As millions of students prepare to graduate this spring and head off to college in the fall, many bring with them a profound sense of hope for their futures. According to a recent survey from Gallup and the Walton Foundation, 80% of Gen Zers remain optimistic about what lies ahead. On paper, their optimism is well-founded: research shows that earning a bachelor’s degree, for example, leads to $1.2 million more in earnings across a lifetime.
But this benefit is only true in the aggregate. An alarming number of students will find that the time, effort, and money they invest in their education will not yield the expected financial returns. According to a report from Strada and the Burning Glass Institute, more than half of college graduates are underemployed a year after earning their degree. Even a decade later, 45% of graduates remain in jobs that do not fully utilize their skills and knowledge.
The path to a college-level career is fraught with choices – from selecting the right school and major to curating the perfect blend of coursework, internships, and extracurriculars. The invisible hand of the labor market cannot be expected to guide students through the branching maze of education and career paths available to them. Learners need targeted, structured guidance that informs their decisions without constraining them, illuminates potential dead ends, and erects guardrails that help every choice point toward success.
At a time when the public is increasingly questioning the value of higher education, it’s clear that institutions can no longer place their faith in the generic lifetime earning potential of a degree. They need to ensure that students have access to meaningful career-connected learning both in and out of the classroom – a continuum of experiences that begins with early career awareness in high school and continues through job shadowing, mentorship, paid internships, registered apprenticeships, and, ultimately, full-time employment.
Breaking the cycle of underemployment starts with earlier, more intentional exposure to the world of work. This work should begin long before college, with K–12 schools embedding career awareness and readiness into the student experience. By the time students enter postsecondary education, they should already have a foundation of career-connected learning and a sense of how their interests and talents might align with opportunities in the labor market. Once in college, that exposure should evolve into more hands-on, professionalized experiences.
Internships are one proven solution, but access is often limited, and navigating those systems can be confusing and inequitable. According to research from the Strada Education Foundation, while 70% of first-year students expect to have work-based learning experiences like internships, fewer than half report having had such experiences by their senior year.
Some institutions are working to close that gap by embedding exposure to careers directly into the curriculum. For example, the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) has launched an initiative helping 25 of its member institutions integrate work-based learning into their curricula, enabling students to tackle business challenges for local employers through project-based coursework. By partnering with the learning platform Riipen, these colleges are giving students the chance to solve real-world problems while building experience and growing their professional networks. This is meaningful career-connected learning both in and out of the classroom, and it’s helping students make the critical leap from learning to practice.
Other institutions are making paid work experiences a more seamless part of the student journey. About 70% of students now work while enrolled in college, but these jobs are often more about making ends meet than gaining valuable, career-relevant experience. And they rarely take a student’s academic life into account. Programs like Education at Work, however, are helping students participate in part-time jobs with major employers that align with their academic schedules and career goals. These opportunities offer more than just a paycheck; they give students visibility into workplace expectations and help them build confidence about life after graduation.
Of course, meaningful career-connected learning can only go so far if students are left to figure out their career paths alone. That’s why more institutions are integrating career planning directly into academic advising. At National University in California, students – many of whom are busy working adults or military learners – receive individualized guidance from the very start. Career services aren’t reserved for senior year. They’re woven into degree planning, helping students connect their studies to their personal goals and the evolving needs of the labor market.
Meanwhile, community colleges in Chicago are working alongside One Million Degrees to ensure that students receive holistic academic, financial, and career support from the moment they enroll. It’s a model that treats career preparation not as a final step but as a throughline that strengthens the entire college experience.
Degree programs should not be built on hope alone. They should be grounded in real-world opportunities, responsive to the demands of a changing economy, and personalized to the diverse lives and needs of today’s learners. If higher education wants to restore public trust in its value, institutions need to start delivering on the promise many students are still betting on: that college will be worth it.
Dr. Rita Raichoudhuri is the chief program officer for One Million Degrees
