More Americans are going to college than ever before, but students face unprecedented challenges. Over 44 million Americans collectively hold more than $1.4 trillion in student loan debt and only 54.8 percent of students graduate in six years. This means that millions of Americans are taking on thousands of dollars in debt without a diploma to show for it. Even though he dropped out of college himself, Bill Gates says that college dropout rates need to be addressed. He told students, "The U.S. has the highest college dropout rate. We're number one in terms of the number of people who start college but we're like number 20 in terms of the number of people who finish college."

Gates says that while it's great that more than 2 million American students will start college this fall, high dropout rates are cause for concern. He writes on his blog, "Based on the latest college completion trends, only about half of all those students (54.8 percent) will leave college with a diploma. The rest — most of them low-income, first-generation, and minority students — will not finish a degree. They'll drop out." "This is tragic," he says. "Not just for the students and their families, but for our nation. Without more graduates, our country will face a shortage of skilled workers and fewer low-income families will get the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty."