Columbia University announced Wednesday it has reached a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to the federal government to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus.

Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will pay a $200 million settlement over three years, the university said. It will also pay $21 million to resolve alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees that occurred following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the White House said.

“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” acting University President Claire Shipman said.

The school had been threatened with the potential loss of billions of dollars in government support, including more than $400 million in grants canceled earlier this year. The administration pulled the funding because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and applying a contentious, federally endorsed definition of antisemitism not only to teaching but to a disciplinary committee that has been investigating students critical of Israel.

Wednesday’s agreement — which does not include an admission of wrongdoing — codifies those reforms while preserving the university’s autonomy, Shipman said.

‘Columbia’s reforms are a roadmap,’ Trump administration says

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the deal “a seismic shift in our nation’s fight to hold institutions that accept American taxpayer dollars accountable for antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”

“Columbia’s reforms are a roadmap for elite universities that wish to regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their commitment to truth-seeking, merit, and civil debate,” McMahon said in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Columbia agreed to a series of changes previously announced in March, including reviewing its Middle East curriculum to make sure it was “comprehensive and balanced” and appointing new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. It also promised to end programs “that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotes, diversity targets or similar efforts.”

The university will also have to issue a report to a monitor assuring that its programs “do not promote unlawful DEI goals.”

In a post Wednesday night on his Truth Social platform, President Donald Trump said Columbia had “committed to ending their ridiculous DEI policies, admitting students based ONLY on MERIT, and protecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus.”

He also warned, without being specific, “Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming.”

Crackdown follows Columbia protests

The pact comes after months of uncertainty and fraught negotiations at the more than 270-year-old university. It was among the first targets of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protests and on colleges that he asserts have allowed Jewish students be threatened and harassed.

Columbia’s own antisemitism task force found last summer that Jewish students had faced verbal abuse, ostracism and classroom humiliation during the spring 2024 demonstrations.

Other Jewish students took part in the protests, however, and protest leaders maintain they aren’t targeting Jews but rather criticizing the Israeli government and its war in Gaza.

Columbia’s leadership — a revolving door of three interim presidents in the last year — has declared that the campus climate needs to change.

Columbia agrees to question international students

Also in the settlement is an agreement to ask prospective international students “questions designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States,” and establishes processes to make sure all students are committed to “civil discourse.”

In a move that would potentially make it easier for the Trump administration to deport students who participate in protests, Columbia promised to provide the government with information, upon request, of disciplinary actions involving student-visa holders resulting in expulsions or suspensions.

Columbia on Tuesday announced it would suspend, expel or revoke degrees from more than 70 students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the main library in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

The pressure on Columbia began with a series of funding cuts. Then Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student who had been a visible figure in the protests, became the first person detained in the Trump administration’s push to deport pro-Palestinian activists who aren’t U.S. citizens.

Next came searches of some university residences amid a federal Justice Department investigation into whether Columbia concealed “illegal aliens” on campus. The interim president at the time responded that the university was committed to upholding the law.

University oversight expands

Columbia was an early test case for the Trump administration as it sought closer oversight of universities that the Republican president views as bastions of liberalism. Yet it soon was overshadowed by Harvard University, which became the first higher education institution to defy Trump’s demands and fight back in court.

The Trump administration has used federal research funding as its primary lever in its campaign to reshape higher education. More than $2 billion in total has also been frozen at Cornell, Northwestern, Brown and Princeton universities.

Administration officials pulled $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania in March over a dispute around women’s sports. They restored it when school officials agreed to update records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and change their policies.

The administration also is looking beyond private universities. University of Virginia President James Ryan agreed to resign in June under pressure from a U.S. Justice Department investigation into diversity, equity and inclusion practices. A similar investigation was opened this month at George Mason University.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• My 4-year-old daughter will start primary school in September. She's excited, but I'm dreading it.
• It seems like moments ago that I brought home a baby from hospital, now she's growing up so fast.
• I feel like this is the beginning of the rest of her life and I'm not ready for the change.

'I will need a laptop when I start school,' my 4-year-old daughter confidently informed me.

She is due to start school in September and will be going to the lovely, tiny village school that is minutes away from our house in the UK.

I knew she'd need a pencil case and school shoes, but I really wasn't expecting her to need a laptop.

When I tried to reason with her, and point out it was unlikely the school would ask 4-year-olds to have their own computer, she answered, 'It's for my homework.'

That was that. She'd heard so much about 'big' school from older relatives, that she was convinced she knew what she was getting herself in to, despite me trying to tell her I thought it was unlikely the youngest classes were given homework.

Looking at her face, full of excitement, with messy hair and remnants of nursery school detritus on it, my heart broke slightly as I imagined what the next few weeks, months, and years would look like.

Things are changing

While my daughter sees school as her biggest adventure so far, I see it as the start of the rest of her life. And with it comes the inevitable highs and lows of growing up.

Along the way she's going to experience the joy of close friendships, the pain of friendship break-ups, the excitement of a school trip and, yes, the slog of homework.

After primary school, there'll be secondary school, maybe university, and a career to follow.

There'll be Sunday evening battles over getting bags ready for the school week, carefully planned camps to tide over the long summer break, and playdates with people who, I hope, will become some of our closest friends but who we haven't even met yet.

She is ready, I'm not

She still feels so small, but is also so determined to grow up in a hurry. She can't wait to be at school and keeps gleefully reminding her younger brother that she won't be at nursery school with him this year.

She says, "I am going to school and you are not, because you are only a baby."

Her indignant younger brother, replies, "Not a baby."

She is ready to leave him behind and move on, to a place where she's going to be the smallest fish in a large pond.

My heart is aching

I don't know when the novelty and excitement will wear off, but when it does I can't think of a way to sugarcoat the pill that this is her life for years to come.

But I also know that along the way I will have the privilege to witness her grow into a wonderful human being- shaped by everything life throws at her, beginning in the next few weeks and continuing for years.

Imagining my tiny girl in a uniform slightly too big for her, holding my hand nervously in the playground on her first day, my heart contracts.

I know that she is more than ready for this step, and as a parent, I have to let her fly and just be there to catch her when or if she falls. However, I will not be, under any circumstances, buying her a laptop.

• OpenAI partners with Instructure to integrate AI into classroom instruction.
• Instructure's Canvas app will use AI to enhance teaching and student engagement.
• AI tools will assist in creating assignments, assessing students, and managing admin tasks.

When ChatGPT took the world by storm in 2023, students frequently used the AI chatbot to cheat on homework assignments. Two years later, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is taking a more official role in education.

On Wednesday, OpenAI and edtech company Instructure announced a partnership that brings generative AI into the heart of classroom instruction.

Instructure is the company behind Canvas, a learning app that's used by thousands of high schools and many colleges. If you're a parent, like me, you've probably seen your kids checking for homework assignments and grades in this app on their phones.

Going forward, AI models will be embedded within Canvas to help teachers create new types of classes, assess student performance in new ways, and take some of the drudgery out of administrative tasks.

For students, this provides a way to use AI for school work without worrying about being accused of cheating, according to Melissa Loble, chief academic officer at Instructure.

"Students actually do want to learn something, but they want it to be meaningful and applicable to their lives," she added in an interview. "What this does is it allows them to use AI in a class in an interesting way to help them be more engaged and learn more."

The edtech market is crowded, and many players are integrating generative AI into workflows. Last year, Khan Academy, a pioneering online education provider, launched Khanmingo, an AI powered assistant for teachers and students that uses OpenAI technology.

The LLM-enabled assignment

At the center of the Canvas transformation is a new kind of assignment. Instructure calls it the LLM-Enabled Assignment. This tool allows educators to design interactive, chat-based experiences inside Canvas using OpenAI's large language models, or LLMs.

Teachers can describe their targeted learning goals and desired skills in plain language, and the platform will help craft an intelligent conversation tailored to each student's needs.

"With Instructure's global reach with OpenAI's advanced AI models, we'll give educators a tool to deliver richer, more personalized, and more connected learning experiences for students, and also help them reclaim time for the human side of teaching," said Leah Belsky, VP of Education at OpenAI.

Instructure and OpenAI are aiming for a learning experience that better fits how students interact with technology these days — one that mirrors conversations with ChatGPT, but grounded in academic rigor.

For instance, a teacher could conjure up an AI chatbot in the form of John Maynard Keynes, powered by OpenAI GPT models. Students can chat with this AI economics avatar and ask questions such as what might happen if more supply is added to a particular market.

