Twenty years ago, college students arrived on campus wanting to read Derrida and Husserl, explore the physics behind black holes, and experiment with combining studies in art history, sociology, and discrete math. Today’s college students instead are focused on finding ways to connect their personal interests to their career goals. Among Gen Z students, college is increasingly seen as a transaction. While some students still come to college for the pursuit of knowledge, rising tuition and a tightening workforce has generated a lot of public doubt around the value of a college degree. As a result, Gen Z college students now come to campus with an entirely new set of expectations. Gen Z students want to make sure that what they learn in college is useful to them. And they come to campus to create authentic connections and start building their networks. For many of today’s students, college exists primarily as a pathway toward shaping their careers. From an institutional standpoint, how can colleges and universities evolve to meet these expectations and to better support and engage their students—and what new programs or initiatives can help attract this generation of learners? In a recent webinar, Kim Canning, vice president of university partnerships at Kaplan hosted a discussion about how some of today’s leading higher education institutions are working to build an educational experience that is valuable to the Gen Z learner. She was joined by Richele Jordan-Davis, health professions administrator at Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University; Melanie Murphy, executive director of the Knowlton Center for Career Exploration at Denison University; Aaron Ray, director of opportunity programs at Hamilton College; and Deborah Stieffel, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs at University of Detroit Mercy. Gen Z Demands a College Experience Tailored to Their Values and Objectives Gen Z students value education, but they’re interested in whether it will pay off in tangible ways. “They want to make sure that anything they’re committing time and energy to is worth it for them, and they want to make sure that those things are aligned,” says Ray. For many Gen Z students, money and job security after college is top priority—with as many as 77 percent wanting their college experience to connect to a stable career path. Students are also arriving on campus with an expectation that their learning experience will be more tailored to their needs or their specific objectives. “Gen Z has grown up with personalization, and that’s become an expectation from their college and career journeys,” explains Murphy. “I do think they are craving pathways that are prescribed for them, but they also want to be able to curate and personalize those pathways specifically to them.” While designing programs or curricula toward specific careers is still an asset that institutions can bring, it may be beneficial to adopt more flexible models that allow students to tailor their experience and give them the ability to combine majors, minors, internships, and extracurriculars to align with their career goals and personal interests. As Stieffel puts it, “Colleges need to realize that what students are looking for is not just your cookie-cutter major, but how we can really help them personalize and become original thinkers when it comes to their education.” For some entering students, college can possibly serve to gain supplemental knowledge to help them support a career path they’ve already started or to give them more insight on how they can build toward a bigger goal. As Murphy notes, Gen Z students are coming to campus more entrepreneurial than other generations. “We saw a record number of students applying and coming to Denison who already had their own businesses on the side—everything from small jobs to big dreams that they want to pursue after college.” At the foundation of all this, today’s college students are more adamant about preserving their authenticity and making sure that the things they pursue align with their personal values, beliefs, and objectives. They want their college journeys to reflect who they are and what they stand for, and they want their education to align with their long-term professional and personal goals. “They’re looking at protecting their mental health and not exerting themselves on things that aren’t mission-aligned for them,” says Ray. “Colleges need to realize that what students are looking for is not just your cookie-cutter major, but how we can really help them personalize and become original thinkers when it comes to their education.” - Deborah Stieffel, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs at University of Detroit Mercy Invest in Workforce Readiness When Expanding Student-Success Programming “I see my role as helping students navigate that career path. To make sure they have everything they need to be successful,” says Jordan-Davis. Higher ed institutions are doing this by connecting students with internships or alumni mentors who have walked similar paths. Across higher ed institutions, the markers of student success are beyond academic performance. Many more are exploring ways to offer additional resources to make sure that students feel supported every step of the way toward their intended careers. Murphy, at Denison, describes how they created a “journey program” that students are encouraged to complete by the end of their sophomore year. The idea is to “spend some time intentionally exploring on purpose to find different career paths that might be interesting to them, and then finding ways to make it happen,” she says. This could include taking skill-building courses or seeking extra credentials through Kaplan. If, for instance, a student is curious about a career in data science, they can sign up for an exploratory data analysis course to get a better sense of what the work involves. » Related News: Kaplan’s All Access License® Named as a Winner in Tech & Learning’s 2025 Awards of Excellence for Back to School Murphy shares that they spent a lot of time talking to students to learn more about what they wanted from their college experience and to try and find ways for Denison to improve academic and professional services for its students. For students, the stress that many experienced around preparing for exams such as the MCAT® or LSAT®—in terms of cost and availability of prep materials and courses—became an area of opportunity for the university. “It really made sense to offer something