Out of Touch with Social Class Realities

Serve Marketing’s Why College Matters
media campaign stacks the deck in favor of higher education and
expects consumers to believe the story they tell. The problem with this campaign, and its anonymous funders, is that for many folks, college (and life after college) is problematic at best and oppressive at worst.

The Higher Education Disconnect: What Survey Results Miss About Americans’ Real Concerns

The Why College Matters campaign presents data suggesting Americans’ perceptions of higher education can be positively influenced through messaging. However, when
compared with broader research on Americans’
attitudes toward higher education, significant disconnects emerge. This
analysis examines the gaps between the campaign’s focus and the
well-documented concerns Americans have about today’s college
experience.

The Financial Reality Gap: Debt and Affordability Concerns

The Why College Matters campaign notably avoids addressing one of the most
pressing issues facing Americans considering higher education: the
financial burden. This omission creates a fundamental disconnect with
public sentiment.

Student Debt as a Life-Altering Burden

Recent research shows that 70% of middle-income Americans believe
student loans are impacting their ability to achieve financial
prosperity5. The
psychological burden is equally significant, with 54% of student
borrowers experiencing mental health challenges directly attributed to
their debt load, including anxiety (56%) and depression (approximately
33%)8.

The campaign’s focus on abstract benefits like “growing America’s
economic prosperity” fails to acknowledge that for many individuals, the
immediate economic reality is far less promising. Student borrowers
report delaying major life milestones including starting
families, purchasing homes, and pursuing careers they’re passionate
about due to debt constraints8.

The Middle-Class Squeeze

While the campaign targets adults without college degrees as a key
demographic, it misses that middle-class families face particularly
acute challenges. These families often find themselves in a precarious
position – too wealthy to qualify for significant need-based
aid but not wealthy enough to comfortably afford college expenses13. This
“middle-class squeeze” represents a significant disconnect between survey messaging and lived experience.

The Employment Reality Disconnect

Perhaps the most striking omission in the campaign’s framing is the
reality of post-graduation employment outcomes, which directly
contradicts the economic benefit messaging.

Widespread Underemployment

Research from the Burning Glass Institute reveals a sobering statistic:
52% of recent four-year college graduates are underemployed a year after
graduation, holding jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree14. Even
more concerning, 45% still don’t hold college-level jobs a decade after graduation14. This
creates a fundamental disconnect when the campaign emphasizes workforce development without acknowledging this reality.

The “First Job Trap”

The survey frames higher education as broadly beneficial for workforce
development but fails to address what researchers call the “first job
trap.” Data shows that 73% of graduates who start their careers in
below-college-level jobs remain underemployed a decade
after graduation14. This
presents a significantly different picture than the campaign’s simplified message about maintaining a skilled workforce.

Credential Inflation: The Devaluing Degree

The campaign messaging presumes that increased educational attainment
inherently produces positive outcomes, without addressing the phenomenon
of credential inflation that undermines this assumption.

Degrees as Diminishing Returns

Credential inflation refers to the declining value of educational
credentials over time, creating a scenario where jobs that once required
a high school diploma now demand bachelor’s degrees, and positions that
required bachelor’s degrees now require master’s
or doctorates11. This
creates a paradoxical
situation where more education is simultaneously more necessary yet
less valuable – a nuance entirely absent from the campaign narrative.

Opportunity Costs Unacknowledged

The campaign frames college primarily through its benefits, without
acknowledging significant opportunity costs identified in research.
These include delayed savings, fewer years in the workforce,
postponement of family formation, and accumulation of debt11. This
one-sided framing creates a disconnect with the lived experience of many Americans weighing these very real tradeoffs.

The Growing Generational Divide

The campaign’s focus on adults aged 35-64 misses a critical demographic:
younger generations who express the most skepticism about higher
education’s value.

Gen Z’s Value Perception Crisis

Only 39% of Gen Z respondents in one study said advancing their
education is important to them, and 46% don’t believe college is worth
the cost15. This
represents a fundamental shift in attitude that the campaign’s
methodology doesn’t capture, creating another disconnect between
messaging and emerging social reality.

The Civic Disconnection Context

Research on youth disconnection shows broader trends of civic
disengagement, with young Americans becoming less connected to community
institutions generally1 9. The
campaign’s framing of higher education as building community connection
happens against this backdrop of declining civic participation –
context that provides important nuance missing from the survey design.

Mental Health Concerns: The Hidden Cost

Perhaps the most significant omission in the campaign’s messaging is the
documented mental health impact of the higher education experience,
particularly related to financial strain.

Student Debt as Mental Health Crisis

Research demonstrates clear links between student loan debt and mental
health challenges. Beyond anxiety and depression, the financial burden
of education impacts overall wellbeing in ways unacknowledged by the
campaign messaging8 16.

Postponed Lives and Dreams

The psychological impact of delayed life milestones due to educational
debt creates stress that extends far beyond graduation. Student
borrowers report putting their lives on hold – a reality that
contradicts the campaign’s emphasis on “keeping alive the American
dream”8.

Ideological and Cultural Concerns

The campaign notably avoids addressing concerns about campus culture and
ideological homogeneity that research shows are significant factors in
changing attitudes toward higher education.

Faculty Ideological Imbalance

Research from Harvard University reveals striking ideological
homogeneity among faculty, with 37% identifying as “very liberal” and
just 1% as “conservative”12. This
imbalance contributes to perceptions of higher education as
disconnected from the values of many Americans – particularly explaining
why the campaign struggled to persuade conservative Americans that
“higher education plays a critical role in maintaining a
healthy democracy.”

Conclusion: Bridging the Perception Gap

The Why College Matters campaign demonstrates that positive messaging can
improve abstract perceptions of higher education’s value. However, for
these improved perceptions to translate into meaningful change in
Americans’ relationship with higher education, campaigns
must address the substantive concerns documented in research.

The disconnects identified here – regarding debt, employment outcomes,
credential inflation, generational attitudes, mental health impacts, and
ideological concerns – represent real issues that significantly impact
Americans’ decisions about higher education.
Any campaign seeking to genuinely improve perceptions of higher
education’s value must engage with these realities rather than focusing
solely on abstract benefits.

Simply improving “feelings” about higher education without addressing
concrete problems risks further widening the gap between institutional
messaging and public experience – potentially eroding rather than
building trust in higher education as an institution.

Citations:

Source link

Out of Touch with Social Class Realities

More posts

Lessons from innovating in our student support model

Digital Darwinism in Higher Ed: Adapt Your Marketing for AI — or Get Left Behind [Webinar]

Penn State Proposes Seven Campus Closures

Email Marketing & Student Retention in Higher Education