3 Take-Aways about Current Undergraduate Admissions

The IECA Tour Group at Lehigh University, March 2026

I was lucky enough this March to be able to participate in the 10-college campus tour called “Pursue your Happiness in Pennsylvania,” organized by IECA (one of the professional organizations that I belong to). This college tour was so popular that I initially was selected to be on the waitlist (yes, it felt a lot like the college application process in some ways!). When I heard in February that I was able to join this tour, I was elated! These college tours are wonderful for professional IECs like me, since they allow us to learn about many schools in a compressed amount of time, without individuals having to figure out the logistics of these kinds of visits. Moreover, many of the schools that we visited went above and beyond to welcome us, offering faculty and student panels in addition to information sessions and student-led campus tours. 52 of my colleagues and I visited the following schools in 5 days: Bryn Mawr College, Villanova University, Gettysburg College, Dickinson College, Penn State University (College Park campus), Bucknell University, Muhlenberg College, Lehigh University, Drexel University, and UPenn. 

After visiting these 10 very different institutions, hearing faculty, staff, and current students speak, and after many discussions with my colleagues on this trip, recurrent themes appeared. I came away with 3 major take-aways about the current state of undergraduate college admissions and higher education in general:

1) Business is the new “Undecided”
When I first started my private practice in 2017, I encountered many students and families who thought that encouraging folks to major in Computer Science would “guarantee” a solid, well-paying job after graduation. Well, guess what happened? Over the course of several years, Computer Science rocketed up to be one of (if not THE) most popular major nationwide, and colleges and universities ended up graduating a ton of CS majors. Those CS programs also became extremely competitive to get into (almost across the board) due to that high demand. Now, in 2026, the market is glutted with young adults with CS degrees, and entry-level jobs for these grads are at an all-time low (https://www.cengagegroup.com/news/perspectives/2025/computer-science-grads-facing-a-lack-of-entry-level-jobs-and-a-career-readiness-gap/ ). An article from The New York Times on August 10, 2025 even shared how many CS grads are looking for jobs at Chipotle just to be able to make ends meets (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/technology/coding-ai-jobs-students.html). 

The advent of AI isn’t helping the situation either (see below), so now the new trend is to encourage students to earn an undergraduate degree in the ubiquitous category of “Business.” Once again, the motivation here is a belief that if undergraduates earn a business degree (no matter what the specialization), then they will easily find a well-paying job after graduation and parents will reap the benefits of paying those expensive tuition bills (i.e., families will get a big “Return On Investment” or ROI on their child’s education). And, once again, the demand for business programs is skyrocketing, making admission to undergraduate business programs increasingly competitive and difficult. 

You see where I’m going here. History is repeating itself, and one can make a solid educated guess that, after a handful of years, the market will be glutted with young adults with business degrees struggling to get that entry-level job. While I empathize with anxious families, worried that their child won’t find employment after spending a ridiculous amount of money on a college degree, I will remind everyone that making big life decisions from a place of fear is generally not a great idea. Just telling your child to “study business” is not going to be a recipe for success (economic or otherwise). If we’ve learned anything from contemporary life it’s that change is constant and inevitable. Moreover, those social, political, economic, cultural, and financial transformations are happening at an increasingly rapid pace. 

So, what’s my advice to students and their families as they think about what to major in college? Spend some serious time in high school cultivating self-awareness. Explore different fields and subjects. Try out things that you’re curious about. Identify areas of strength and areas that could use some improvement. Consider what skills you want to acquire in college. Stop thinking of college as a time for career training (more on that later). Instead, think about how you want to grow as a human being. What kinds of things do you want to accomplish in your life? What kind of impact do you want to have and what are some ways to achieve that? Once it’s time to think about college applications, consider applying to a major that you’re actually interested in, even if you end up changing that major when you’re in college (that’s  OK - over 75% of all first time undergraduates change their major at least once, and faculty and staff expect that). Please, don’t major in “Business” just because you have no idea or you think it will lead you to a well-paying job after you graduate. Because nothing is guaranteed in this world, just like nothing is guaranteed in undergraduate admissions. 

