• As Gen Z increasingly wonders whether a diploma is worth the debt, LinkedIn says the real test of a school is its career pay-off and ROI. The platform’s newest list of the top 50 colleges crowns Princeton University, Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania as the top institutions for “long-term career success.” Smaller and lesser-known schools can also be hidden gems for young people seeking a fast track to the C-suite or building the next billion-dollar start-up.

Millions of college students are headed back to school in the coming weeks, but the excitement of new classes, reconnecting with friends, and fall weather is being overshadowed by a cloud of uncertainty.

With many recent graduates struggling like never before to land jobs—and some CEOs warning entry-level jobs are on the brink of extinction thanks to AI—Gen Z is left questioning whether spending four years and thousands of dollars on a degree will be well worth it. And ultimately, the answer may come down to where you obtained your degree.

Graduates from Princeton University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania are most likely to experience long-term career success, according to a list of the top 50 U.S. colleges released by LinkedIn this week.

With indications that higher education payoff is slowly dying, it’s more important now than ever to weigh up after-college career results and the likely ROI of a degree, says Andrew Seaman, senior editor-at-large for jobs and career development at LinkedIn News. 

“Long-term success isn’t just about landing a great first job, it’s about sustained career growth and opportunity years after graduation,” Seaman tells Fortune. “For this list, that means looking at how well a school sets alumni up for the long haul.”

Whereas the median annual salary for high school graduates was $48,360 in 2024, those with a bachelor’s degree typically earn just over $80,000—about a 65% increase, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell University, and Harvard University round out the top six best colleges, but other typically elite schools are much further down the list. Ivy League institutions Columbia University and Yale University, are No. 18 and 19, respectively. (See the full list below).

Getting a degree from a popular school might not be enough

LinkedIn produced its ranking using five equally weighted pillars:

• Job placement: Percentage of alumni from recent graduate cohorts (2019-2024) who started a full-time position or a graduate school program within the same year of graduating.
• Internships and recruit demand: Percentage of alumni from recent cohorts who completed an undergraduate internship; and labor market demand for recent cohorts, based on InMail outreach data.
• Career success: Percentage of alumni with post-graduate entrepreneurship or C-suite experience.
• Networth strength: How connected alumni of the same school are to each other, as well as how connected alumni from recent cohorts are to all past alumni and current students
• Knowledge breadth: Unique fields of study and skills gained by recent graduates.

Focusing on these data points, LinkedIn produced a ranking that saw many well-known schools absent, such as Johns Hopkins University, Emory University, Georgia Tech, and the University of North Carolina. Instead, some institutions with lesser name-recognition made the top-50 cut, such as Bentley University (No. 15), Bucknell University (No. 21), and Fairfield University (No. 28).

The findings overall signal that a popular or Ivy League name isn’t needed to deliver exceptional career outcomes, Seaman says.

“Schools like Bentley University and Fairfield University are excelling at connecting students with high-quality internships, building strong alumni networks, and helping graduates secure jobs or graduate school placements quickly, all factors that drive long-term career success,” Seaman adds.

Among Bucknell’s class of 2024, 93% of students secured career opportunities within nine months of graduation, earning an average starting salary of $73,075.

Smaller colleges, such as Babson College and Colgate University, were also standouts in terms of network strength and job placement. Babson in particular has the highest percentage of graduates who have become entrepreneurs and founders, according to Seaman.

The growing need for AI skills

As the value of college continues to be questioned, what many business leaders agree is that students need to learn AI skills above all—or they could risk becoming part of the growing number of Gen Zers who are NEET, not in employment, education, or training.

Earlier this year, over 250 CEOs, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, called for an increase in computer science and AI education among all students. 

“In the age of AI, we must prepare our children for the future—to be AI creators, not just consumers,” the CEOs wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers. “A basic foundation in computer science and AI is crucial for helping every student thrive in a technology-driven world. Without it, they risk falling behind.”

But that doesn’t necessarily mean your college major has to be squarely AI or tech-focused. In fact, when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was recently asked what the young version of himself would choose to focus on today, he said he’d opt for “more of the physical sciences than the software sciences.” 

