Is a Four-Year Degree Worth It?
If colleges and universities want families to answer ‘yes,’ they’ll need to make some changes on campus.
By Sian Leah Beilock
Chad Crowe / Hanover, N.H.Families across the U.S. are questioning whether a four-year degree is worth it.
Student debt has soared.
Recent graduates are struggling in a rapidly changing job market.
Colleges can also be too ideological: On many campuses, students are exposed to a limited range of perspectives, signaling to them what rather than how to think.
American higher education has a trust problem.
We shouldn’t pretend otherwise, and it won’t solve itself.
In 2026 I’d like to see colleges and universities across the country take steps to restore trust.
As president of Dartmouth College, I’m committed to this goal, and how to restore public confidence in higher education animates conversations among my presidential peers.
Assuming that most Americans value our mission is a recipe for irrelevance and decline.
We must demonstrate to students and families—and to the broader public—that we’ve heard their criticisms and will address them.
I see five areas where we can build back trust.
First, make college affordable.
If the public no longer believes it is a good investment, that’s a problem.
Solving it starts with lowering the cost.
Every leading university needs to demonstrate a measurable commitment to affordability.
At Dartmouth, we have replaced loans with a combination of scholarships, grants and work-study options in our financial-aid packages and now offer free tuition for families earning $175,000 or less.
This model is expensive, but it’s worth every penny if we want lower- and middle-class families to see a four-year degree as within reach.
Dartmouth is fortunate to have generous alumni who provide funding that makes programs like this possible.
Second, the return on investment matters.
Affordability isn’t enough.
A college education is one of the largest investments a family will ever make, and there must be an undeniable return.
Institutions should be held accountable for student outcomes: Are our graduates getting jobs, pursuing meaningful work, and contributing to their communities?
At Dartmouth, we’re moving toward a guarantee: a paid internship or comparable experiential opportunity for any student who wants one, supported by four-year career- and life-planning programs that begin during freshman year.
Other schools have different models.
The University of Tulsa commits to making sure that students who participate in a career-development program either land a job or get accepted into graduate school.
Curry College takes responsibility for its students’ loans for up to 12 months or provides a paid internship or free graduate-school credits if graduates aren’t employed.
Colleges and universities should all embrace the same principle: We own the return on investment, not only the tuition bill.
Third, re-center higher education on learning rather than political posturing.
Too often, colleges and universities have participated in the culture wars.
The result is an environment in which students and faculty feel they must toe an ideological line rather than explore ideas that fall outside prevailing norms.
Our institutions must reclaim a narrower, firmer sense of our role.
That means embracing institutional neutrality—or restraint, as we call it at Dartmouth—on issues that don’t directly affect our mission or core functions.
When we, as institutions, rush to issue statements every time there’s a national or global controversy, we signal there’s a “right” position and that opposing views are unwelcome.
We must ensure that students can encounter the best arguments, assess evidence and reach their own conclusions.
That requires a campus culture where controversial speakers are heard rather than canceled, where disagreement is expected rather than feared, and where people can explore ideas without being defined by them.
The infrastructure for this already exists—it’s the classroom.
Universities must double down on supporting faculty who provide structured opportunities for disagreement on complex issues and provide clear protections for faculty, staff and students who voice unpopular views.
On my campus, Dartmouth Dialogues promotes discussion across differences. Promoting healthy debate isn’t a partisan project.
It is the precondition for any serious education.
Fourth, emphasize equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
One quiet way we’re undermining trust is by erasing meaningful performance distinctions.
Grade inflation—especially at elite universities—reduces a transcript’s significance.
Employers notice; so do students.
When an A is the default, it stops meaning “excellent.”
It means “I showed up.”
We must be willing to reintroduce differentiation.
That could include policies like forced medians, distribution guidelines or being transparent about grades given.
Recently our faculty voted to keep median grades on students’ transcripts because they believe that more information is better than less.
Ours is the only Ivy League school that does this.
At the same time, we must defend a genuine meritocracy of ideas.
Research funding, faculty hiring and academic recognition should be grounded in scholarly excellence, not ideological litmus tests.
Fifth, testing is important.
Dartmouth was the first Ivy League university to reinstate an SAT/ACT requirement after a test-optional period during the Covid pandemic.
We did so because a study conducted by our faculty showed that tests are a valuable tool for identifying high-performing students who might otherwise be overlooked.
Yes, test scores are imperfect—all measures are.
Test performance is correlated with family income, but it turns out that recommendation letters and summer experiences are even more so.
Taken as part of a holistic applicant review, test scores help us fulfill the American promise of upward mobility based on talent and effort.
Meritocracy and diversity aren’t at odds.
Next month, I’ll join other university presidents at a summit in Washington hosted by the Association of American Universities to continue the conversation about how universities can take responsibility and be held accountable for our actions.
I hope we’ll move beyond defensiveness and talk of federal compacts and instead take action.
We should leave the table having made specific commitments.
We won’t agree on everything.
One size won’t fit all. But we must agree that the status quo is untenable.
If we’re willing to reform ourselves—to listen, change and recommit to our core mission—we can again be a trusted engine of the American dream, scientific breakthroughs and the global economy.
This work can’t wait.
It starts now, with us.
Ms. Beilock is president of Dartmouth College.
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