Is College Still Worth It? Kathleen deLaski on Rethinking the 4-year Degree

Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Careers, Business

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The belief that a four-year degree is the only path to a good job is baked into our culture. But what if that narrative is outdated? In this week’s episode of Hello Monday, host Jessi Hempel sits down with Kathleen deLaski, social entrepreneur, author, and founder of the Education Design Lab. Kathleen’s new book, Who Needs College Anymore?, challenges the assumption that a bachelor’s degree is the default route to economic mobility. Together, Jessi and Kathleen discuss how we can better support shorter, more flexible learning paths to success for the majority of Americans who don’t pursue or finish a four-year degree. Jessi and Kathleen talk about: Why the four-year college degree is no longer the only path to a “good job” What happens to the 62% of Americans who don’t complete a four-year degree The growing role of community colleges, bootcamps, and skills-based programs How government and employers are starting to rethink credentialing and career readiness The mindset shift parents and students need to make in 2025 and beyond Whatever your age, this episode is a roadmap for how to navigate the changing landscape of education and work. Continue the conversation with us at Hello Monday Office Hours — Wednesdays at 3 PM ET on the LinkedIn News page.

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn News
0:02.0	The national narrative is you have to have a college degree to get a, quote, good job.
0:12.0	One of the things that's missing to make informed choices is the data that shows, well, what happens to the 62% of people who don't finish or start a four-year degree?
0:23.0	We don't really know much about them because the federal government and state governments are really
0:27.5	only tracking the people who are getting federal financial aid.
0:31.0	So it's kind of this big empty picture that we haven't filled in.
0:34.9	What is happening to the other people?
0:37.4	From the news team at LinkedIn, I'm Jesse Hempel, and this is Hello Monday. that we haven't filled in. What is happening to be other people?
0:43.0	From the news team at LinkedIn, I'm Jesse Hempel, and this is Hello Monday. It's our show about the changing nature of work and how that work is changing all of us.
0:50.0	And it's graduation season. Happy graduation to anyone who has finished a high school degree or a college degree or gotten a master's degree or even a PhD.
1:01.3	This is the moment where older people like me love to give younger people coming up advice.
1:07.6	But it seems really difficult to give good advice right now because anything that I learned as I was
1:14.6	going through my own college experience seems impractical or just flat out not useful in 2025
1:22.0	because college at least as I experienced college doesn't offer the same value proposition that it did
1:28.9	back in 1997 when I walked off campus with my degree. I think there's a bigger question to ask.
1:36.1	Who needs college? Now, I'm not saying no one does, but asking the question is going to be
1:41.5	pretty critical to making sure that you have both the skills and the experience that you want and that will give you agency in your adulthood.
1:50.7	Today's guest is Kathleen Dulaski.
1:53.0	She's a social entrepreneur and an author with a focus on higher ed.
1:57.9	She also is the founder of the Education Design Lab.
2:02.5	Now, it's a nonprofit that works with people in government, higher ed institutions and individuals to come up with shorter
2:07.5	pathways, shorter courses to learn the skills that we need to succeed. Now, Kathleen also has a new
	...

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