The top 50 schools for long-term career success

According to LinkedIn

1. Princeton University
2. Duke University
3. University of Pennsylvania
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
5. Cornell University
6. Harvard University
7. Babson College
8. University of Notre Dame
9. Dartmouth College
10. Stanford University
11. Northwestern University
12. University of Virginia
13. Vanderbilt University
14. Brown University
15. Bentley University
16. Tufts University
17. Lehigh University
18. Columbia University
19. Yale University
20. Carnegie Mellon University
21. Bucknell University
22. Boston College
23. Villanova University
24. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
25. Wake Forest University 
26. University of Chicago 
27. University of Southern California
28. Fairfield University
29. Washington and Lee University
30. University of California-Berkeley
31. Rice University
32. Georgetown University
33. Purdue University
34. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
35. Miami University
36. Colgate University
37. Southern Methodist University
38. Bryant University
39. Worcester Polytechnic Institute
40. The Pennsylvania State University
41. California Institute of Technology
42. Trinity College
43. Boston University
44. University of Richmond
45. Stevens Institute of Technology
46. The University of Texas at Austin
47. Indiana University Bloomington
48. Lafayette College
49. Providence College
50. University of Wisconsin-Madison

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• As companies like JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, and Starbucks ramp up return-to-office plans, Gen Z may be their biggest ally. As the youngest generation of workers fights off loneliness and seeks career progression, they are the least likely to prefer working fully remote, according to a new survey. But that doesn’t mean they hate the idea of working from home altogether—like their millennial coworkers, they’d prefer a hybrid work schedule above all else. 

Gen Z and Jamie Dimon may not have much in common, but they can both relate on one thing at least: they are both not fans of fully-remote work.

Less than one-quarter of all Gen Z workers, just 23%, would prefer to work at home five days a week, according to a recently released survey by Gallup. That’s compared to 35% of millennials, Gen Xers and boomers who would prefer to WFH every day—crowning the newest members of the office the ones most eager to be at their cubicles.

Gen Z’s pro-office sentiment is likely to please Dimon, as the JPMorgan CEO  issued all his employees back into the office every weekday last spring. His reasoning: enhanced efficiency and creativity.

“You can’t learn working from your basement,” he told Bloomberg earlier this year. “…I think our employees will be happier over time.”

However, full RTO is a policy that doesn’t have much support. Even though Gen Z aren’t fans of remote working, they also don’t love the idea of working from the office day in, day out. Just 6% of Gen Z would want to work in-person every day of the week.

The most senior members of the office aren’t big fans either; only one in 10 boomers are in favor of being in the office every day—the highest proportion of any generation, the Gallup survey finds. Other age brackets are not far behind: 9% of Gen X and 4% of millennials approve of full RTO.

Meanwhile, clocking in from couches on Mondays and Fridays remains supreme; hybrid work remains the most popular among workers of all ages, with each yielding over 50% approval.

Why Gen Z aren’t fans of remote work

Gen Z’s disdain for being behind the screen all day at home may come at a surprise, considering they grew up as ‘screenagers,’ watching TV and using their chunky computers all day. It’s an affinity from childhood that has grown to the young professionals spending upwards of seven hours a day on their phones.

Among the workers who do work at home, they’re spending their job hours staring at  more screens. Over eight in 10 Gen Z workers admit they stream shows and movies while working from home, according to a survey by streaming TV service Tubi. However, this could just be another symptom of the generation’s feeling of loneliness.

After all, Gen Z are the loneliest of any age group; young workers are almost twice as likely as Gen Z, and nearly three times as likely as boomers to say they were lonely the day prior, according to separate Gallup research from last year. Despite the saved time and money that comes with working from their bedroom, the benefits of being with coworkers and making friends at work may be contributing to the generation’s inclination to work at the office. 

Building connections in the office can help drive future success

JPMorgan Chase is not alone in the push back to the office. Other companies, the likes of Amazon, Starbucks, and Google, have also reduced the flexibility of their workdays in recent months. 

“We are reestablishing our in-office culture because we do our best work when we’re together,” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol wrote announcing the change this month. “We share ideas more effectively, creatively solve hard problems, and move much faster.”

Once past the frustration of having to set up childcare, pack lunches, and deal with office yappers—there can still be career benefits to chatting with coworkers beyond just a Zoom screen, like landing in-person mentors. One Gallup survey from 2023 found that employees with mentors are twice as likely to strongly agree that they have had opportunities to learn and grow at work in the last year. 

Moreover, simply showing up to the office could lead to faster internal career progression. Over 80% of chief executives have said employees who come into the office will be prioritized for assignments, raises, or promotions, according to a KPMG survey of 400 U.S.-based CEOs. As companies also seek to reduce their workforce in favor of AI, less seen remote workers could be the first to go.

At a time when fellow Gen Z college graduates are struggling to land jobs, those with roles may have reasoned that giving up the comfort of their home office to work in their corporate cubicle may be worth it in the long term.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• With Gen Z facing existential career crises, billionaire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that in just 10 years, college grads will be exploring the solar system—jobs that’ll reel in sky-high salaries. The tech leader even says he’s envious of young people because our early-career jobs will look “boring” by comparison.

