunger games, and he thinks he's winning.

Channon Loh; Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images

Subscribe to College