Despite growing concerns about return on investment, new data shows that a college degree remains the goal for the majority of high school students.
According to Sully’s new report, “How America Plans for College,” 95% of families with high school students said their student will attend college. Only 5% said their career path after graduation was unlikely.
Most people interested in two-year or four-year schools said it was because of skills training, career opportunities and higher income potential, according to education lenders. Approximately 82% of families with high school students considering attending college said they thought it was worth the high cost. Sully polled more than 2,000 adults and teens in January.
Rising prices and increasing student loan burdens are playing a major role in changing perceptions of the higher education system, with students increasingly questioning their return on investment.
A 2025 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that a number of factors, including the amount of financial aid offered and the amount students pay out-of-pocket, as well as their choice of major, future earning potential, and how long it will take them to graduate, help determine whether going to college pays off.
On the other hand, it is often reported that tuition costs are rising faster than financial aid. This means that students and their families bear more of the financial burden of tuition fees.
How families make numbers work
Sully’s How America Pays for College report found that in most cases, families cover about half of college costs from their income and savings. Free funding from scholarships and grants accounts for more than a quarter of the cost, with student loans accounting for most of the rest.
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Sally said six in 10 households are saving for higher education, with an average balance of $42,307. These funds are often located in savings accounts, beyond 529 college savings plans specifically for education expenses.
Despite the “significant tax benefits,” only 39% of households use 529 plans, “largely due to a lack of awareness and understanding of 529 plans,” said Rick Castellano, a Surrey spokesman. The Trump Account, which launches this July, will offer additional tax-deferred savings options for families.
Sally also found that about half of families end up borrowing money to pay for college.
student loan dilemma
A separate NerdWallet analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics found that this year’s freshmen who take out loans could rack up an average of about $43,000 in educational debt by the time they earn their bachelor’s degree.
But with the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big and Beautiful Bill” last July, new limits were placed on the amount of federal loans that students and parents can take out.
“For students starting college in fall 2026 or later, parents no longer have a line of credit from Uncle Sam to cover the full cost of college,” Kalman Chaney, a financial aid consultant and author of “Paying for College” in The Princeton Review, said in an email.
Once federal aid and scholarships are exhausted, private student loans can fill the gap, but these loans tend to have higher interest rates and can have stricter credit standards, Chaney said.
Castellano advises students and their families to “borrow responsibly and avoid borrowing more than necessary to fund your education.”
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