As AI reshapes the workforce, many Gen Z college graduates are finding out the hard way that their degrees don’t guarantee a smooth career launch. 

Now, even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—one of Silicon Valley’s biggest leaders driving the AI revolution—is admitting the elephant in the room is true: AI will wipe out some jobs entirely. However, the tech billionaire insists the coming decade could be the most exciting time in history to start a career, especially for anyone who’s ever dreamed of working in space.

“In 2035, that graduating college student, if they still go to college at all, could very well be leaving on a mission to explore the solar system on a spaceship in some completely new, exciting, super well-paid, super interesting job,” Altman said to video journalist Cleo Abram last week.

Not only will they be reeling in sky-high salaries, but Altman says they’ll also be “feeling so bad for you and I that we had to do this really boring, old work and everything is just better.”

Though it’s unclear how widespread space exploration will expand in the coming years—considering NASA’s broad goal of getting to Mars in the 2030s—aerospace engineers are growing faster than the national average of all jobs, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor. And they bring home an envy-inducing annual paycheck of over $130,000.

How AI will reshape the workplace 

Other tech pioneers have AI predictions that are more grounded on Earth—but still alluring to workers. For example, billionaire Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates said earlier this year that the technology might dramatically reduce the length of the workweek thanks to humans no longer being needed “for most things.”

“What will jobs be like? Should we just work like 2 or 3 days a week?” the tech billionaire told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show earlier this year.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang echoed AI has already given his workers “superhuman” skills—something that will only increase as the technology advances.

“I’m surrounded by superhuman people and super intelligence, from my perspective, because they’re the best in the world at what they do. And they do what they do way better than I can do it. And I’m surrounded by thousands of them. Yet it never one day caused me to think, all of a sudden, I’m no longer necessary,” he separately told Cleo Abram on her Huge Conversations podcast series.

While Altman admitted that his crystal ball remains foggy—and that the true direction of AI is unclear—he is actually envious of Gen Z professionals starting off their careers: “If I were 22 right now and graduating college, I would feel like the luckiest kid in all of history,” he added to Abram.

Fortune reached out to OpenAI for comment.

AI will make one-person, billion-dollar companies

After last week’s launch of the latest OpenAI model, GPT-5, Altman declared that the world has access to technology equivalent to a “team of Ph.D. level-experts” right in their pocket. And as a result, the CEO said it will be easier than ever for one person to create a business that used to take “hundreds” of people—all it takes is coming up with a great idea and mastering AI tools.

“It is probably possible now to start a company, that is a one-person company that will go on to be worth more than a billion dollars, and more importantly than that, deliver an amazing product and service to the world, and that is like a crazy thing,” he said.

Billionaire Mark Cuban has gone even further with his prediction, saying that AI could give Elon Musk a run for his money as the world’s richest person. 

“We haven’t seen the best or the craziest of what [AI is] going to be able to do,” Cuban told the High Performance podcast earlier this summer. “And not only do I think it’ll create a trillionaire, but it could be just one dude in the basement. That’s how crazy it could be.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Venture capitalist Rashaun Williams admits he wasn’t able to become a multimillionaire and guest Shark Tank star without an element of manifesting success. Gen Z’s “delulu” trend reflects this: he rooted optimism into career action by being a step ahead in his behavior. “Sneaking into the party—that’s what I’m known for,” he exclusively tells Fortune. “I don’t mind cold calling people. I don’t mind pulling up at conferences.”

If you have dreams of one day sitting on the set of Shark Tank next to the biggest names in investing like Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary, well so did Rashaun Williams—and he made it happen.

The multimillionaire venture capitalist is set to return as a guest shark on the television series this fall. But landing the gig has taken an entire career of hard work, including a tactic he calls “sneaking into the party.”

Growing up on the southside of Chicago, opportunities often seemed slim for Williams. But instead of letting fear of rejection get in his way, Williams did more than just manifest his own success—he went after it headfirst, and it often started with three words: “hear me out.”

For Williams, the phrase wasn’t just a casual introduction; it was his way of opening doors that otherwise wouldn’t exist, using the phrase to start conversations, pitch himself for opportunities, and get his foot in the door when others might hesitate.

“Sneaking into the party—that’s what I’m known for,” he tells Fortune. “I don’t mind cold calling people. I don’t mind pulling up at conferences. I don’t mind acting as if.”

And while some Gen Zers have already started embodying this in their own form of career manifestation, as being “delulu,” Williams says it’s a lesson young people can all learn from: know what you want and go after it by being steps ahead of your career in your behavior.

