A Degree Tells Employers Where You Studied. Not Who You've Become.

For the past year, much of the conversation about college has asked whether a degree is still worth it. New research from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation gives employers a turn to answer. In Employers' Confidence in Higher Education Undaunted by AI, Stephanie Marken and Andrea Malek Ash report on a survey of 2,500 U.S. hiring decision makers conducted in August.

The results push against the popular story. Nearly half of employers (48%) expect AI to make college degrees more important over the next five years, while 26% expect them to matter less. Six in ten say they have strong confidence in higher education. And 80% say they would prefer a candidate with a degree, regardless of whether the role requires one.

Those numbers stand out against the public mood. Just 38% of U.S. adults expressed strong confidence in higher education in June, according to the same report. Families are doubting the degree while employers are leaning on it.

What a Preference Like That Really Means

I take the findings seriously, and I think they are good news for students who are earning degrees. But one number deserves a closer look. If eight in ten employers prefer a degree even for jobs that don't need one, the degree is doing something other than certifying job skills. It is working as a signal, a shortcut employers use to predict qualities that are hard to see directly.

That isn't unreasonable. A degree tells an employer that someone finished something difficult over several years. It suggests discipline, follow through and some ability to learn. When hiring managers face hundreds of applicants, a consistent standard like that helps them decide fairly and quickly. Standards like these are useful, and I wouldn't ask anyone to throw them out.

But a signal is not the same as knowing someone. The qualities that grow more valuable as AI takes on routine work, such as judgment, communication and adaptability, live in the person, not on the diploma. And as AI makes it harder to tell what any applicant produced on their own, a credential becomes an even more tempting shortcut. Two graduates with the same degree can bring completely different strengths, and a hiring process that stops at the credential will miss most of what makes each of them valuable.

The Credential Can Open a Door. It Can't Walk Through It.

This week The Wall Street Journal told the story of a Princeton Ph.D. who has applied to more than 2,300 jobs without an offer. Few people hold a stronger credential, and he still spent two years waiting for systems to read his file. His story is a reminder that the degree may get you considered, but it can't make anyone understand what you specifically bring.

That is the part students and parents can control. The degree is a foundation. What gets built on it is the student's own sense of what they solve for, how they think and where they add value that others don't. That sense keeps evolving through college and well beyond it. Students who can name it and show it will stand out from a pile of applicants who share the same credential.

I made a similar point in Before Choosing College or the Trades, Ask Who You're Becoming. Whatever path a young person takes, the more important question is who they are becoming along the way.

Questions for Families, Schools and Employers

For parents, ask your student to describe a problem they solved this semester that no assignment required. If they can't think of one, help them find room to try.

For students, keep a running record of moments when you made a judgment call, worked through disagreement or learned something new without being told to. Those stories will matter more in an interview than your major.

For colleges, ask whether your graduates leave knowing how to explain who they are and what they bring, not just what they studied. The employers in this survey are trusting that a degree still means something more than a piece of paper. Keeping that trust depends on graduates who can show it.

For employers, ask what your degree preference is standing in for. If it is judgment and adaptability, how could you see those directly? And are you overlooking capable people without degrees who already have them? I explored this balance in A Skills-First Economy Needs an Identity-First Foundation.

The Gallup and Lumina findings should reassure families that a degree still carries weight. They should also challenge everyone involved, because a preference for credentials says as much about how little employers can see as it does about what they value. In the years ahead, employers will need better ways to know the person, and students will need to know themselves.

A degree tells employers where you studied. Only you can show them who you have become.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.