Higher education is going through an identity crisis. Repeated attacks from the Trump administration, the rise of AI and budget cuts have put top universities on the defensive as public sentiment over the value of a college degree. But new trends in corporate recruiting suggest that elite colleges aren’t losing their edge anytime soon.
A 2025 survey of more than 150 companies found that more than a quarter, 26%, were recruiting from a short selection of schools, up from 17% doing the same in 2022, according to recruiting intelligence firm Veris Insights, which conducted the research.
Even the majority of surveyed companies that did not recruit from a short list of universities said they would accept applications from a list of other schools, focusing on “target schools.” That means candidates from prestigious universities that are located near company headquarters are generally preferred, according to Chelsea Sinn, Veris’ vice president of research strategy. The Wall Street Journal Reported.
“Employers are increasingly turning to degrees and GPA in hiring decisions,” Sen said fate. “There is a growing recognition among employers that they can be more targeted in their approach.”
“Talent is everywhere” recruiting seems to be falling out of style for several reasons, according to entry-level recruiters. For one, it’s expensive. It takes a high amount of money to set up meetings with candidates and get recruiters to campuses across the country. Moreover, AI-generated resumes have made many applications look similar, so some recruiters have turned to university reputation to distinguish candidates. And for many companies, DEI is no longer a priority.
According to researchers specializing in entry-level recruiting, this hiring trend harkens back to pre-pandemic days and the tight labor market of 2018 and 2019, when firms prioritized personal interaction. Today, most firms recruit from about 30 colleges out of 4,000 universities, with companies looking first at elite colleges and then at schools near a company’s corporate offices to recruit job candidates in person.
This trend is evident in top firms. Once accustomed to passing through as many as 45 to 50 schools per year, GE Appliances has resigned to four or five events per semester at 15 institutions.
Financial technology firm Bill said it is focusing on recruiting from colleges near its corporate offices in San Jose, California, and Draper, Utah.
McKinsey, the prominent New York-based consulting firm, is “recommitted to a high-touch process,” hosting in-person events with alumni who worked at the company on a shortlist of 20 universities, according to Blair Cecil, a McKinsey recruiting partner. The announcement came after the firm deleted language on its careers page that read, “We hire people, not degrees.”
The tide may be turning for higher education
This trend could provide elite institutions with a much-needed competitive edge in the sense of higher education resources. In 2025, only 35% of adults surveyed in the United States said a college education was “very important.” That’s down from 70% in 2013. And only one-third of American voters say a four-year degree is worth the cost over the course of a year, according to NBC.
Yet enrollment in higher education has actually increased. Despite skepticism about the value proposition of four-year degrees, institutions awarded nearly 2.2 million bachelor’s degrees in 2025, up from 1.6 million in 2010.
Some recruiters, like Sander van Noordende, CEO of recruiting agency Randstad, say college isn’t worth it. fate He believes people should “reflect—taking on student loans, going to college and being trained or educated for a rapidly changing profession—whether that’s still the right path.” This comes as nearly half of Millennials and Gen Z say college is a waste of money, with Gen Z men feeling the biggest impact: Their unemployment rate now matches that of Gen Z men without a degree.
For some, the payoff may still be worth it. College degree holders still earn more on average than those with a high school degree. According to the Federal Reserve of Cleveland, the college wage premium, or the gap in earnings between workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and non-college-educated workers, sits at about 90%. However, that number has plateaued in the past decade after rising steadily from 1980 to mid-2010.
“I’d rather be a student with a degree than one without a degree,” Sen said.
But even for students who enroll at nearly 4,000 accredited institutions across the country, a bachelor’s degree may not be enough to capture the attention of the country’s top recruiters — unless it comes from a top institution.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