AI in student assessment

As students work through these AI-powered experiences and prompts, their conversations are compared with the teacher's defined objectives and funneled back into the Gradebook, offering real-time insights into student understanding. This gives educators more insight to evaluate the learning process, rather than just students' final answers.

In Canvas, the Gradebook is a centralized tool that helps instructors track, manage, and assess student performance across assignments, quizzes, discussions, and other activities within a course.

Having OpenAI models involved in the assessment process may raise eyebrows among some educators and parents. However, there will always be a human in the loop, and teachers will have full control over assessments and grades, according to Loble.

Help with scheduling and parent questions

Instructure has also developed an AI agent that helps teachers tackle heavy admin tasks in Canvas. For instance, if Porsche broke her ankle riding her horse and she asks for more time to do homework, her teacher can ask the digital agent to go into the app and bump deadlines for Porsche and all her relevant classes.

This AI agent can even help teachers respond to parent questions. Why did Porsche get a B on her economics test? Her parents might want to know at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday. The Canvas agent can summarize parent questions like these for teachers, potentially spotting similarities and trends within the messages. The teacher can then ask the agent to write a response to the relevant parents.

Again, a human is always in the loop: In this case, the teacher would check the agent's message and edit or re-write it before sending.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at [email protected].

OpenAI has achieved "gold medal-level performance" at the International Math Olympiad, notching another important milestone for AI's fast-paced growth. Alexander Wei, a research scientist at OpenAI working on LLMs and reasoning, posted on X that an experimental research model delivered on this "longstanding grand challenge in AI."

According to Wei, an unreleased model from OpenAI was able to solve five out of six problems at one of the world's longest-standing and prestigious math competitions, earning 35 out of 42 points total. The International Math Olympiad (IMO) sees countries send up to six students to solve extremely difficult algebra and pre-calculus problems. These exercises are seemingly simple but usually require some creativity to score the highest marks on each problem. For this year's competition, only 67 of the 630 total contestants received gold medals, or roughly 10 percent.

AI is often tasked with tackling complex datasets and repetitive actions, but it usually falls short when it comes to solving problems that require more creativity or complex decision-making. However, with the latest IMO competition, OpenAI says its model was able to handle complicated math problems with human-like reasoning.

"By doing so, we've obtained a model that can craft intricate, watertight arguments at the level of human mathematicians," Wei wrote on X. Wei and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, both added that the company doesn't expect to release anything with this level of math capability for several months. That means the upcoming GPT-5 will likely be an improvement from its predecessor, but it won't feature that same impressive capability to compete in the IMO.

• I was accepted into a Ph.D. in economics program, which was a dream come true.
• But I was also offered a job at a startup that excited me, so I took the offer.
• The startup folded, and I'm unsure if I regretted the decision.

When I received an email saying I had been accepted into the university of my choice for a Ph.D. program, I cried.

Furthering my education had always been an important goal for me, but it was one I didn't achieve easily. I battled Graves' disease through my early college years, which meant I was in and out of the classroom. I constantly played catch-up, and never thought I'd graduate. Understandably, the thought of enrolling in a Ph.D. economics program was a dream come true.

I'm a forward thinker, so I started imagining my interactions with my professors and what kind of thesis I'd work on. Although the annual tuition fees would put a great dent in my pocket, I was determined to work for it. I would have to strike a balance between school, family, and side hustles.

But then I got an offer I couldn't refuse.

My friend was working on an intriguing startup idea

While I was still planning for my program that was meant to begin in early fall, I met a friend who talked to me about a startup company he started and was taking off faster than he could keep up. It was exhilarating, and he thought I'd benefit from the experience.

The company wanted to disrupt financial access in underserved economies, and it was doing everything from product development and data modeling to pitching investors.

This friend had always been a dreamer and succeeded in most things he put his mind to. As he assured me, the startup wouldn't be an exception, especially because he had channeled all his savings toward it.

However, he wanted to bring me on board because I had an analytical background in economics. To be honest, the pay he suggested wasn't great, but the opportunity was stellar with potential for growth in skills and finances. My role would involve leveraging my skills in data analysis and understanding market dynamics.

He suggested I take some time to think about it.

I decided to take the job offer

I went back home and spent the majority of my time online looking through the company pages and comparing them to others that were thriving in the same field. It looked promising, and I wanted to be part of something great.

However, the team required someone who would work in the office full time, and logically, I wouldn't be able to be present for classes and work at the same time.

After a lot of back and forth, I thought working for the company was a one-time opportunity, and I was leaning toward it.

I looked up deferral programs and decided to consult with my school to seek their opinion on deferring my course for a year or two and then rejoining. The department didn't have deferrals, and the dean advised against it.

But the faculty told me that I could reapply a year later. I thought, if I was accepted once, I could be accepted again, so I started working for the startup.

The job didn't pan out as I expected

Everything was great in the first half of my work year. We embraced a team spirit, brought a few clients on board, and were on a steady path to growth. However, somewhere in the middle, we lost the plot.

We struggled to fit some of the company's products into a market that wasn't ready, and, most importantly, we faced a severe lack of funding.

After a long time of trying everything we could, the startup folded.

Looking back on my decision

I had mixed feelings about turning down school. In some ways, I feel like a failure. I was depressed and sunk deep into hopelessness. I haven't reapplied to my Ph.D. program yet, and I'm not sure I will anytime soon.

In hindsight, walking away from an opportunity to further my studies so I could join a startup was a risk, but it was also a rewarding experience in itself. I gained immense experience and made connections I wouldn't have made in academia.

I learned what it means to build something from the ground up, even if it doesn't work out.

• Sentiment toward college is shifting as Gen Z questions rising tuition costs, overwhelming student debt, and an unpredictable job market. A ResumeGenius survey shows that one in four Gen Zers regret going to college or wish they had pursued more lucrative fields, with only a third content with their educational choices.

The sentiment about going to college is changing, career counseling experts say. It used to be seen as a one-way ticket to a career and eventual financial stability, but mounting student loan debt and a shaky job market have turned earning a college degree into more of a question than a given. 

“Many older generations had the luxury of living in a market where their college degree was practically a get-a-job-free card after graduation,” Kolby Goodman, a career coach at Employed By Graduation, told Fortune. “Now, with more and more people pursuing higher education, fewer and fewer entry-level roles, and the breakneck speed of evolving technology, there’s a lot more uncertainty and lack of guarantees.”

ResumeGenius recently surveyed 1,000 full-time Gen Z workers across the U.S. on their views of college degrees and whether they’d choose a different career path. A lot of them wish they had made different choices, the survey revealed. About one in four said they regret going to college or wish they had chosen a higher-paying field like tech, finance, engineering, or health care. 

This report mirrors another survey conducted by career consultancy Tallo, which also recently surveyed more than 2,000 adults aged 18-30 about their career journeys and showed 62% of young adults said they aren’t in the career they intended to pursue. Some25% said they are actively struggling to find a job in their intended field.

“Many Gen Z students feel they were told college was the only path, only to see people with strong degrees underemployed or overlooked,” Tallo CEO Allison Danielsen told Fortune.  Plus, they’re “questioning whether college still delivers real value.”

The average cost of college in the U.S. is more than $38,000 per student per year, according to the Education Data Initiative; this means the average cost of college has more than doubled in the 21st century. Meanwhile, more than 4 million Gen Zers are jobless and blame their “worthless” college degrees.

The ResumeGenius survey showed only about a third of Gen Z workers were content in the choice they made about their education and wouldn’t change it. Even parents have started to recognize the fact the value of a college degree is changing. Another recent survey by American Student Assistance of more than 3,000 middle- and high-school students showed 70% of teens say their parents are more supportive of forgoing a college education for a different pursuit like trade school or an apprenticeship. 

“Parents are waking up. College doesn’t carry the same [return on investment] it once did because the cost is outrageous, and the outcome is uncertain,” Trevor Houston, a career strategist at ClearPath Wealth Strategies, previously told Fortune. “Students now face the highest amount of debt ever recorded, but job security after graduation doesn’t really exist.”

A Catch-22 for Gen Z workers

Younger generations feel stuck when it comes to choosing whether to go to college and what field to choose, Colin Rocker, a Gen Z content creator focused on career advice for early- and mid-career professionals, told Fortune. 

“Damned if they do or don’t [go to college],” Rocker said. “On one hand, their parents, counselors, and professors urge them away from more liberal arts majors like literature or history, but everyday in the news, they see thousands of people laid off who work with more technical degrees like engineering, computer science, and marketing, as AI starts to take over.”

