BestColleges' Adult Learner Enrollment Hesitancy Survey aims to identify the reasons behind adult learners' hesitation to enroll, inform institutions' strategies to reduce friction in the college decision-making process, and support adult learners pursuing their educational and career goals.
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Report overview
Key Findings
BestColleges’ Adult Learner Enrollment Hesitancy Survey examined the attitudes of adults ages 25 and older toward pursuing higher education, including those who are interested in enrolling and those who are not. The survey includes responses from 1,000 participants and covers education intent and plans, motivation and goals, barriers to enrollment, perception of educational value, life circumstances, and financial perception.
Education Intent and Plans
- Interest in certificates and bootcamps collectively surpassed bachelor’s degrees by 15 percentage points.
- Learners strongly preferred online learning (77%) over in-person (29%) and hybrid (26%) options.
- Professions with clear job outcomes proved popular, suggesting that students are increasingly pragmatic about their chosen majors.
What Is Driving Students to Enroll
- Career advancement is the primary driver among adults considering higher education: 34% say their top motivation is to start a new career path, and 23% want to gain a specific skill or license relevant to their current job.
- A smaller group (12%) cites earning a promotion or a pay raise as their primary motivation, which may be related to interest in skill development.
- Not all motivations are career-focused. Twenty percent of respondents cite personal enrichment and interest as a primary reason for potentially pursuing higher education.
Barriers to Enrollment
- Cost is the most common concern among adults considering enrollment. One-third of respondents (33%) say they are unsure whether they can afford to enroll or need more clarity about the total cost.
- Thirty-two percent report concern about taking on additional debt, while 30% are uncertain about their financial aid eligibility.
- Nearly half (47%) say that additional financial help — such as grants and scholarships — would play a key role in their decision to enroll.
Life Changes Influenced Enrollment Decisions
- Twenty-one percent of respondents interested in higher education reported experiencing job loss or layoffs, and 20% said they now had reduced work hours.
- Many respondents (41%) reported increases in the cost of living.
- Respondents also frequently cited mental health challenges, such as stress, burnout, or anxiety (37%), followed by personal physical health challenges (30%) as the cause for their delay in enrollment.
Perception of Educational Value
- About half of the respondents consider a bachelor’s program either “worth it” (28%) or “very worth it” (21%) today. Another 45% describe it as “somewhat worth it,” while only 6% view it as “not worth it.”
- The majority of respondents recognize value in higher education — even those who are not planning to enroll. However, many in this group consider a degree only “somewhat worth it,” rather than expressing greater confidence.
Financial Perception
- A majority (59%) say higher education is “much too expensive,” with an additional 18% describing it as “somewhat too expensive.” Together, 77% view the cost as too high.
- Almost all respondents who were not interested in higher education said they did not view higher education as financially viable. Only 1% say it is affordable as-is, while 5% say financial aid makes it manageable. Another 5% say cost may be reasonable if the return on investment (ROI) is clearer.
How We Collect Data
How We Find Survey Participants
Are Survey Participants Compensated?
Our Knowledge and Authority
Meet the Contributors
Amarilis Yera is an editor at BestColleges, focusing on business topics, including business administration, business management, marketing, and human resources. Before joining BestColleges, she spent over four years at Money as a lead personal finance writer specializing in consumer credit and identity theft. She was also the resident expert on credit cards, discussing rewards programs, fees, interest rates, and perks to help readers find the best business, airline, travel, and student credit cards. Additionally, Amarilis was a freelance journalist for Noticel, Puerto Rico’s first and only exclusively digital newspaper. There, she covered topics related to education, science and technology, and local news. She was also a writer for the Scientific Communications Laboratory at WIPR, Puerto Rico’s public broadcasting station. Her work has been featured on outlets such as MSN, Yahoo! Money, and Nasdaq. She holds a bachelor of arts in linguistics and a minor in writing and communication from the University of Puerto Rico.
Cameren Boatner is a senior editor at BestColleges covering higher education topics that impact college students’ lives. She joined BestColleges in 2021, editing resources on everything from student finance to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of BestColleges, she focuses on the current events impacting college students the most. Higher education stories that Cameren has edited have been distributed by publications across the country and cited by Politico, Forbes, The Guardian, CNN, and more. She’s a Society of Professional Journalists award winner for her coverage of race, minorities, and Title IX. You can find her work in OutSFL (formerly South Florida Gay News), MSN Money, Debt.com, the Student Press Law Center, and other publications. Cameren holds a BA in multimedia journalism from Florida Atlantic University.
Scott Harris has worked as a writer and editor for nearly 25 years, including more than 15 years covering healthcare and higher education. As a senior editor with Red Ventures, Scott currently edits the “News & Advice” section of NurseJournal.org and is a contributing editor at BestColleges.com. He occasionally writes an article because he can’t help himself. In his spare time, Scott is a published fiction author and freelance writer. He lives in Frederick, Maryland, about an hour outside of Washington, D.C. He has two daughters and a penchant for making them do environmental volunteer work with him.
Taína Cuevas is the editorial director of BestColleges.com, where she leads editorial strategy and oversees the development of school rankings and content designed for the modern learner. She works closely with research, data, and content teams to ensure rankings are transparent, rigorous, and centered on what matters most to students. With nearly 20 years of experience as a writer, researcher, and editor, Taína has built a career across legal, real estate, financial, and higher education content. She brings deep expertise in research methodology, compliance, and editorial standards, along with a strong commitment to serving readers with trustworthy information. Previously, Taína served as managing editor for Money.com’s consumer credit team and managed the publication’s credit cards compliance, helping ensure content met regulatory and accuracy standards. Before joining Money, she spent close to a decade in background investigations, serving as an investigator, report editor, and supervisor to a team conducting specialized due diligence for high profile banks, accounting firms, and investors. Throughout her career, Taína has worked as a writer, editor, and translator for publications in both English and Spanish. She began her journalism career covering arts and entertainment for the newspaper Primera Hora before specializing in legal, real estate, and financial journalism. Her work has been published in MSN, Yahoo! News, Whole Life Times, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, and many other outlets. Taína holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual and Communication Arts and Italian, earned with honors from Franklin University Switzerland. She also completed post graduate training in print journalism at Boston University. She is a member of ACES: The Society for Editing.