that would be free to all students and take a major source of stress off of the table for them,” says Murphy about Denison’s decision to adopt Kaplan’s All Access License. Demand for flexible, career-focused experiences is what brings higher ed institutions to Kaplan’s All Access License®. The program gives students free access to industry-leading test prep and career-readiness resources, including tests like the MCAT, LSAT, GRE®, PRAXIS®, and NCLEX®, as well as skills courses in areas such as project management and critical thinking. According to Jordan-Davis, at Alabama A&M, offering its students free test preparation and career-readiness programs is one way to convey to them that they’re invested in not just their academic journeys, but also their professional journeys. “We believe in them,” she says. “We want them to have the confidence to know that they can do this.” For the university, being able to offer these test prep and skills-building courses through Kaplan serves as a retention driver for the institution. At Alabama A&M, the message for students seems to be: Stay because the institution is invested in ensuring you succeed both while you’re here as a student and after you’ve gotten your degree. The impact of having Kaplan’s All Access License has also expanded into improving educators’ ability to see their students’ needs. According to Stieffel at the University of Detroit Mercy, the prep tests allow educators to “supplement the education in the classroom with some of those areas where it looks like our students may be having difficulty.” For higher ed institutions, this access to an additional set of data points can further inform their initiatives to improve student success and to create more tailored curricula that can better meet their students’ needs. “We want [students] to have the confidence to know that they can do this.” - Richele Jordan-Davis, Health Professions Administrator at Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University Improve Student Access to More Fulfilling Career Paths “It’s opening doors for them that they didn’t necessarily think about for themselves because they just haven’t had access in the past,” remarks Ray, at Hamilton College. “I work primarily with first-gen students and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. I can tell you that even my students who are just coming in—and are years from taking the LSAT or MCAT—just knowing that they have access to this prep is a game changer.” Rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and inflation have contributed to Gen Z students’ worries over the value of pursuing a college degree. But the costs (and family expectations) can be much higher for first-generation students and for those coming from less privileged backgrounds. From juggling part-time jobs, to supporting family members, to facing greater uncertainties around affording next semester’s tuition, these students can face challenges in finding adequate academic or professional support. “There’s this quiet divide between those who can afford extra test prep and those who can’t,” says Murphy. For many of these students, additional costs like tutoring or courses in test prep, which have proven to be vital for success, are often not an option. “I work primarily with first-gen students and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. I can tell you that even my students who are just coming in—and are years from taking the LSAT or MCAT—just knowing that they have access to this prep is a game changer.” - Aaron Ray, Director of Opportunity Programs at Hamilton College “We eliminated that barrier of financial obligation,” explains Jordan-Davis. “We believe if they have access to the tools that Kaplan provides, they’ll be well prepared and will go into testing with less anxiety because they’ve had several opportunities to prepare.” For students who “aren’t used to having access to things,” having these resources available for free through Kaplan’s All Access License “changes their whole demeanor,” says Ray. When a student can arrive on campus and know that, when the time comes, they’ll have free access to resources that can help them prepare for the LSAT, then that can help them to better visualize a career path in law—an objective that they otherwise might not have even considered. Higher ed institutions that partner with Kaplan recognize the potential impact of these tests on the career outcomes for their students. Scores can play a big role in sorting what graduate programs students get accepted into, which scholarships they qualify for, and overall, what career paths are available to them over the long term. “A ten-point increase on a test can mean the difference between admissions to different schools that might offer more comprehensive packages, rides, or all kinds of things,” says Murphy. “There’s this quiet divide between those who can afford extra test prep and those who can’t.” - Melanie Murphy, Executive Director of the Knowlton Center for Career Exploration at Denison University The University as a Primary Workforce Driver Labor markets in advanced economies such as the U.S. have been tightening for over twenty years and the situation doesn’t appear to be improving, especially among Gen Z. There’s validity in their skepticism about the value of a college education, but it could spell trouble for sectors such as healthcare, education, and the sciences, which require a steady influx of college-educated professionals. Colleges that can meet Gen Z’s demands for a more personalized, career-connected, and values-aligned education are going to attract and retain more students and differentiate themselves in an already competitive higher ed market. “A ten-point increase on a test can mean the difference between admissions to different schools that might offer more comprehensive packages, rides, or all kinds of things.” - Melanie Murphy, Executive Director of the Knowlton Center for Career Exploration at Denison University The colleges that can adapt more responsively to Gen Z’s needs can play a crucial role in tackling workforce shortages. By designing programs that can better connect student learning to career outcomes, higher ed institutions can put themselves in a better position to secure funding, build stronger community and employer partnerships, and reinforce their institutional relevance and impact. Equip your students with the industry-leading tools they need to ace their exams and take their next big step after graduation through Kaplan’s All Access License.