There’s “no easy choice” anymore when it comes to choosing a career path, Rocker said. It used to be that pursuing business, tech, or health care were a shoo-in for success, but that’s not necessarily the case anymore considering how AI is changing jobs across the board. 

Gen Z “is now faced with carving out a place for themselves in an economy where they’re fighting for opportunity against the most advanced systems and technologies we’ve ever seen,” Rocker added. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Your college years are typically thought of as some of the best of your life, but they can be hard to enjoy to the fullest if you're worried about paying for the essentials like food, textbooks, supplies and, if you're lucky, the occasional evening out with friends. With everything going up in price, it may seem like good discounts are few and far between, but that's not the case. Students still have excellent discounts to take advantage of across the board, be it on streaming services, shopping subscriptions, digital tools and more. We’ve collected the best student discounts we could find on useful services, along with some things you’ll enjoy in your down time. Just keep in mind that most of these offers require you to prove your status as a student either by signing up with your .edu email address or providing a valid student ID.

Shopping

Streaming

Tools

News

Engadget

You shouldn’t rely on social media to be your sole source of news. With foreign wars, new viruses, Supreme Court decisions and upcoming elections making headlines daily, it’s important to get your news from reliable sources. Yes, it’s daunting to get into the news on a regular basis, but it’s crucial to know what’s going on in the country and the world as a whole. Here are some reputable news organizations that offer student discounts on their monthly or annual subscription plans.

The Atlantic: Starts at $50 per year for digital-only access.

The New York Times: $1 per week for one year for the base subscription.

The Washington Post: $1 every four weeks for digital-only access.

The Wall Street Journal: Starting at $2 per week for one year for digital access.

Whether you’re sharing a room with a couple other students or you’ve managed to score a single room by yourself, you’ll appreciate your dorm room more if you add a few personal touches to it. For this guide, Engadget reporters and editors share some of the gear that served us well back in college, or the stuff we wish we had. A lot of it is tech-related (we are who we are) but there are some lo-fi things here as well — and all of it will help you feel more at home in your tiny home away from home.

• I'm a teacher who started experimenting with ChatGPT.
• AI helps me create study guides, bar graphs, and quizzes.
• The technology will never eliminate all of my duties, but it's made me a more efficient teacher.

I was anxious the first time I dabbled in ChatGPT. That's probably an understatement. I actually feared that someone was watching over me, lurking in cyberspace, waiting to sound alarm bells when I typed a certain phrase or combination of words into the blank search bar.

I'm a journalist and journalism educator. I teach kids about sourcing and how to avoid plagiarizing material. In my media ethics class, I ask them to sign a contract saying they won't use other people's material.

So what the heck was I doing playing with AI? And what if I actually liked it?

Spoiler alert: I did, and it's kind of awesome.

ChatGPT has become helpful for me

Teachers have focused so much on how our students might use AI to cheat that we may have forgotten how it can help us in the classroom and at home.

I'm using AI (specifically ChatGPT) in practical, everyday ways.

I recently completed a 16-week intensive ELA and math tutoring program in our local school district. The material I was given for the program didn't work well for my kids, so I ran it through ChatGPT to make it more digestible.

With AI, I can customize my lessons — quickly. Tens and ones review? No problem. Bar graph with ice cream flavors? Done. First grade fractions? Been there, done that, too. I've even started playing around with Bingo designs for fun.

I'm also using AI to play teacher at home. When my 6th grader needs to review states of matter or the history of ancient China, we turn to AI together. ChatGPT whips up multiple-choice quizzes (with answer keys) faster than I can make dinner. The same thing goes for studying India's monsoon season. Once, I even asked AI to create a quiz on how to spot fake news.

I recently looked back on my ChatGPT history and realized how much I had used AI to generate study guides, like the one I made for "The Outsiders," by S.E. Hinton. My son got an A on that quiz.

I don't think AI will ever replace me

As much as I've come to rely on AI, I've learned that it isn't going to solve all my classroom conundrums.

For example, it won't comfort a crying student because he or she did poorly on a test and fears her parents will ground her. AI isn't going to help me decide when a student is sick enough to visit the school nurse. It's not going to help me figure out why a student understands one concept of math but can't grasp another.

But given all the complexities and challenges of being an educator right now, I'll take the help, even if it means double-checking all of the facts.

I'm leaning into AI, but cautiously

I still feel a little guilty when I ask AI to check a sentence's grammar or to eliminate redundancies in my writing. I'm not sure if it's because I asked for help or because the work is often great.

Still, ChatGPT has made me more efficient as a teacher. I can easily whip up study guides that benefit my students and tailor lesson plans to them. All of this frees up time for me to connect with my students more easily and focus on other tasks.

I'm glad I took a leap of faith, and I plan on exploring AI as it continues to grow.

• The New York Fed analyzed the mid-career wages of college graduates with a bachelor's degree.
• Graduates aged 35 to 45 in 19 areas of study had a median wage of at least $100,000 a year. 
• Ten of those 19 college majors were related to engineering.

When undergraduate college students choose their majors, there can be several factors that go into their decisions.

But if maximizing one's future earnings is high on their priority list, some areas of study have a better track record than others.

A New York Fed analysis of 2023 American Community Survey data found that college graduates who majored in one of 19 areas of study had a median mid-career wage of at least $100,000 a year. The New York Fed defined mid-career as people between the ages of 35 and 45. The analysis of 73 majors and groups of study only included people with a bachelor's degree — no additional graduate school education — and used what's noted as people's first major.

One general area of study accounted for 10 of the 19 spots: engineering.

Aerospace engineering majors had the top median mid-career wage of $125,000, per the analysis. Three other engineering fields followed behind — computer, chemical, and electrical.

Jaison Abel, the head of microeconomics at the New York Fed, told Business Insider that engineering is a great example of the type of college major that has the quantitative skills businesses tend to want.

"There is a bit of a premium on the demand side, and also these are relatively challenging majors to get through," Abel said. "When you've got quite a bit of demand for the skills and not as much supply of the types of people who are coming in, that's going to make wages overall go up and be high."

Computer science, economics, and finance were the three non-engineering majors with the highest mid-career median wages. Across all the majors analyzed, the median mid-career wage was $83,000 a year.

While the prospect of high mid-career earnings is likely attractive to many students, this appeal hinges on actually landing a job in their field of study — a feat that has become increasingly difficult for some college graduates.

A New York Fed analysis of unemployment data showed 5.8% of recent college graduates in the labor force between the ages of 22 and 27 were unemployed in March, up from 3.9% in October 2022. Absent the pandemic-related spike and its recovery over the next year, that's the highest rate since 2013.

Student loans and the cost of college may affect how a degree is valued

As college tuition rates have risen in recent decades, many Americans have taken on a considerable amount of student debt. In 2024 dollars, the average price for tuition and fees at private nonprofit, four-year schools has increased 30% from the 2004-05 academic year to $43,350 for the 2024-25 academic year. Public, four-year in-state schools are much cheaper, but their average cost has also climbed during that timeframe. Housing and food expenses make the cost of school even higher.

The average American consumer with student loans had a debt balance of about $35,000 as of the third quarter of last year, per Experian data. That's a decline from the average in the third quarter of 2023.

This changing landscape has caused some people to question whether college is a worthwhile investment. In response to these concerns, some high school graduates have gone straight to the workforce, while others have opted for alternative paths, like community college or trade schools.

Not all job openings require someone to have a particular level of education. However, sometimes a college degree is preferred for a job seeker. Automaker Stellantis said in a previous statement that "most non-bargaining unit positions (salaried) require an associate's or bachelor's degree," but also noted that "for some positions, a degree might be a preferred qualification which would open those up to people who can demonstrate proficiency in other ways."

College graduates who majored in early childhood education had the lowest median mid-career wage, at $49,000 a year. Other types of education majors had relatively low mid-career median wages, such as secondary education.

• Nonprofits like Education Above All are using AI to address global inequities.
• AI initiatives align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to promote peace and prosperity.
• This article is part of "How AI Is Changing Everything," a series on AI adoption across industries.

As millions of young people worldwide increasingly rely on AI chatbots to acquire knowledge as part of their learning — and even complete assignments for them — one organization is concerned that those in developing countries without access to the tech could be put at an unfair disadvantage.

And it's using the very technology it believes is causing this problem to fix it.

