Is college worth it in 2026?

Is college worth it in 2026? Is it even worth going to college in 2026? I spent four years as an executive recruiter and I spent a lot of time talking to new graduates, people entering the job market for the first time. And one of the biggest questions in 2026 is, can I even get a job? AI is displacing so many entry level jobs that so many people are wondering if they can even get one. And it really begs the question is it worth it to go to university? It was a no brainer for us growing up to go to college, get a degree, get a job. But does that even make sense anymore? If people are going to university and college for four years and they're unable to get a job. Is it worth it to spend four years of your life obtaining an education that can't even help you get a job? Putting yourself into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for, for what? And you can't be naive. AI is here. It is displacing a lot of jobs. And it is going to be increasingly important that you I don't even think an understanding is enough that you are able to to optimize and leverage whatever it is that you are doing. And again, if you're going to university and you're listening to 65 year old professors tell you about how business was done back in the early 2000s, does that even really matter? I don't think so. So the question shifts from is going to college worth it to what is the value that I'm actually deriving from a college experience? I think that is a more interesting question. In 2026 college In 2026 college kids who know how to leverage AI are dropping out of school to run multi million dollar businesses. So it's less about the education and more about what you're getting from And what you're getting from your education that AI still cannot its network, its credibility, its proximity to other successful ambitious people, potentially co founders, business partners, potential investors. That is the real value that university is going to provide in the day and age of artificial And I'm gonna leave you with this one question If Harvard started posting all of their lectures on YouTube for free tomorrow, do you think students that are enrolled at Harvard would drop out? Probably not. So ask yourself why that is.