Aaron in his bedroom with posters reflecting his musical tastes and a photo of himself with his father. He lives with roommates in the large house in Santa Cruz his parents vacated when they could no longer afford it. It is one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. Photograph: Rachel Buljalski View image in fullscreen Aaron in his bedroom with posters reflecting his musical tastes and a photo of himself with his father. He lives with roommates in the large house in Santa Cruz his parents vacated when they could no longer afford it. It is one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. Photograph: Rachel Buljalski US education Some college, no degree: the Americans who find it impossible to graduate They all begin college with hope, and leave without the credential they believed would shape the rest of their lives due to financial instability, family, illness
Story and photographs by Rachel Bujalski
Everyone knows the feeling of leaving something unfinished.
A half-written novel. A business idea scribbled into a notebook. A hobby abandoned after the excitement fades. In my own life as a documentary photographer, I’ve started countless projects that never fully materialized. Some stories lose momentum. Others wait years before revealing what they are really about.
Long before I understood the scale of it, I kept meeting people who had left college without a degree. I kept hearing versions of the same story: people would explain where they had landed in life by tracing it back to the moment college became impossible to finish.
Some had left school only a semester short of graduating. Others had dropped out years earlier after financial instability, family responsibilities, illness, addiction, or burnout interrupted their plans. What struck me most was how common the experience was – and how rarely it was talked about openly because of the shame attached to not finishing.
I met Aaron while on assignment at a homeless shelter in Santa Cruz, California, where he worked security at the front check-in desk. I met Alina while visiting my old boxing gym in Chicago. Dupree came through a mutual friend in Florida. And Sylvie responded to a Reddit post I made late one night asking strangers to share their experiences leaving college before graduating.
Today, 43.1 million people fall into the “some college, no credential” category, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The people in this project are different in age, geography and circumstance, but they share a common experience that has become increasingly American: beginning college with hope, and leaving without the credential they believed would shape the rest of their lives.
Aaron was 19 when I met him working security at a homeless shelter in Santa Cruz, California – one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. During a slow moment at the front check-in desk, we talked about work, school and the version of adulthood he imagined for himself.
Growing up, Aaron often felt out of place in school. He struggled socially and academically, describing himself as “a brown kid in rapper clothes” surrounded by wealthier white classmates. He fought often, spent time in the principal’s office and almost gave up during Covid. Still, despite the instability and isolation he felt growing up, college represented something larger to him: proof that his life could move in a different direction.
Aaron enrolled at Cabrillo Community College...