Education Above All, a nonprofit based in Qatar, believes that because most of the world's popular AI chatbots are created in Silicon Valley, they aren't equipped to understand the linguistic and ethnic nuances of non-English-speaking countries, creating education inequities on a global scale. But its team sees AI as a way to tackle this problem.

In January 2025, the charity teamed up with MIT, Harvard, and the United Nations Development Programme to introduce a free and open-source AI literacy program called Digi-Wise. Delivered in partnership with educators in the developing world, it encourages children to spot AI-fueled misinformation, use AI tools responsibly in the classroom, and even develop their own AI tools from scratch.

As part of this, the charity has developed its own generative AI chatbot called Ferby. It allows users to access and personalize educational resources from the Internet-Free Education Resource Bank, an online library containing hundreds of free and open-source learning materials.

Education Above All said it's already being used by over 5 million Indian children to access "project-based learning" in partnership with Indian nonprofit Mantra4Change. More recently, Education Above All has embedded Ferby into edtech platform SwiftChat, which is used by 124 million students and teachers across India.

"Ferby curates, customizes, and creates learning materials to fit local realities, so a teacher in rural Malawi can run the right science experiment as easily as a teacher in downtown Doha," said Aishwarya Shetty, an education specialist at Education Above All. "By marrying offline ingenuity with AI convenience, we make learning local, low-resource, and always within reach, yet at scale."

Education Above All is among a group of organizations using AI to tackle global inequality and work toward realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Created in 2015, the UN SDGs comprise 17 social, economic, and environmental targets that serve as guidelines for nations, businesses, and individuals to follow to help achieve a more peaceful and prosperous world. Education Above All's projects fall under SDG 4: inclusive and equitable education.

A global effort

A range of other organizations are using AI to augment and enhance their education programming.

Tech To The Rescue, a global nonprofit that connects charities with pro-bono software development teams to meet their goals, is another organization using AI in support of the UN SDGs. Last year, it launched a three-year AI-for-good accelerator program to help NGOs meet the various UN SDGs using AI.

One organization to benefit from the program is Mercy Corps, a humanitarian group that works across over 40 countries to tackle crises like poverty, the climate crisis, natural disasters, and violence. Through the accelerator, it created an AI strategy tool that helps first responders predict disasters and coordinate resources. The World Institute on Disability AI also participated in the accelerator program, creating a resource-matching system that helps organizations allocate support to people with disabilities in hours rather than weeks.

Similarly, the International Telecommunication Union — the United Nations' digital technology agency, and one of its oldest arms — is supporting organizations using technology to achieve the UN SDGs through its AI for Good Innovation Factory startup competition. For example, an Indian applicant — a startup called Bioniks — has enabled a teenager to reclaim the ability to do simple tasks like writing and getting dressed through the use of AI-powered prosthetics.

Challenges to consider

While AI may prove to be a powerful tool for achieving the UN SDGs, it comes with notable risks. Again, as AI models are largely developed by American tech giants in an industry already constrained by gender and racial inequality, unconscious bias is a major flaw of AI systems.

To address this, Shetty said layered prompts for non-English users, human review of underlying AI datasets, and the creation of indigenous chatbots are paramount to achieving Education Above All's goals.

AI models are also power-intensive, making them largely inaccessible to the populations of developing countries. That's why Shetty urges AI companies to provide their solutions via less tech-heavy methods, like SMS, and to offer offline features so users can still access AI resources when their internet connections drop. Open-source, free-of-charge subscriptions can help, too, she added.

AI as a source for good

Challenges aside, Shetty is confident that AI can be a force for good over the next few years, particularly around education. She told BI, "We are truly energized by how the global education community is leveraging AI in education: WhatsApp-based math tutors reaching off-grid learners; algorithms that optimize teacher deployment in shortage areas; personalized content engines that democratize education; chatbots that offer psychosocial support in crisis zones and more."

But Shetty is clear that AI should augment, rather than displace, human educators. And she said the technology should only be used if it can solve challenges faced by humans and add genuine value.

"Simply put," she said, "let machines handle the scale, let humans handle the soul, with or without AI tools."

• After graduating from Yale, I moved back in with my parents in a low-income building in Brooklyn.
• When I was growing up, I became close with all my neighbors who struggled with poverty.
• Returning home after living on an Ivy League campus has been confusing.

Four years ago, when people asked me which part of college I was most excited for, I always said having my own room.

Yale's dorms were a welcome change from the living conditions in my Brooklyn neighborhood. On the outside, the place my parents rented looked like any other two or three-family house, but inside, every floor was leased out to multiple families.

My upbringing was many things: love and a chorus of voices that included a Vietnam War veteran, four children, and an expert crocheter. They were all my neighbors — many of them low-income. Every evening, we gathered for communal dinners, sharing stories and laughs. But privacy was never part of the equation.

I left that environment for the private world of the Ivy League, living in dorms that radiated privilege.

And then I blinked, and last May, I graduated. After four years, I stepped out of the privilege, access, and relentless ambition that Yale had afforded me and returned to my family's Brooklyn home.

Moving home after college was a jump back to reality

When I arrived at my apartment after graduation, the first thing I did was hug one of the younger tenants, a 10-year-old girl I consider my sister. She waited for me at the door with flowers — a belated graduation present, she said. Later that evening, with her mother's permission, we took the N train to her favorite spot: Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk.

We had to make a pit stop at Coney's Cones, of course. Inside, she stood on her tiptoes, squinting at the selection of gelato and sorbet. "Eyeglasses," I wrote in my notepad of things to buy for her. I leaned down and whispered, "Don't look at the prices. Get anything."

Once we were seated, I asked how things had been. She told me that they were the same. At school, she enjoys math but dislikes writing, and the staircases in the projects still reek of cigarettes, but at least the neighbor's cat comes by once in a while to play with her.

"It's kind of lonely without you here," she suddenly blurted.

I tried to explain that I had to leave for college, that it wasn't about her. I wanted to say something — to fix her loneliness, her abandonment — but my mouth was just a home for my teeth. I reached for her hand, and we exited the café, heading toward the line to purchase Ferris wheel tickets.

I couldn't help grow solemn. The sad reality of building relationships with other tenants is that there is nothing more we wish than to see each other leave the situation we find ourselves in. No one wishes to live in the projects forever. This means saying goodbye at some point — and leaving loved ones behind.

I'm now thinking more about what it meant to be at Yale

An elite education doesn't guarantee stability or a sense of belonging, especially not for first-generation graduates navigating the job market. We often lack a safety net and carry the weight of family responsibilities. What my Ivy League education does offer is a chance: the foundation to build a future for myself and my family.

Still, many of my neighbors and friends remain where they've always been, caught in cycles of poverty, domestic trauma, and systemic injustice. The pandemic only further crippled those living at or under the poverty line.

College was never the finish line. It was the beginning of a more complicated story — one in which I must navigate ambition with memory, privilege with purpose, and personal advancement with a renewed commitment to support others in my community through their struggles, especially those without access to open doors.

But the truth is, it took a village for me to get to Yale, and many of my greatest supporters were not related to me by blood.

I'm trying to reconcile my future with my family's and neighbors'

Inside the Ferris wheel gondola, just as we were about to reach the top, my apartment-mate proudly took out a fluffy purse that I had bought for her 8th birthday. It was heavy, full of coins. She told me that her mother began paying her 50 cents for taking out the trash or washing the dishes, and one of our neighbors occasionally hires her to water his plants.

"Wow, you're rich," I said, nudging her playfully.

We laughed, and the setting sun caught our faces. In the distance, the waves rolled back and forth, and I wondered how many more times I'd get to share these moments with her before the world pulled us apart again. I won't let it.

• Emma Bayer of Georgia has been applying for scholarships since 9th grade.
• She's secured a lot of in funding, enough to pay for two years of college.
• When her dad died unexpectedly, the scholarship funds gave her peace of mind.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with college student Emma Bayer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was never worried about paying for college. I'm an only child, and was the only grandchild until I was 15. I knew that my extended family would help me pay for college. My parents and extended family felt that college was important in order to have a career, not just a job.

Yet, I've always been someone who is driven. I like doing things that are worth my time and effort. I realized early on that applying for scholarships would pay off — both figuratively and literally.

Today, I've secured more than 20 scholarships, which is enough to pay for at least my first two years of college. I'm studying equine barn design and farming infrastructure, and just finished up my freshman year. Although I'm now working toward my degree, I'm still applying for scholarships and hoping to get more.

