In the United States, a college education has long been one of the best ways to become a member of the middle class. A college degree usually leads to higher pay, stronger job security, a greater chance of home ownership and comparatively secure family life. These qualities have long been seen as worth the sacrifices often required. Those sacrifices can include the money spent paying off student loans and the years waiting for a return on one’s investment in higher education. Yet U.S. college graduates are not as likely as they once were to feel they belong to the middle class. That is a finding of the 2018 General Social Survey, or GSS. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and GSS researchers jointly examined the study. They found that 35 percent of college graduates described themselves as working or lower class. That’s an increase from 1983 when only 20 percent felt that way.