A new national survey finds American parents are warming up to alternatives to the traditional four-year college degree — though many remain uncertain about which path is actually best for their children.
The report, All Options on the Table: Parent Views on Postsecondary Education and Career Paths, was released by Britebound, a national nonprofit focused on career readiness for young people. Conducted in March 2025, the survey polled 2,230 parents of middle and high school students across the country and compared results to a similar Britebound survey from 2019.
The headline finding: parental preference for a traditional college education has dropped sharply — from 74% in 2019 to 58% in 2025. But the shift away from four-year degrees hasn’t translated cleanly into enthusiasm for specific alternatives. Interest in nondegree pathways grew by only six percentage points over the same period, suggesting that a growing number of parents are simply undecided about what comes next for their kids.
That uncertainty is playing out against a backdrop of mounting anxiety about the job market. Unemployment among recent college graduates is rising faster than among those without degrees, and more than half of the Class of 2023 found themselves in jobs that didn’t require a bachelor’s degree within a year of graduating. The report also cites research suggesting that 73% of graduates who start out underemployed are still underemployed a decade later — a sobering statistic that likely factors into how parents are reassessing the college calculus.
One area where attitudes have shifted notably is career and technical education, long stigmatized as a fallback for students who weren’t college-bound. In 2019, just 13% of parents said CTE was well-suited for high-achieving students. By 2025, that figure had risen to 35% — a sign that the old “vocational school is for the B students” mindset is breaking down. Fully 83% of parents now say any type of student should consider CTE, compared to 62% six years ago.
Parents also say they feel equipped to help their children explore nondegree options. Four out of five reported confidence in their ability to guide a child through a nondegree pathway. But that confidence has limits. While 95% of parents say they’re at least somewhat familiar with trade schools, and 93% with apprenticeships, familiarity drops off sharply when it comes to newer options — 30% say they have no familiarity at all with technical bootcamp programs.
The survey also reveals a telling gap between how parents perceive their own support and how their teenagers experience it. Only 5% of parents say they disagree with their child’s post-high school plans — but 19% of teens say they feel their parents aren’t on board. That disconnect grows even wider when the teen’s preferred path is nondegree: just 8% of parents in that group say they disapprove, while 30% of the teens involved report feeling parental pushback.
Regardless of whether parents favored a degree or nondegree route, the survey found broad agreement on what matters most in any pathway: that it aligns with a child’s interests and equips them with concrete career skills. Cost and counselor recommendations ranked far lower on the priority list.
The report is part of Britebound’s Youth Career Readiness Outlook, a research series examining how students and the adults around them are navigating the transition from high school to career.
