Gen Z men want to skip college completely

Dropping out of college has long been glamorized by Silicon Valley. But now, Big Tech has grown so hostile to academia that Gen Z hopefuls are seeking to avoid it entirely. 

Why It Hits: Big Tech is increasingly enticing young men to forgo college –– which some consider wasteful and dogmatic –– in favor of lucrative vocational programs with syllabi of their own. While their critiques of higher education have merit, these young technocrats might miss out on alternative perspectives, career paths, and even future earnings.

Manning Down: Between 2011 and 2023, college enrollment among 18- to 24-year-olds dropped by 1.2 million (1 million of them men), according to the Pew Research Center.

• The prohibitive cost of a college is a major — and justifiable — complaint. The average graduate carries around $30,000 in student loan debt, with some undergraduate degrees costing nearly half a million dollars, all for careers that often come with bleak job prospects.

• But many young men cite ideological reasons for disdaining college, claiming that it’s worthless and prevents them from becoming high earners or living “high agency” lives that prize efficiency above all else.

• Tech founders espouse these ideas in books — and, in Peter Thiel’s case, alternative curricula like the one Palantir provides through its own scholarship program. 

Hitting the Books: Financially speaking, the data suggests that college graduates still make 75%-80% more money than dropouts do, making it more than worth the cost of attending. More broadly, the value of a university education is hard to quantify, but alternative syllabi like Palantir’s may have their own agenda, and possibly a narrower focus than colleges do.
Prediction: This critique echoes views from the manosphere and devalues most career paths, especially women-dominated ones like social work, teaching, and care work. If this trend continues, expect Gen Z’s male-female political divide to grow even wider.