“I had to become a private equity person before I got that job. I had to become an investment banker before they hired me. I had to become an entrepreneur before I started a business. I had to become a good husband and father before I get married and have kids,” he says

The power of networking as a key to success

Once you’re able to “sneak into the party” or even just simply connect with someone on LinkedIn, there can be a domino effect of networking—and you never know which person will have the perfect job opening now or later in your career.

But Gen Z also needs to not undervalue the power of warm leads and apprenticeships, Williams says.

“I don’t know why people don’t do it anymore, but when I would get warm leads, I would get introduced to someone and they get introduced to someone else, and then to someone else,” he says.

This strategy of building out a wide, genuine network is what in part helped Williams land his first investment banking gig in Goldman Sachs at 21 years old. It also ensured his broader career goals of getting into private equity.

“Guess what I was doing on the evenings and the weekends? I was an apprentice under guys 10 to 20 years older than me, who were working in private equity, who were buying businesses, and I’m doing little LBO (leveraged buyout) models and analysis for them,” he says.

“I was doing that in the evenings when other kids were playing video games and going to the clubs and partying.”

The Sharks agree: don’t let fear shut you down

Williams’ Shark Tank costars agree with him that fighting back against rejections and naysayers is part of the journey to success.

In fact, Kevin O’Leary, known as Mr. Wonderful, recently told Fortune that he actually enjoys the motivation fueled by his haters. 

“I just love it when people tell me, ‘Oh, you can’t do this, you can’t do that,’” O’Leary said. “When someone tells me I can’t do it, I turn around, two years later, kick their ass. That’s a great motivation. It’s not about the money anymore—I just like kicking their ass.”

Daniel Lubetzky, the billionaire KIND bar founder who is the newest permanent investor on Shark Tank said that being a little naive can be a good thing in the long term.

“Most ventures that changed the world are started by young people, not guys like me,” Lubetzky told graduates of UC Berkeley earlier this year.

“When you don’t know any better, you dare to try the impossible. And in doing so, sometimes you prove that the impossible is actually possible,” he added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Millionaires are packing their bags in droves in hopes of finding more secure places for their money as the global economy is riddled by ongoing armed conflict and trade wars. It’s being dubbed the ‘great wealth migration.’ And countries like Montenegro, UAE, and Malta are seeing significant growth in the number of millionaires within their borders as a result.

A historic shift is underway among the world’s wealthiest. This year, some 142,000 millionaires are planning to relocate—leaving behind familiar luxuries like London penthouses and French estates in favor of greater opportunities and financial stability abroad.

While longstanding favorites like Switzerland, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continue to attract their share of affluent individuals, one lesser-known eastern European nation has just been crowned the world’s fastest growing millionaire hub.

Nested between the blue-watered Adriatic Sea and the towering Dinaric Alps, Montenegro has experienced a 124% increase in the number of millionaires within its borders over the last decade, according to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025. 

And while its surging population of 2,800 millionaires is still dwarfed by many other countries, the Balkan nation attracted a wave of interest thanks in part to its former investment-for-citizenship program (often known as a ‘golden passport’). 

Overall, Montenegro remains especially attractive due to its European proximity and fiscal flexibility, according to Henley & Partners’ group head of private clients Dominic Volek. Plus, the views are unbeatable.

“Montenegro’s low-tax regime, with flat income taxes and no inheritance or gift tax, has made it particularly attractive for wealth preservation,” Volek told Fortune.

“Paired with its Adriatic coastline, luxury real estate offerings, and appealing Mediterranean lifestyle, the country has become a destination of choice for lifestyle-motivated investors.”

A standout time for millionaire migration

Next year is expected to bring an even greater number of millionaires on the move—about 165,000 are anticipated to migrate to greener pastures around the world, according to the report.

Recent geopolitical instability, macroeconomic headwinds, and sociopolitical fragmentation have only accelerated the ultra-rich desire to migrate, Volek said. So much so that some individuals have begun calling it the ‘great wealth migration.’

“As major powers become more directly entangled, global investors are increasingly factoring political risk into domicile and portfolio decisions,” Volek said.

The UAE has succeeded in attracting high-net-worth migrants in particular because the country is politically stable and business-friendly. The nation also has a Golden Visa program, which has helped it stand out as a popular destination for the wealthy. In fact, the country is expected to net about 9,800 millionaires this year—the most of any other country.

Wealth is migrating out of Western Europe

While European nations like Montenegro, Malta, and Poland are experiencing sizable increases in millionaire growth, other parts of the continent are reeling from their wealthy citizens packing up and leaving. In fact, this year marks the first time in a decade that a European country leads the world in millionaire outflows, with the UK topping the list.

