The Evolving ROI: How Valuable Are Bachelor’s Degrees Still?
The bachelor's degree, long viewed as the quintessential ticket to professional success, is undergoing a dramatic reevaluation in the modern labor market. While statistically, it remains a path to prosperity, employers are increasingly favoring demonstrated skills and practical experience over the credential itself, forcing students and institutions to rethink the value proposition of a four-year education.
How Much Weight Do Undergraduate Degrees Still Hold?
Historically, the bachelor’s degree served as a clear differentiator and a reliable step toward securing a strong job and achieving economic mobility. However, recent trends indicate a significant shift in its perceived worth.
The phenomenon known as degree inflation saw employers adding college degrees as minimum requirements even for positions where the work hadn't fundamentally changed. Today, many Americans are questioning the value of this investment. Data from a Gallup poll revealed that confidence in higher education among Americans fell dramatically from 57% in 2015 to 36%. This lack of faith is especially notable among young Americans, with half of Generation Z workers viewing their degrees as a waste of time and money due to the push to eliminate college degree requirements.
Despite these challenges, the bachelor's degree remains the surest path to prosperity, offering higher lifetime earnings, economic security, and social mobility. Graduates with a bachelor’s degree earn over 75% more in their lifetimes than those with only a high school diploma, representing a median gain of $2.8 million. Furthermore, the highest-paying jobs earning over $130,000 per year are overwhelmingly held by graduates with bachelor’s degrees.
The Changing Employer Lens
Employers are rapidly pivoting toward skills-based hiring and prioritizing relevant experience over academic credentials. Many companies are actively downcredentialing, or resetting degree requirements across a wide range of roles. Seven out of ten hiring managers surveyed reported that their companies consider relevant experience before a bachelor’s degree when making hiring decisions.
This shift is pronounced among major technology firms. Companies like IBM have stripped bachelor’s degree requirements from over half of their U.S. job postings, choosing instead to favor certifications or experience. Accenture and Google have also reduced the share of job postings specifying a bachelor’s degree or above, dropping by 11% and 17%, respectively, across their IT roles between 2017 and 2021.
A quarter of employers surveyed stated they plan to remove bachelor’s degree requirements for some roles by the end of 2025. Among companies that recently eliminated degree requirements, 84% considered the move successful, noting benefits such as a surge in applications, a more diverse applicant pool, and the ability to offer lower salaries.
Nevertheless, the degree remains a vital gatekeeper for many professions. The degree reset is less common in high-skill occupations where over 90% of postings historically required a bachelor’s degree, such as fields like civil engineering, law, and medicine. Jobs requiring postsecondary education and training are anticipated to increase by 12.5 million by 2031.
The New Value Proposition of College
With the professional credential itself becoming less universally mandated, the value proposition of a traditional undergraduate degree is shifting. Education is now viewed less as a credential and more as the holistic environment it provides.
College traditionally instills valuable, non-technical capacities that employers seek. Employers appreciate the critical thinking skills and capacity for effective communication often associated with higher education. When companies eliminate degree requirements, they frequently become more explicit in specifying the need for soft skills, such as written and oral communication, teamwork, attention to detail, and negotiating skills, which were previously assumed to come standard with a college diploma. This suggests the degree functioned as a reassuring proxy for these essential social skills.
The undergraduate experience also serves as a crucial signal of persistence and discipline. A degree reflects a candidate’s capability and willingness to learn, show up, and uphold a commitment for four years. Furthermore, the college experience is critical for building professional networks. According to LinkedIn, approximately 85% of jobs are found through networking, underscoring the importance of connections built during undergraduate years (Davis, 2024).
Alternatives Emerging
The growing dissatisfaction with the cost and duration of traditional education has led to the emergence of powerful alternatives focused on practical, job-ready training.
For fields like IT, certifications and technical bootcamps offer focused, rapid, and cost-effective paths to employment.
Certifications are highly valued because they establish a minimum level of specific, practical knowledge related directly to applications that employers need. Unlike a degree, which may feature dated curriculum, certifications are regularly updated and sometimes expire, requiring continuous education to confirm knowledge retention.
Beyond Formal Credentials, Experience Is Often Paramount. Forty-two percent of hiring managers believe Generation Z should prioritize gaining job experience over a degree. Experience, internships, and applied projects are increasingly outweighing GPA. In fields where rapid technological change occurs, a visible portfolio of personal projects may be more influential in hiring decisions than a theoretical degree.
Identity and Lifelong Learning
For many students today, earning a bachelor’s degree is no longer viewed as the finish line, but merely the starting point or "the ante in the lifelong learning game". Continuous professional development is crucial in a rapidly evolving labor market.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (Covey, 2020)
Lifelong learning demonstrates to employers a commitment to continuously evolving one’s skills. This often includes pursuing graduate degrees or specialized certificates. On average, graduate degree holders earn 28% more than individuals with only a bachelor’s degree.
The importance of the undergraduate major cannot be overstated, as the choice has a significant impact on lifelong economic consequences. The lifetime earnings difference between the lowest- and highest-paying undergraduate majors is estimated at $3.4 million. For instance, Architecture and Engineering majors earn an average annual salary of $83,000, while Education majors earn an average yearly salary of $45,000. This disparity means that the skills and foundation acquired during an undergraduate degree must be continuously leveraged and supplemented throughout one’s career.
“Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do.” (Senge, 2006)
Guidance for Students
The future value of a bachelor’s degree depends heavily on the choices students make during and immediately following college.
Students should recognize the undergraduate degree primarily as a foundation, not a finish line. To maximize career readiness and outcome, do not rely solely on the degree credential; instead, pair the academic foundation with practical skills, robust networks, and relevant experience.
Intentionality is key:
Supplement coursework with internships, apprenticeships, and applied projects. Hiring managers emphasized that Gen Z should prioritize gaining job experience over a degree.
Focus on developing critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills that employers universally value.
Leverage the college environment to establish relationships, as networking is essential for securing future job opportunities.
Be aware that the choice of major can significantly impact future earning potential. Pairing degree choice with specific career objectives and financial considerations is essential.
References
Austin Career Institute. (2025, April 23). ROI of Technical Education: Comparing Salaries with Four-Year Degrees.
Carnevale, A. P., Cheah, B., & Hanson, A. R. (2015). The economic value of college majors. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
Crist, C. (2025, May 27). 1 in 4 employers say they’ll eliminate degree requirements by year’s end. HR Dive.
Covey, S. R. (2020). The 7 habits of highly effective people: 30th anniversary edition. Simon & Schuster.
Davis, A. E. (2024, August 6). Bachelor’s degree still a good investment. Forbes.
Fourrage, L. (2024, June 5). College degrees vs. bootcamps: Weighing the options. Nucamp.
Fuller, J. B., Langer, C., Nitschke, J., O’Kane, L., Sigelman, M., & Taska, B. (n.d.). The emerging degree reset. Harvard Business School.
Hershbein, B., Harris, B., & Kearney, M. (n.d.). Major decisions: Graduates’ earnings growth and debt repayment. The Hamilton Project.
Quintans-Júnior, L. J., Correia, D., & Martins-Filho, P. R. (2023). The rising significance of soft skills in postgraduate education: Nurturing well-rounded professionals for the modern world. Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 56(e0245), 1–7.
Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Revised and updated). Doubleday.