I started applying in the 9th grade

Early on I knew that scholarships would be available through organizations that I was part of, like Girl Scouts and H4. Once that was on my radar I started joining organizations that had scholarship opportunities, like the National Society of High School Scholars.

I won my first scholarships my freshman year of high school, through a local youth organization. They were worth $300 and $500 — not the biggest sum, but those little amounts added up.

Receiving those scholarships upped my motivation. When you see yourself succeed and know that's an investment in your future, it makes you want to apply yourself.

I spent hundreds of hours applying for scholarships

Throughout high school I applied for more and more scholarships, reaching a peak my junior and senior years.

Senior year, I applied for more than 70 scholarships; during my freshman year of college I applied for about 40 more. I have a spreadsheet with deadlines, reward amounts, and application requirements.

I've spent hundreds of hours applying for scholarships. Sometimes that impacted the time I spend with friends. Still, the sacrifice was worth it. I really saw the value in what I was doing.

By the time I started my freshman year at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, I had enough scholarship funding to cover tuition, plus room and board.

That removed so much pressure; I didn't have to worry about finding a job or cutting costs because I had already put in the work.

Scholarships gave me peace of mind after my dad died

During my freshman year, my dad died unexpectedly. It was devastating. I decided to transfer to Kennesaw State University and live at home for my sophomore year. It was just too hard being away from my family after my dad died.

Amid my grief, my scholarships gave me huge peace of mind. It was a massive weight off my shoulders, knowing that my first year of school without him will be paid for. I can focus on education, my horses, and healing, without having to fight to keep my opportunity for a college education.

The funding has been a confidence booster

Getting so many scholarships has boosted my confidence. It's not about my ego, but more about the fact that people are recognizing the work I'm doing in my communities.

It was especially meaningful when I received an athletic scholarship. As an equestrian, it was great to see my sport recognized when it's often overlooked for more mainstream sports.

I've realized there's a scholarship for everybody, especially if you're involved in your community. Applying takes work, but it's worth it. Student loans are such a burden, and for me, scholarships have meant that I don't need to dig myself a financial hole when I'm really trying to give myself a leg up by securing a college education.

• When she was laid off from a community college, Halona Black pivoted to a kitchen job at Whole Foods.
• Her passion for food and health led her to move on to teach cooking and start a health blog.
• She built a freelance writing business and now travels globally to explore health and culture.

Being let go from a job is not always a surprise. Sometimes, there are whispers before the door slams shut, small signs that your time is winding down. That's how it was for me.

In 2010, I was an academic counselor at a community college in Washington, DC. I had also volunteered to develop the tutoring center, believing I was stepping into a dream role. For over a decade, I'd worked in community education as a GED writing teacher, a tech training program manager, and an ESL teacher.

I didn't just help students pick a major — I asked them to connect their education to who they wanted to become in the world. I took my job personally, and I found myself drowning in responsibilities.

The tutoring center had no budget or staff. I was expected to build something from scratch, relying on volunteers on top of my full-time advising load. It wasn't sustainable.

Starting a new life in a new job

Eventually, complaints about the tutoring center's limitations reached leadership. When my one-year contract ended, it wasn't renewed, and I was laid off.

The long hours and low pay had worn me down. I was making $42,000 a year with a master's degree, and I woke up anxious and in tears, dreading Monday mornings. Getting let go gave me the breathing room I desperately needed.

With six months of unemployment benefits and temporary health insurance, I had just enough to survive. I decided to follow a long-held curiosity: food.

I'd always been drawn to Whole Foods

I loved the hot bar, soups, salads, and desserts, which actually looked homemade (because they were).

At this time of my life, the stress of my previous job, the death of my mother, and a failing marriage all contributed to significant weight gain. I decided to get divorced while simultaneously navigating my job situation.

I threw myself headfirst into learning how to heal my body with food. Though I once dreamed of culinary school, I couldn't justify taking out more debt on top of what I already owed for my master's degree. I sought out other ways to satisfy my culinary interests, like completing the ServSafe food handler certification.

I took a leap of faith and applied for a job in the Whole Foods kitchen

I had amassed a wealth of culinary knowledge after years of watching my favorite chefs on the Food Network, YouTube, and PBS. I read cookbooks like novels and took countless in-person cooking classes in raw food preparation, fruit pie baking, and making handmade pasta. Whole Foods took a chance on me, and I fell in love with being in a professional kitchen.

I was hired as a cook for $12 an hour. The drop in pay required me to make some adjustments in my lifestyle. I moved from a one-bedroom apartment into a single rented room in a house that was shared with five other adults. I sold my car, couch, and all my other worldly belongings. I had no real plan — I was just excited about the possibility of engaging an interest I had held for years.

I learned how to filet a 30-inch salmon, perfectly grill a steak with crosshatch marks, properly arrange the deli salad display for visual appeal, and properly scrub down every greasy kitchen surface each night. My muscles ached in ways my old desk job never asked of me, but this work was creative, and I felt alive.

Finding my creative rhythm

I stayed at Whole Foods for six months. Food service moves fast, and I learned I wasn't built for that pace.

But something had awakened in me. I started teaching healthy cooking classes in the Whole Foods community education program. I watched people recreate those recipes at home and come back surprised by their own success. That joy sparked my writing.

I began documenting recipes on my health blog and pitching food stories to small publications. I worked for a year in an after-school program teaching kids to cook healthy meals while learning STEM. I noticed how the kids were excited to talk about their country of origin and the foods they made with their mom at home that were similar to what we had prepared in class.

After being dismissed from my job at the community college, I felt like a failure. I discovered that talking about food, culture, and science fed my soul in ways that teaching did not.

Transitioning to a new life abroad

I knew that the after-school program would only last for one year, so I looked for an opportunity that would allow me to build a career in writing, food, and health.

In 2013, I took another leap of faith and moved to Orlando with my fledgling freelance writer business, starting with food and then branching into writing for wellness brands and the tech industry. Over the course of five years, I built a foundation for a freelance business I could take anywhere in the world.

I wrote blog posts, ebooks, white papers, customer case studies, and more. After watching hours of YouTube videos of other freelance writers who moved to Southeast Asia, I decided to do the same.

I booked a one-way ticket from Florida to Thailand. I was drawn to Thailand for its affordable living and access to traditional healers who could support my weight loss journey. While there, I lost 60 pounds.

Since 2018, I've lived in 10 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and now Mexico. I continue to explore what it means to sustain vibrant health while building a business that blends freelance writing with author coaching.

I now live in Playa del Carmen

I'm deepening my knowledge of healing herbs, local chile varieties, and the region's rich culinary traditions. In January 2025, I ran my first half-marathon, a milestone that reflects just how far I've come in my health journey.

Looking back, I realize I wasted too much time feeling like a failure after losing my job in higher education. I now see the experience very differently. It wasn't a failure so much as a freeing of my soul.

Most people never stop to ask if what they're doing still fits who they are and what they want to experience as they get older. I was given that opportunity, and it changed the trajectory of my life.

• We started our family young and quickly realized the importance of planning for our child's future.
• Despite more immediate financial pressures, we prioritize our child's 529 savings plan.
• We are now committed to long-term financial planning and legacy building.

In 2021, my husband and I were only one year into postgraduate life and very new to marriage. At the time, our financial literacy left a lot to be desired, and being new parents only complicated all of this.

As our son grew month after month, we started thinking more seriously about his future and that of our family.

The phrase heard so often, "The days are long, but the years are short," started to feel very real as we navigated the first year with our son. We knew that while the day-to-day may feel overwhelming, many years from now, we'll look back and wonder if we had made the most of the years that flashed before us in a blink.

That's when I knew it was time to start saving for my son's future.

We chose a 529 plan

Our knowledge of financial planning for the future was limited. Being a researcher by nature, I scoured the internet, listened to podcasts, and spent more time than I'd like to admit playing with projection calculators. This carried on for months, and when our son was nearly a year old, I opened a 529 account in his name.

I chose this route for a few reasons: tax-free growth and withdrawals, the freedom to apply the funds to trade schools and more alternative paths of education, and the ability to use the funds for his K-12 schooling.

We've contributed to our now four-year-old son's 529 college savings plan every month since, even when it's not been easy. It's not a flashy or exciting decision, and it's not one that we made because we simply have piles of extra money lying around.

Like most parents of young kids, we're juggling the usual financial pressures: a mortgage and costs of homeownership, a car payment and vehicle maintenance, high grocery costs, and the real, ongoing expense of raising a child in today's economy.

