As a student, I would like to believe that a degree is necessary to secure a good job and achieve long-term success in life. However, with the advancements and evolving workforce demands, it is becoming increasingly clear that a degree may not be everyone’s best bet to get the most bang for their buck. Whether higher education is worthwhile depends, I believe, on what you want to gain out of life. It is important to consider current employment trends before committing to a college degree that can cost around $48,000 per year.
For example, some companies plan to eliminate the requirement for a bachelor’s degree. Twenty-five percent of employers surveyed stated that they eliminated bachelor’s degree requirements for some roles at the end of 2025, according to a May 2025 report from ResumeTemplates. In addition, seven in 10 hiring managers said their company looks at relevant experience over a bachelor’s degree while making hiring decisions. This is a crazy shift from just five years ago, when a degree was commonly expected for a secure job. Today, we see that many postings (52%) of U.S. postings on Indeed do not mention or require any formal education as of January 2024.
Why is this? Well, companies are saying that they would rather have individuals with skills that they are willing to develop rather than a piece of paper. This shift of prioritizing skills has actually prompted several state governments and some companies to remove college degree requirements.
What is the effect? According to CNBC, this shift could potentially impact the hiring process for middle-tier jobs such as construction managers, sales supervisors, web developers, cybersecurity and IT desk specialists. The job that has experienced the largest turnaround from a bachelor’s degree is the project manager position, with a 9.2% decrease between January 2019 and January 2024.
Despite the decrease in a required degree to find a stable job, there are alternative ways that an individual could acquire needed skills, such as self-education. Self-education is a growing way to develop soft skills that enhance their marketability. According to YNCN, “Being able to educate yourself allows you to be nimble and flexible with the changing economics of different professions, without, perhaps, needing to go to university again and getting another bachelor’s degree.” This shows that individuals do not have to go into job offers blind, but put the work in beforehand, though more self-guided, a cheaper option.
Some argue this is the better route and reference individuals who have become very successful from their own hard work and merit, such as Mr.Beast, who tried college but dropped out to be a full-time YouTuber. During interviews, he is not shy to announce that he did not come from much. He put all of his efforts and earnings into YouTube, which was a very risky choice to make. Today, he runs multiple successful companies such as Lunchly, Feastables, and MrBeast Burgers. On top of that, he has broken multiple Guinness World records, runs a game show, and has launched multiple philanthropic ventures. Or perhaps consider the success story of Steve Jobs, who rejected college as his route and instead chose to start his company from his garage.
While this sounds like a dream, many argue that this is not the reality for most. These stories could represent the exception rather than the typical outcome. The probability of becoming famous is very low. Knowing the recipe for success is definitely a topic to cover in another article, but for now, the point is to consider the different paths and their success rate. It is important to consider that not going to college and becoming successful ispossible, but to the layperson, it is probably not something that I would personally recommend. For example, when we look at Steven Spielberg’s story, we see that he moved to California and studied film in college. After directing multiple episodes for television, he directed multiple hit movies back-to-back. Some claim that without his education and background experience developed at the collegiate level, this would not have been possible. These things are still up to speculation, but ultimately up to each individual to decide.
Thus, after hearing all of this, is a degree ever necessary? My answer to that would be, yes! A degree is more than necessary if a specialized profession is desired or if an individual would like a career advancement. Degrees are essential for fields like healthcare, law or high-level engineering. Also, if a senior management position is wanted, sometimes going back to school and getting a degree helps to get a higher-paying job.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.