FILE-Multiple groups of college students sit together at tables in the Milton S Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University. (Photo by JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado/Getty Images) JACKSON, Tenn. - When he looked to the future, Grayson Hart always saw a college degree.
He was a good student at a good high school. He wanted to be an actor, or maybe a teacher. Growing up, he believed college was the only route to a good job, stability and a happy life.The pandemic changed his mind.A year after high school, Hart is directing a youth theater program in Jackson, Tennessee.
He got into every college he applied to but turned them all down. Cost was a big factor, but a year of remote learning also gave him the time and confidence to forge his own path."There were a lot of us with the pandemic, we kind of had a do-it-yourself kind of attitude of like, ‘Oh — I can figure this out,’" he said. "Why do I want to put in all the money to get a piece of paper that really isn’t going to help with what I’m doing right now?"Hart is among hundreds of thousands of young people who came of age during the pandemic but didn’t go to college.
Many have turned to hourly jobs or careers that don’t require a degree, while others have been deterred by high tuition and the prospect of student debt.What first looked like a pandemic blip has turned into a crisis.