But this particular choice to invest regularly in our child's future, even when other needs compete for our dollars, has become a cornerstone of our family's financial mindset.

Our small contributions still add up

At first, the contributions were small — $25 here, $50 there —whatever we could manage in those early months.

But gradually, I stopped seeing it as a "nice-to-have" and started treating it like a non-negotiable. Today, it's baked into our monthly budget, right alongside the mortgage and the utility bills.

We know we won't be able to cover every dollar of our son's future training and education, and that's OK. The point isn't perfection. It's preparation.

Now and as he grows, we will be intentional about modeling the value of hard work and financial stewardship. He'll know that while we've saved and planned ahead for him, he will also have a role to play in his education —through effort, responsibility, and ownership of his own goals.

Preparing for his future is part of our legacy

It's hard to think long-term when short-term costs are constantly staring you in the face. And yet, I believe that choosing to save for our child's future, even when it requires trade-offs today, is a powerful act.

More than a financial decision, it's one rooted in legacy. What does it really mean to raise kids while also building a life shaped by purpose, stewardship, and vision? For me, it looks like this: planning for the future while still being present, setting systems in place that reflect our values, and staying the course — even when things aren't perfect.

Of course, there are seasons when saving takes a backseat to survival. I know what it's like to weigh the cost of diapers against car repairs or a new HVAC system. But I've also learned that progress requires consistency and a willingness to begin, even if it's small.

So every month, we keep showing up for our future and that of our son. Quietly, steadily, and with a lot of heart.

One day, when he's old enough to ask why we made the choices we did, I hope he'll see that we believed in his potential, that we thought ahead, and that we made room for his future in the middle of our very full present.

Because to us, that's what legacy really is: not grand gestures, but intentional ones.

• My son didn't know what college he wanted to go to or what to major in.
• Instead of taking a gap year to figure it out, he enrolled in college anyway.
• He regrets that decision, but at least, he enrolled in a community college to save money.

My son is in grad school and loving what he's studying. But it wasn't an easy road to get here.

He was unsure about undergrad at first, chose a random major, and regretted it come graduation day. Looking back, he wonders if he should've taken a gap year between high school and college to figure out what he really wanted.

We've recently both reflected on his undergraduate years. It's clear he made some mistakes, but he found his way and is on the right path now.

My son felt rushed into a college decision

In hindsight, my son wasn't ready for college and didn't know what he wanted to do.

He was coming off four insanely busy and stressful years of high school. He simply didn't have the time to process or even consider his future.

I wish we'd discussed a gap year or delaying college, which would have given him time to figure out the right move for him, instead of following what was expected.

He agrees. He told me he often wishes he hadn't gone into college so quickly.

We should've had more honest conversations about his major

During May of his senior year, my son struggled. It was time to graduate and figure out what's next.

For most careers, college isn't the place where you learn about what the day-to-day is like, how to get an entry-level role, and what you'll earn.

It wasn't until he was job searching in those last few months of school that my son really learned about entry-level opportunities in his field.

The actual day-to-day work wasn't what he had been learning about in school, and the pay was quite low.

He knew that if he wanted to continue pursuing this career path, he'd need a master's degree, probably a doctorate. He figured he'd need five more years and $60,000 of schooling for something he really wasn't sure he wanted to do.

He shared that he was quickly learning the whole philosophy he had been told in high school and college was wrong: "You can't go to college for four years and get a decent job. For most professions, it's just not true," he told me.

I wish he had become involved in an activity earlier

Beyond the choices he made early on in his college career, he also made some mistakes during his first couple of years on campus.

He was a coed cheerleader in high school but didn't want that level of commitment anymore. He was simply too burned out from high school cheer to participate on his college campus. This was another incident where a gap year could've helped.

We both wish he had done an activity in those first years, but he eventually joined cheerleading as a junior. He made new friends and had memorable experiences cheering at games and nationals.

Luckily, my son went to community college first to save money

We live in Illinois, and state schools are expensive here. For the 2023-2024 school year, Illinois in-state tuition averaged $18,155.

Therefore, he made a great decision: He enrolled in an excellent community college, which was a more affordable way to explore majors and adapt to having more independence. He saved thousands by exploring what he wanted to study at a cheaper school.

He then attended the UWM in his sophomore year. He lived on campus, and the cost was about $18,000 a year.

Although it was a bumpy road, my son finally found his passion a few years after graduation when he started therapy.

Now he's studying to be a licensed professional counselor and recommends knowing what you want to do before college. He says work in the field, have personal experiences, and talk to people on the job. Enroll when you have figured out what you have a true passion for.

• Most commencement speeches tend to follow a similar formula.
• However, some are so inspiring that they are remembered long after graduation.
• Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, CEOs, and comedians have all inspired graduates with their words.

Commencement speeches have the ability to inspire and motivate.

They are often an opportunity for media moguls, celebrities, and CEOs to impart wisdom to the graduating classes of colleges and universities across the country. 

Presidents have also used commencement speeches as more casual environments to drive home the values of their administrations, such as John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech at American University that called for peace. 

Here are valuable pieces of advice from graduation speeches throughout history.

"Our problems are manmade — therefore, they can be solved by man." — John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech at American University

Against the tumult of the early '60s, John F. Kennedy inspired graduates to strive for what may be the biggest goal of them all: world peace.

"Too many of us think it is impossible," he said. "Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable — that mankind is doomed — that we are gripped by forces we cannot control."

Our job is not to accept that, he urged. "Our problems are manmade — therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants." 

"Be the heroine of your life, not the victim." — Nora Ephron's 1996 speech at Wellesley College

Addressing her fellow alums with trademark wit, Ephron reflected on all the things that had changed since her days at Wellesley … and all the things that hadn't.

"My class went to college in the era when you got a master's degree in teaching because it was 'something to fall back on' in the worst case scenario, the worst case scenario being that no one married you and you actually had to go to work," she said.

But while things had changed drastically by 1996, Ephron warned grads not to "delude yourself that the powerful cultural values that wrecked the lives of so many of my classmates have vanished from the earth." 

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim," she said. "Maybe young women don't wonder whether they can have it all any longer, but in case any of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications."

"We can learn to live without the sick excitement, without the kick of having scores to settle." — Kurt Vonnegut's 1999 speech at Agnes Scott College

The famed author was one of the most sought-after commencement speakers in the United States for many years, thanks to his insights on morality and cooperation. At Agnes Scott, he asked graduates to make the world a better place by respecting humanity and living without hate. Hammurabi lived 4,000 years ago, he pointed out. We can stop living by his code.

"We may never dissuade leaders of our nation or any other nation from responding vengefully, violently, to every insult or injury. In this, the Age of Television, they will continue to find irresistible the temptation to become entertainers, to compete with movies by blowing up bridges and police stations and factories and so on," he said.

"But in our personal lives, our inner lives, at least, we can learn to live without the sick excitement, without the kick of having scores to settle with this particular person, or that bunch of people, or that particular institution or race or nation. And we can then reasonably ask forgiveness for our trespasses, since we forgive those who trespass against us."

The result, he said, would be a happier, more peaceful, and more complete existence.

"You are your own stories." — Toni Morrison's 2004 speech at Wellesley College

Instead of the usual commencement platitudes — none of which, Morrison argued, are true anyway — the Nobel Prize-winning writer asked grads to create their own narratives. 

"What is now known is not all what you are capable of knowing," she said. "You are your own stories and therefore free to imagine and experience what it means to be human without wealth. What it feels like to be human without domination over others, without reckless arrogance, without fear of others unlike you, without rotating, rehearsing and reinventing the hatreds you learned in the sandbox."

In your own story, you can't control all the characters, Morrison said. "The theme you choose may change or simply elude you. But being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who you are and what you mean." Being a storyteller reflects a deep optimism, she said — and as a storyteller herself, "I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art."

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." — Steve Jobs' 2005 speech at Stanford University

In a remarkably personal address, the Apple founder and CEO advised graduates to live each day as if it were their last.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," he said. He'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a year earlier.

"Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important," he continued. "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Jobs said this mindset will make you understand the importance of your work. "And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he said. "If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

Settling means giving in to someone else's vision of your life — a temptation Jobs warned against. "Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

"If you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options." — David Foster Wallace's 2005 speech at Kenyon College

In his now-legendary "This Is Water" speech, the author urged grads to be a little less arrogant and a little less certain about their beliefs.

"This is not a matter of virtue," Wallace said. "It's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self."

Doing that will be hard, he said. "It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won't be able to do it, or you just flat won't want to."

