Education pays, but universities must raise the bar for degrees.
When I graduated from college in 1986, I never once doubted that I would be able to use my degree to pursue professional success. I never wondered whether the skills I spent thousands of dollars learning were already obsolete or if they would translate to my first job. I didn’t have to ask myself: “If artificial intelligence can do this, then what was the point of going to college?”
But in 2025, these questions weigh heavily on students and families nationwide.
The prevalence of AI is rewriting expectations for work and reshaping the choices today’s students face. And social media is crowded with warnings that a traditional bachelor’s degree is losing value—or worse, that it no longer pays off. One recent national story warned, “The rise of AI can make college degrees out of date.” And another found that many recent college graduates are calling their degrees “useless.” Hyperbolic messages like these, amplified online and echoed in conversations, paint a distorted picture of the value of a bachelor’s degree today.
What’s more, this new narrative doesn’t actually reflect reality or help families make good decisions about their educational goals. Some skepticism about a bachelor’s is understandable and healthy. Cost, relevance and the impact of AI are more than worth weighing.
Read the full article in U.S. News & World Report