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CHAPTER 4
REWRITING
THE NARRATIVE
AROUND THE
TRADES
One outcome of the ever-increasing cost of
college is that it has more students and their
families thinking critically about the value of
a college degree—and specifically about a
four-year university experience. According to
research from the ECMC Group, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to helping students
make informed decisions about their college
loans, just 53 percent of high school students
said they were likely to attend a four-year
college as of March 2021. That number was
down significantly from a survey conducted
just eight years earlier, when 71 percent of
students had indicated a likelihood to attend a
four-year college or university.
While this quick and substantial drop in
student mindset seems to indicate that the
COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend of
students thinking more skeptically about the
traditional college path, there is no doubt that
this trend was already in progress. A growing
number of students, the ECMC Group report
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