2) What to do with AI, since it’s here to stay. 
On campus after campus, my colleagues asked how faculty and students are addressing A.I., and how it’s affecting education. Answers ran the gamut, from some faculty resisting AI to others incorporating it into their curriculum and teaching students how to use it as a useful tool. Meanwhile, students acknowledged both the usefulness and the limitations of AI. Discussing this topic with other IECs, we talked about the increasing anxiety we see in parents and their children over AI taking away jobs, with our clients worrying about how to  identify “AI-proof” majors and career paths. 

Here’s the thing: no one can predict the future, and that’s particularly true when it comes to jobs. For example, my current field (independent educational consulting) existed in the 1990s when I was in high school and college, but it was pretty small and limited to folks who helped place students in private schools and therapeutic settings. The type of consulting that I do - helping families navigate the undergraduate admissions process - has exploded in the last few decades (evidenced by the growing membership in IECA, for example: https://www.iecaonline.com/about-ieca/50th-anniversary/). When I was applying to college, I had never even heard of an IEC before, let alone dreamed of being one. Yet, when it was time for me to leave academia and change careers, educational consulting turned out to be the right fit for me. And how was I able to pivot, start my own business, and still be around 9 years later, without ever having taken a single business class in my life? I was lucky enough to benefit from a liberal arts education where I was encouraged to think independently, form my own opinions based on primary source evidence, and to consider problems from multiple viewpoints. I also learned how to research, how to write well, how to communicate orally, and how to collaborate with others to achieve common goals.  AND, I strengthened my love for life-long learning and intellectual curiosity. All of these “transferrable” skills are ones that AI can’t replace. Spoiler alert: at least one of the jobs you or your child will have in the future doesn’t exist yet (https://www.newsweek.com/experts-share-gen-alpha-future-jobs-2076358 ). Using the undergraduate experience NOT as a pathway to career training but rather as a time to grow (intellectually, emotionally, socially, etc.) is going to help anyone be more prepared to handle whatever life (and the economy) throws our way. 

And that brings me to…. 

3) Generational shifts and careers!
We are all acutely aware of generational change, especially now when workplaces feature several generations needing to collaborate (https://apnews.com/article/multigenerational-workplaces-mentoring-generation-z-boomers-ab93e6e1e736e5fc4bd2d386a4219c26?user_email=5249a66953745cceb1c5df60dd862a32c8e39a9b6ea83bef37df365c8a0604f5&utm_medium=Afternoon_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru_AP&utm_campaign=AfternoonWire_Tues_March10_2026&utm_term=Afternoon%20Wire ). What may not be so apparent is that the situation with careers is very different for different generations. Admission officers shared that the Boomer Generation had approximately 1-3 jobs during their lifetimes. Gen X and Millennials on average will have 5-7 jobs in their lifetimes. However, Gen Z (in college and in the workforce right now) and Gen Alpha (i.e., children born between 2010 and 2025) can expect to have 5-7 CAREERS in their lifetimes!!! Yes, you read that correctly - careers (https://study.uq.edu.au/stories/how-many-career-changes-lifetime). If one sees the undergraduate degree as strictly career training, it makes it *impossible* to have any young adult graduate prepared for careers that don’t even exist yet (see my point above). This is another reason why I wish more families and students would reconsider their views of the purpose of college and recognize the benefits of gaining a liberal arts education. 

I know this isn’t an easy ask. The obscene cost of earning an undergraduate degree in the U.S. understandably fosters anxiety about “the return on investment,” and living in the toughest job market in decades for new college graduates isn’t helping either (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/business/economy/college-graduates-job-market-hiring.html#:~:text=The%20unemployment%20rate%20for%20college,the%20highest%20level%20since%202020 ). Yet, if adults now want to ensure a better future for their children, one of the best things that we as a society can do is to resist the view of an undergraduate education as solely a place for career training, and remember that it’s meant to be a space for young people to develop as adults in a multitude of dimensions.