Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that the figure of over $30,000 in student borrowing applies only to college students who take out loans.
For most students at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Conn., post-graduation plans begin well before senior year. The school’s proximity to Yale University heightens awareness of—and competition around—elite higher education institutions, creating intense pressure around college admissions, said the school’s principal, Andre Hauser.
“There is a presumption that most of the kids here will go to a four-year college,” said Hauser. And most do. Among last year’s seniors, 86% enrolled immediately in four-year colleges, compared to 45% nationwide in 2022.
But not all the high school’s graduates follow that path. About 10% of the school’s class of 2025 planned to go into work, trades, or apprenticeship programs; the military; or gap years.
In recent years, Hauser said, the school has made more intentional efforts to prepare these students for post-graduation options that don’t involve the traditional college route. “We’ve become much more attuned to their needs and interests, which is a little bit of a shift in focus for us,” he said.
This shift reflects a growing trend among the nation’s K-12 schools as they aim to equip students with knowledge about post-graduation options outside of a linear route to higher education. The longstanding “college for all” mindset is loosening, while interest and demand for skilled trades grow, and the lines between vocational training and college prep studies begin to blur and fade.
Expanding high school students’ options
Even in schools where most students are college-bound, it is becoming more acceptable for students to demonstrate interest in alternate routes, and for schools to accommodate them.
“High school counselors are starting to realize and promote that there’s a wide variety of things that they can do post-high school with some type of training, and I do think that is becoming a much greater narrative in today’s day and age,” said Christine Royce, a professor in the education department at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
That’s true at Amity Regional High School. A weekly newsletter from the counselor’s office to the student body that used to focus on a “college of the week” now also includes information on in-demand skilled trades. Four years ago, the school added Trades Week, a weeklong event in which representatives from approximately 30 different trade- and industry-related careers meet with students to discuss different career paths.
Based on that event’s success, the school added Medical Careers Week, focused on healthcare careers that begin with certifications, such as EMTs and certified nursing assistants.
“We recognized that although we do a great job meeting the career and college interests of our more academic students, we weren’t paying as much attention as we could have to more trade-focused students,” said Hauser.
National data show an uptick in students’ interest in the skilled trades and related career and technical education (CTE). In a 2025 national survey of K-12 teachers by the EdWeek Research Center, 71% of respondents reported increased student interest in CTE in the past five years.
For many high school students, it’s no longer either college or career training, but a blend of both.
Next fall, Amity Regional High School will start offering its first class that can lead to a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) credential. Demand has already exceeded capacity, with twice the number of students as seats available attempting to register for the course.
“Some students think: I’ll take the course, I’ll get the certification, I’ll get a job as a CNA,” Hauser said. “Then there are others who plan to go from us to college to medical school, and they figure this gives them some early exposure, a knowledge base, and also a little bit of a test to find out: Do I really love this field?”
Many graduating high school seniors feel unprepared for next steps
Many students nationwide remain uncertain about their future after high school.
For the second year in a row, a nationally representative survey from ed-tech company YouScience found that 77% of graduating seniors felt only “moderately, slightly, or not at all prepared for life after high school.” The 2026 survey drew responses from more than 1,000 students from graduating classes 2022-2025.
That figure is up from 72% the previous year, suggesting worsening confidence among graduates in their level of preparation.
“The 2026 findings confirm that our education system is optimized for the wrong outcome. Completion is up, but clarity is not,” YouScience CEO Edson Barton said when releasing the report.
A changing narrative around college may be adding to students’ uncertainty over post-graduation plans.
The evolving narrative around college
Several factors are leading more students and schools to reconsider the traditional college preparatory path. College tuition rates have soared over the past two decades, outpacing wage increases. For many who do enroll in college, student debt has ballooned. College students in 2025 who took on student loans borrowed, on average, over $30,000, a debt that can take decades to repay.
While college graduates continue to out-earn those with only a high school degree and have a significantly lower likelihood of being unemployed, the job outlook for recent college graduates looks somewhat bleak. Some experts predict that this year’s college graduates may encounter the highest jobless rate in years, and a 2024 study by nonprofit Burning Glass Institute found that 52% of college graduates are underemployed and hold jobs that don’t require the skills or credentials they acquired through higher education.
Further, many students who enroll in college don’t finish. Less than two-thirds of students who began four-year bachelor’s degree programs in 2014 had earned their degree within six years, according to federal data.
Together, these factors may explain the results of a 2023 Pew Research Center report in which 29% of U.S. adults surveyed agreed that college was not worth the investment; 22% agreed it was worth it—even with loans; and 47% agreed that college was worthwhile only if it didn’t require taking out loans.
At Amity Regional High School, there appears to be little stigma around taking CTE courses among the historically college-bound student body. The biggest hindrance, says Hauser, is finding qualified instructors.
“The demand for these certified instructors,” he said, “is greater than the supply.”
