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Estimated ROI by Major
Comparison of estimated return on investment for different academic paths.
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Is college still worth it? What tech execs are telling their kids.
In the age of AI, some people are rethinking college. Tech execs are telling their own kids that a degree is still important. Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI By Kelly Burch You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. 2026-05-02T09:19:01.295Z As a first-generation college student, my diploma meant the world to me, even before I had it in hand. Being the first in my family to obtain a degree wasn't just a personal achievement; it was a ticket to a more secure financial future.Fifteen years later, with my college loans only recently paid off, I sometimes think a lot about the value of that degree, versus its costs. It turns out that questioning is becoming more and more common. Last year, only one-third of Americans agreed that a four-year college degree is worth its cost because it leads to better job prospects, according to an NBC News Poll.The boom in artificial intelligence (AI) is contributing to college skepticism, too. A recent Gallup poll found that 47% of current college students have considered changing their major due to AI (and 16% have actually made the change).With so much in flux about the future of higher education, I reached out to nine tech CEOs and execs to hear how they're talking with their own kids about college. Nearly all of them agreed that college remains important — but not for the reasons you might think.Go to college, but not for a particular jobEntrepreneur Matt Blumberg has two children in college (studying business and psychology), and one who's a junior in high school. Blumberg, the CEO of Markup AI, says he encouraged all of them to get a degree, but "not for the reasons my parents' generation would have given.""College does not have to funnel you directly into a particular job, especially in a world where that job might not exist in five years," he explains.Many tech leaders shared this sentiment. Stephen Upstone, CEO and founder of LoopMe, encourages his three kids (23, 21, and 17) to go to college to "get independence as adults, develop reasoning, and make friends for life." Ali Kashani, co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics, will have two children in college, come the fall. The value for them, he says, isn't just the degree."It's where you learn how to learn, how to think critically, how to work hard, and how to become an independent adult," Kashani said. "It's also where many people build some of their most important, lifelong relationships." As AI continues to redefi...
Are College Degrees Still Worth the Investment?
This article was featured in this week’s Financial Poise Weekly newsletter. Read the full newsletter here for bonus exclusive content. For decades, the four-year college degree was sold as an express ticket to the middle class– a reliable path to a well-paying job and, with it, the kind of financial security your parents could brag about at dinner parties. But lately, that once-airtight pitch has started to leak. For one, the number of entry-level white-collar jobs is declining, thanks in part to AI efficiency gains. In fact, the entry-level job market is currently the worst it’s been in about 37 years. Close to 43% of US graduates aged 22 to 27 were “underemployed” at the end of 2025, meaning they were working in jobs that don’t require their degree. Numbers like those force a question that, until recently, almost no one bothered to ask out loud: Is a college education still worth the investment? The Short Answer: Yes, but Not for Everyone. Analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimate that the typical college graduate earns roughly a 12.5% return on their investment. That handily beats the long-run return on stocks, bonds, and most everything else you’d find on a financial advisor’s pie chart. Moreover, college graduates earn about $30,000 per year more than workers who didn’t go to college– a gap commonly referred to as the annual college wage premium. Over the course of a career, that premium can more than offset the rising cost of tuition. But there are also many instances where college graduates don’t see such high returns. For the bottom 25% of earners, the rate of return for a college degree drops to about 2.6%. That means that around a quarter of all college graduates will see little benefit from going to college. That’s not accounting for the true cost of college, which extends beyond tuition to include the opportunity cost of forgone wages during years spent out of the workforce. What you study matters too. Engineering, math, and computer majors all have returns of around 18%, while fine arts and liberal arts majors have returns closer to 8%. So, while the case for college hasn’t disappeared, the exact numbers are dependent on individual circumstances– and decisions made long before graduation day. It All Comes Down to Planning College is often treated as the default decision, but it shouldn’t be. It should be a strategic one. This means thinking carefully about what you’re actually investing in, and starting that conversation earl...
Beyond the diploma: Is college still worth it? - Philstar Life
However, the reality now is that many companies still prioritize formal educational attainment as a baseline requirement for hiring. "Even if there are documented success stories of those who didn't go down the traditional path, the way society is structured is may emphasis pa rin on getting a diploma or at least a few years of college ...
Ever wonder if your 18 year old really needs a degree for tech ...
Not every class is worth your kid's time, let them follow what actually ... Is college still worth it with AI rising? This is the question many young ...