But breaking free of that lens can allow you to truly experience life, to consider possibilities beyond your default reactions.

"If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable," he said. "But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down."

"If it doesn't feel right, don't do it." — Oprah Winfrey's 2008 speech at Stanford University

The media mogul told Stanford's class of 2008 that they can't sacrifice happiness for money. "When you're doing the work you're meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you're getting paid," she said.

She said you can feel when you're doing the right thing in your gut. "What I know now is that feelings are really your GPS system for life. When you're supposed to do something or not supposed to do something, your emotional guidance system lets you know," she said.

She explained that doing what your instincts tells you to do will make you more successful because it will drive you to work harder and will save you from debilitating stress.

"If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. That's the lesson. And that lesson alone will save you, my friends, a lot of grief," Winfrey said. "Even doubt means don't. This is what I've learned. There are many times when you don't know what to do. When you don't know what to do, get still, get very still, until you do know what to do."

"Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what's going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along." — Stephen Colbert's 2011 speech at Northwestern University

The comedian and host of the "Late Show" told grads they should never feel like they have it all figured out.

"Whatever your dream is right now, if you don't achieve it, you haven't failed, and you're not some loser. But just as importantly — and this is the part I may not get right and you may not listen to — if you do get your dream, you are not a winner," Colbert said.

It's a lesson he learned from his improv days. When actors are working together properly, he explained, they're all serving each other, playing off each other on a common idea. "And life is an improvisation. You have no idea what's going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along. And like improv, you cannot win your life," he said.

"There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized." — Conan O'Brien's 2011 speech at Dartmouth College

In his hilarious 2011 address to Dartmouth College, the late-night host spoke about his brief run on "The Tonight Show" before being replaced by Jay Leno. O'Brien described the fallout as the lowest point in his life, feeling very publicly humiliated and defeated. But once he got back on his feet and went on a comedy tour across the country, he discovered something important.

"There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized," he said.

He explained that for decades the ultimate goal of every comedian was to host "The Tonight Show," and like many comedians, he thought achieving that goal would define his success. "But that is not true. No specific job or career goal defines me, and it should not define you," he said.

He noted that disappointment is a part of life, and the beauty of it is that it can help you gain clarity and conviction.

"It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique," O'Brien said. "It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can be a catalyst for profound re-invention."

 O'Brien said that dreams constantly evolve, and your ideal career path at 22 years old will not necessarily be the same at 32 or 42 years old. 

"I am here to tell you that whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change. And that's OK," he said.

"The difference between triumph and defeat, you'll find, isn't about willingness to take risks — it's about mastery of rescue." — Atul Gawande's 2012 speech at Williams College

Pushing beyond the tired "take risks!" commencement cliché, the surgeon, writer, and activist took a more nuanced approach: what matters isn't just that you take risks; it's how you take them.

To explain, he turned to medicine."Scientists have given a new name to the deaths that occur in surgery after something goes wrong — whether it is an infection or some bizarre twist of the stomach," said Gawande. "They call them a 'Failure to Rescue.' More than anything, this is what distinguished the great from the mediocre. They didn't fail less. They rescued more."

What matters, he said, isn't the failure — that's inevitable — but what happens next. "A failure often does not have to be a failure at all. However, you have to be ready for it. Will you admit when things go wrong? Will you take steps to set them right? — because the difference between triumph and defeat, you'll find, isn't about willingness to take risks. It's about mastery of rescue."

"Err in the direction of kindness." — George Saunders' 2013 speech at Syracuse University

The writer stressed what turns out to be a deceptively simple idea: the importance of kindness.

"What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness," he said. "Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded ... sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly." 

But kindness is hard, he said. It's not necessarily our default. In part, he explained, kindness comes with age. "It might be a simple matter of attrition: as we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish — how illogical, really." The challenge he laid out: Don't wait. "Speed it along," he urged. "Start right now."

"There's a confusion in each of us, a sickness, really: selfishness," Saunders said. "But there's also a cure. So be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf — seek out the most efficacious anti-selfishness medicines, energetically, for the rest of your life."

"Do all the other things, the ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness."

"Ditch the dream and be a doer, not a dreamer." — Shonda Rhimes' 2014 speech at Dartmouth College

The world's most powerful showrunner told grads to stop dreaming and start doing.

The world has plenty of dreamers, she said. "And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people, are busy doing." She pushed grads to be those people.

"Ditch the dream and be a doer, not a dreamer," she advised — whether or not you know what your "passion" might be. "The truth is, it doesn't matter. You don't have to know. You just have to keep moving forward. You just have to keep doing something, seizing the next opportunity, staying open to trying something new. It doesn't have to fit your vision of the perfect job or the perfect life. Perfect is boring and dreams are not real," she said.

"Your job is to create a world that lasts forever." — Steven Spielberg's 2016 speech at Harvard

"This world is full of monsters," director Steven Spielberg told Harvard graduates, and it's the next generation's job to vanquish them.

"My job is to create a world that lasts two hours. Your job is to create a world that lasts forever," he said.

These monsters manifest themselves as racism, homophobia, and ethnic, class, political, and religious hatred, he said, noting that there is no difference between them: "It is all one big hate."

Spielberg said that hate is born of an "us versus them" mentality, and thinking instead about people as "we" requires replacing fear with curiosity.

"'Us' and 'them' will find the 'we' by connecting with each other, and by believing that we're members of the same tribe, and by feeling empathy for every soul," he said.

"I wake up in a house that was built by slaves." — Michelle Obama's 2016 speech at the City College of New York

In her 23rd and final commencement speech as first lady, Michelle Obama urged the class of 2016 to pursue happiness and live out whatever version of the American Dream is right for them.

"It's the story that I witness every single day when I wake up in a house that was built by slaves," she said, "and I watch my daughters — two beautiful, Black young women — head off to school waving goodbye to their father, the president of the United States, the son of a man from Kenya who came here to America for the same reasons as many of you: to get an education and improve his prospects in life."

"So, graduates, while I think it's fair to say that our Founding Fathers never could have imagined this day," she continued, "all of you are very much the fruits of their vision. Their legacy is very much your legacy and your inheritance. And don't let anybody tell you differently. You are the living, breathing proof that the American Dream endures in our time. It's you."

"Not everything that happens to us happens because of us." — Sheryl Sandberg's 2016 speech at UC Berkeley

During the Facebook COO's deeply personal commencement speech about resilience at UC Berkeley, she spoke on how understanding the three Ps that largely determine our ability to deal with setbacks helped her cope with the loss of her husband, Dave Goldberg.

She outlined the three Ps as:

· Personalization: Whether you believe an event is your fault.
· Pervasiveness: Whether you believe an event will affect all areas of your life.
· Permanence: How long you think the negative feelings will last.

"This is the lesson that not everything that happens to us happens because of us," Sandberg said about personalization. It took understanding this for Sandberg to accept that she couldn't have prevented her husband's death. "His doctors had not identified his coronary artery disease. I was an economics major; how could I have?"

"Empathy and kindness are the true signs of emotional intelligence." — Will Ferrell's 2017 speech at the University of Southern California

Comedian Will Ferrell, best known for lead roles in films like "Anchorman," "Elf," and "Talledega Nights," delivered a thoughtful speech to USC's graduating class of 2018.

"No matter how cliché it may sound, you will never truly be successful until you learn to give beyond yourself," he said. "Empathy and kindness are the true signs of emotional intelligence, and that's what Viv and I try to teach our boys. Hey Matthias, get your hands of Axel right now! Stop it. I can see you. OK? Dr. Ferrell's watching you."

He also offered some words of encouragement: "For many of you who maybe don't have it all figured out, it's OK. That's the same chair that I sat in. Enjoy the process of your search without succumbing to the pressure of the result."

He even finished off with a stirring rendition of the Whitney Houston classic, "I Will Always Love You." He was, of course, referring to the graduates.

"Call upon your grit. Try something." — Tim Cook's 2019 speech at Tulane University

Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered the 2019 commencement speech for the graduates of Tulane University, offering valuable advice on success.

"We forget sometimes that our preexisting beliefs have their own force of gravity," Cook said. "Today, certain algorithms pull toward you the things you already know, believe, or like, and they push away everything else. Push back."

"You may succeed. You may fail. But make it your life's work to remake the world because there is nothing more beautiful or more worthwhile than working to leave something better for humanity."

