More than 1 in 4 undergraduates (28%) say the biggest reason they attended college was to earn more money in their future career.

But that may no longer be the case. College is costly, often leaving students with large debt burdens that undermine the higher salaries they earn with a degree.

More than a third of undergraduates (35%) go so far as to say college is a scam.

Despite paying an exorbitant amount of money to develop their professional skills, more than 1 in 4 undergrads (28%) say college hasn’t even prepared them to enter the workforce.

It’s clear somewhere between orientation and graduation, students realized the return on investment didn’t add up.

College may not be the best path to a high-paying job for every student, but 68% say they felt obligated to attend. What’s more, the vast majority of undergraduates (75%) believe high schools push too many students toward college without educating them on alternative career paths.

In the age of social media, 56% of college students think they could make more money as an influencer than with a job related to their academic major.

Perhaps more realistically, 61% think they could make more money going to a trade school rather than a traditional four-year college. Trade workers often do, in fact, earn higher starting salaries, carry less debt, and find jobs faster than recent college graduates. While those with a bachelor’s degree earn $56,153 on average at their first job, many trade workers take home more than that.

The appeal of alternate career paths is becoming increasingly hard to ignore. More than half of students (56%) think college degrees are less valuable than they used to be because so many people have them, and more than 1 in 4 undergraduates (29%) regret attending college altogether.

Acute talent shortages in the wake of the pandemic made it easier for job seekers to find employment and leverage their newfound power for higher pay, better benefits, and flexible hours. Less than five years later, college graduates are entering an increasingly tight labor market.

Economic uncertainty driven by tariffs, foreign wars, and other factors have made it difficult for employers to plan ahead, leading to a hiring freeze — or worse. Many companies have already laid off workers, and the unemployment rate has edged up to 4.4% overall and 6.6% among recent graduates.

About 43% of students pursuing an undergraduate degree acknowledge it’s not a good time to find a job right now.

However, 61% of undergrads still expect to have a job offer before they graduate — reinforcing the idea that many view their own prospects as stronger than average. What’s more, 62% say they are majoring in a high-demand field so they’re guaranteed a job as soon as they graduate, and 59% expect to have multiple competing offers upon graduation.

Journalism and communications majors are the most confident about finding a job quickly, with 44% expecting to have a job at or before graduation, the highest percentage of any major.

Although these students have the most realistic salary expectations, they are, perhaps, the most delusional about how quickly they’ll find a job. Employment in these fields has shrunk sharply over the past decade, and only 15% of journalism majors actually end up working in news. Graduates who do find a job quickly often land in adjacent fields, such as PR, social media, or content marketing.

Meanwhile, humanities and liberal arts students have the most pessimistic outlook, with nearly 1 in 7 (14%) believing it will take six months or more to find a job.

Approximately 77% of undergrads searching for a post-college job say the job search has been more difficult than expected.

Recent graduates often begin their job search expecting quick results, only to find the process is far more time consuming than anticipated.

The leading obstacles revolve around employers’ unrealistic expectations for new hires. Roughly 40% of college students say it’s difficult to enter the workforce because employers require years of experience for entry-level positions, and 36% say employers expect too many skills for entry-level roles. Yet 38% of college students say employers pay too little for the advanced qualifications they demand.

About 1 in 3 college students say it’s difficult to find a job because employers are using AI rather than hiring entry-level workers (33%) and because AI is screening out qualified candidates before a human even sees them (31%).

Despite technological changes in how companies recruit and hire new employees, students are relying on old-school strategies to stand out in the job application process. For example, undergrads are more likely to attend in-person networking events (32%) and network within their social circles (31%) than use AI to create applications (22%), tailor application materials (20%), or send mass applications (17%).

Students may not like how potential employers are using AI in the hiring process, but they don’t have any problem utilizing it themselves. About 90% report using AI in some capacity.

Frequent use of AI in school has given students the confidence to integrate emerging technology into their work. Nearly two-thirds (66%) feel prepared to use AI tools in their future careers, with 62% believing workers who are skilled at using AI will earn more than those who are not.

Yet at the same time, many worry about AI’s impact on their job security — even if they know how to use the technology.

About two-thirds of college students (68%) say undergraduates are being trained for jobs that may not exist in 10 years because of AI, with more than half (55%) saying they believe AI will replace jobs in their specific industry during that time period.

That’s made a lot of students rethink their professional plans, with 61% saying they would change career paths if AI made jobs in their field less stable.

For most undergrads, the question isn’t whether they’ll hit the big milestones, it’s which one comes first. Nearly half (46%) expect to earn six figures before they buy a home (40%), a telling indictment about the accessibility of the housing market.

Their optimism about when they’ll hit life’s milestones, however, is about as realistic as their salary expectations, highlighting how difficult it can be for undergrads to truly grasp real-world circumstances.

For example, the average age of a first-time home buyer peaked at 40 years old in 2025, but 84% of college students think they’ll own a home before then — including 41% who think they’ll own a home before age 30.

Undergrads don’t just expect to buy a home sooner than most, a majority (55%) expect to buy one that costs more than the national median of $405,300, an often unavoidable expense to afford starter homes in the cities where young people most want to work and live.

Although they aim to purchase such expensive homes, students are surprisingly clear-eyed enough to know that an expected starting salary of $80,000 won’t be enough.*On an $80K salary, the recommended max mortgage payment is ~$1,867/mo — no more than 28% of gross monthly income. A $405,300 home with 20% down at a 6.4% interest rate requires ~$2,026/mo — already over budget before taxes and insurance.

More than half of college students (57%) don’t think their first post-college job will provide them with enough income to buy a home. However, it appears that many have yet to realize the homeownership timeline they imagine may not be possible for the first several years of their working lives.

College students view the high cost of living as the biggest culprit in the affordable housing crisis, with 2 in 3 undergrads (67%) saying it’s why they struggle to afford homes. About half (49%) also blame home prices that have grown faster than income.

While the value of a college degree has come under increasing scrutiny, homeownership remains a stable way to build wealth over time. If given the choice again, 43% would prioritize buying a home over attending college.