Some 16,500 millionaires are expected to leave the British Isles this year, totalling about $91.8 billion worth. This translates to a 9% reduction in the UK’s millionaire population over the last decade, in part thanks to fallout from Brexit, political uncertainty, and non-domicile tax changes.

“Despite this outbound wave, the UK remains a desirable destination for high-net-worth individuals—particularly Americans disenchanted with the current Trump administration,” wrote Henley & Partners CEO Juerg Steffen in conjunction with the report release. “Yet without a viable entry pathway, the country is unable to offset the outflow, leaving a growing imbalance between incoming and outgoing wealth.”

Fellow European powerhouses—including France, Spain, and Germany—also have worrying wealth-migration signs, Volek said. He explained that between 2023 and 2024, there was a 114% increase in enquiries for alternative residence and citizenship options among German millionaires, he said.

“This trend suggests a broader erosion of confidence among Europe’s wealthy elite, with potential long-term consequences for regional financial stability and innovation,” Volek said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Palantir CEO Alex Karp may have three degrees to his name—but he’s fed up with higher education. The billionaire took a shot at elite universities, including Harvard and Yale, during his AI firm’s earnings call on Monday, saying degrees don’t matter once you land at Palantir: “This is by far the best credential in tech. If you come to Palantir, your career is set.”

With Gen Z facing an uphill battle in today’s job market, and many facing mounds of student loan debt, a growing number of young people have conceded that pursuing a degree may have been a worthless endeavor—and some business leaders are agreeing.

In fact, top employers today aren’t “even talking about degrees” anymore, the Great Place to Work CEO Michael Bush, previously told Fortune. “They’re talking about skills.”

Now Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, is the latest exec to publicly question the value of traditional schooling.

“If you did not go to school, or you went to a school that’s not that great, or you went to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, once you come to Palantir, you’re a Palantirian—no one cares about the other stuff,” Karp said during Monday’s earnings call.

The 57-year-old added that his company is building a new credential “separate from class or background.”

“This is by far the best credential in tech. If you come to Palantir, your career is set,” he said.

Palantir’s hot streak is thanks to workers who want to ‘bend the arc of history’

Palantir pulled in a record $1 billion in revenue last quarter, or 48% year-over-year. The AI analytics company’s stock is now up nearly 600% over the past year, with its market cap rising $12 billion yesterday alone. As of publication, its market cap was around $430 billion.

And according to Karp, the secret to their rise hasn’t been luring workers with a bougie headquarters or scooping up Ivy League talent—it’s bringing together a workforce that isn’t prideful of their fancy college degree, or lack thereof.

It’s a feeling echoed by Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer who just recently joined the billionaires club thanks to the recent increase in company value.

“We are able to attract and retain and motivate people who actually want to bend the arc of history here, work on the problems that drive outcomes,” Sankar said on the earnings call.

Palantir’s disdain for existing methods of education and talent development goes beyond just talk. Karp and fellow Palantir cofounders Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale have been supporters of the University of Austin, a new four-year school that prides itself on being centered around free speech and being “anti-woke.” 

Fortune reached out to Palantir for comment.

Palantir wants to attract young talent—but also cut its workforce

Palantir is currently hiring for dozens of roles across the company, including in product development and U.S. government roles—alongside multiple positions specifically for interns and new graduates.

This past spring, the company also notably established the Meritocracy Fellowship, a four-month, paid internship for high school graduates who may be having second thoughts about higher education. Program admission is solely based on “merit and academic excellence,” but applicants still need Ivy League-level test scores to qualify. This includes at least a 1460 on the SAT or a 33 on the ACT, which are both above their respective 98th percentiles.

According to Karp, the internship was created in direct response to the “shortcomings of university admissions.”

“Opaque admissions standards at many American universities have displaced meritocracy and excellence,” the Palantir posting said. “As a result, qualified students are being denied an education based on subjective and shallow criteria. Absent meritocracy, campuses have become breeding grounds for extremism and chaos.”

“Everything you learned at your school and college about how the world works is intellectually incorrect,” Karp added to CNBC in February.

Successful interns will be interviewed for full-time roles. “Skip the debt,” the posting read. “Skip the indoctrination. Get the Palantir Degree.”

However, this young talent may be hired just to build programs that will eventually lead to their replacement by AI. Karp admitted this week that he hopes to reduce his workforce by 500 employees.

“We’re planning to grow our revenue … while decreasing our number of people,” Karp told CNBC this week. “This is a crazy, efficient revolution. The goal is to get 10x revenue and have 3,600 people. We have now 4,100.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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