"As you leave this room don't forget to ask yourself what you can offer to make the 'club of life' go up?" — Issa Rae's 2021 speech at Stanford University

In the speech, Rae pulled lyrics from Boosie Badazz, Foxx, and Webbie's "Wipe Me Down," which she said she and her friends played on a boombox during the "Wacky Walk" portion of their own 2007 graduation ceremony at Stanford, to illustrate the importance of seeing "every opportunity as a VIP — as someone who belongs and deserves to be here." 

Rae particularly drew attention to one line from the song: "I pull up at the club, VIP, gas tank on E, but all dranks on me. Wipe me down."

"To honor the classic song that has guided my own life — as you leave this room, don't forget to ask yourself what you can offer to make the 'club of life' go up. How can you make this place better, in spite of your circumstances?" she said. "And as you figure those things out, don't forget to step back and wipe yourselves down, wipe each other down and go claim what's yours like the VIPs that you are."

"My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life." — Taylor Swift's 2022 speech at New York University

In her first public appearance of 2022, Taylor Swift poked fun at her "cringe" fashion moments and her experience of growing up in the public eye, which led to receiving a lot of unsolicited career advice.

"I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn't make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire Earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever," Swift said in her speech. "It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately, the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life."

"This has not been my experience," she continued. "My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life."

She also alluded to her past feud with Kanye West, joking that "getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine."

She elaborated, saying that losing things doesn't just mean losing.

"A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too," she said. 

"Your future is in your hands — all you have to do is listen." — Oprah Winfrey's 2023 speech at Harvard University

Winfrey also spoke to Harvard University's graduating class about how God has guided her throughout her life and the importance of listening.

"Life is always talking to us," she said in her speech. "When you tap into what it's trying to tell you, when you can get yourself quiet enough to listen — really listen — you can begin to distill the still, small voice, which is always representing the truth of you, from the noise of the world. You can start to recognize when it comes your way. You can learn to make distinctions, to connect, to dig a little deeper. You'll be able to find your own voice within the still, small voice—you'll begin to know your own heart and figure out what matters most when you can listen to the still, small voice. Every right move I've made has come from listening deeply and following that still, small voice, aligning myself with its power."

Winfrey also discussed avoiding imposter syndrome, tapping into who you are, and treating others with integrity. 

"We also need generosity of spirit; we need high standards and open minds and untamed imagination," she continued. "That's how you make a difference in the world. Using who you are and what you stand for to make changes big and small."

"The soul of America is what makes us unique among all nations." — Joe Biden's 2023 speech at Howard University

The president received an honorary degree and spoke of the values of America at the HBCU, the alma mater of his vice president, Kamala Harris.

"We're the only country founded on an idea — not geography, not religion, not ethnicity, but an idea. The sacred proposition, rooted in Scripture and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, that we're all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives," Biden said. "While we've never fully lived up to that promise, we never before fully walked away from it."

Biden also addressed many of the causes his campaign has pushed over the years, including the right to choose and "to put democracy on the ballot."

"We can finally resolve those ongoing questions about who we are as a nation. That puts strength of our diversity at the center of American life," he continued. "A future that celebrates and learns from history. A future for all Americans. A future I see you leading. And I'm not, again, exaggerating. You are going to be leading it."

"Humor is the most powerful, most survival-essential quality you will ever have or need to navigate through the human experience." — Jerry Seinfeld's 2024 speech at Duke University

Seinfeld's commencement speech made headlines after students walked out in protest of the war in Gaza. Seinfeld has been public about his support for Israel.

Despite the controversy, the speech offered valuable pieces of advice. The comedian and sitcom star's speech addressed the value of not losing your sense of humor, no matter what life throws at you.

"I totally admire the ambitions of your generation to create a more just and inclusive society," he said. "I think it is also wonderful that you care so much about not hurting other people's feelings in the million and one ways we all do that."

"What I need to tell you as a comedian: Do not lose your sense of humor," he continued. "You can have no idea at this point in your life how much you are going to need it to get through. Not enough of life makes sense for you to be able to survive it without humor."

Seinfeld also offered his "three keys to life": "Number one. Bust your ass. Number two. Pay attention. Number three. Fall in love."

"The vast majority of what you need to know about work, about relationships, about yourself, about life, you have yet to learn." — Jerome Powell's 2025 speech at Princeton University

A graduate of the university himself, the Federal Reserve chair spoke to the 2025 graduating class at Princeton University and offered graceful words to the graduates, saying "each of us is a work in progress" and "the possibilities for self-improvement are limitless."

"We risk failure, awkwardness, embarrassment, and rejection," he said. "But that's how we create the career opportunities, the great friendships, and the loves that make life worth living."

"If you aren't failing from time to time, you aren't asking enough of yourself. Sooner than you think, many of you will be asked to assume leadership roles. It is very common to feel, as I once did, that you are not ready. Just know that almost no one is truly ready," he said. "Be the leader that people can learn from, the one that people want to work for."

Richard Feloni and Rachel Gillett contributed to an earlier version of this story, which was first published in 2016 and was most recently updated in June 2025.

• Harvard University is battling the Trump administration in court to enroll international students.
• The State Department has also halted new student visa appointments, thus adding to the uncertainty.
• Universities overseas have moved to encourage Harvard applicants to study with them instead.

Universities around the world are giving "unconditional offers" — and touting how close tropical getaways are — in a bid to draw Harvard-bound international students grappling with President Donald Trump's crackdown on the Ivy League institution.

The Trump administration said on May 22 that it was banning Harvard from taking in international students. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later ordered all US embassies around the world to halt new student visa appointments while the State Department expands the screening and vetting of applicants' social media. The university's international students are continuing with their studies while the case continues to play out, thanks to a court order.

But amid the uncertainty, other universities overseas have moved quickly to welcome US-bound international students to their classrooms.

Last month, Germany's culture minister, Wolfram Weimer, told Bloomberg that Harvard can set up an "exile campus" in Germany, where students at American universities would be "more than welcome."

Harvard did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The National University of Singapore is extending application deadlines for its MBA program

The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School said on May 29 that it was offering a "limited extension" to the application deadlines for its MBA and master's programs.

"Official American government policies continue to generate uncertainty and discomfort about student visas. At NUS Business School, we understand and sympathize with these worries," it said in a statement issued Thursday.

"If you have received a verifiable offer from a top-20 MSc or MBA programme but are now reconsidering your plans, we welcome you to instead join us at the National University of Singapore," it added.

Besides selling itself as "Asia's leading business school," NUS also touted how close Singapore is to vacation destinations, adding that the city "happens to be a short plane trip from Bali and Phuket."

The business school said the application deadlines for programs starting in August 2025 and January 2026 had been extended to June 22 and June 30, respectively. The original deadline for NUS's full-time MBA program, which starts in August, was April 2.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has said it will give 'unconditional offers' to Harvard-bound students

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, or HKUST, said on May 23 that it was extending an "open invitation" to Harvard's international undergraduate and postgraduate students to continue their studies there.

HKUST said the offer also applied to "those holding confirmed offers for Harvard degree programs."

"The university will provide unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition for interested students," HKUST added.

When approached for comment, HKUST told BI on Tuesday that it was "opening its academic resources to affected international students (including Harvard University students) in response to recent US policy changes."

"Our invitation extends beyond Harvard-affiliated students, but to all outstanding students, both local and international — facing similar academic disruptions," HKUST added in its statement to BI.

The university said it maintains "robust transfer policies" and will be expediting admission reviews and streamlining credit transfers for qualified candidates.

HKUST said it has received "tens of inquiries " and a "wide range of questions" from affected students since their announcement.

The University of Tokyo said it would accept Harvard students on a temporary basis

The University of Tokyo said on May 26 that it was considering accepting international students from Harvard on a temporary basis.

The university's executive vice president for diversity and global affairs, Kaori Hayashi, told BI the university had previously accepted about 20 students from Ukraine who fled the country after Russia's invasion in 2022.

"Given the current unstable international situation, we wish to draw on our experience from the Ukraine crisis to assist talented students whose studies have been disrupted by external factors, whether or not their home institution is Harvard University," Hayashi added.

But students accepted under this program "will not be enrolled as regular degree-seeking students," said Hayashi. Instead, they will be given "temporary learning opportunities" and allowed to "take certain classes" at the university," she said.

"We also plan to issue academic transcripts so that credits for courses taken at UTokyo can be recognized when they return to their studies or pursue further education in the future," Hayashi added.

She added that the start date and duration of the program were still being worked out, but would be ready in the coming academic year.