Employers are increasingly relying on degree and GPA in hiring: Recruiters move away from “talent is everywhere,” focus more on top colleges

(SeaPRwire) –   Higher education is facing an identity crisis. Repeated criticisms from the Trump administration, the rise of artificial intelligence, and budget constraints have placed leading universities on the defensive amid declining public confidence in the value of a college degree. However, a shift in corporate hiring practices suggests that elite institutions are far from losing their influence.

A 2025 survey conducted by recruiting intelligence firm Veris Insights revealed that 26% of over 150 companies surveyed were targeting a select group of schools—up from 17% in 2022.

Even among companies not limiting recruitment to a shortlist, most focused on so-called “target schools,” while accepting applications from other institutions. As a result, candidates from prestigious universities located near a company’s headquarters typically receive priority, according to Chelsea Schein, Veris’s vice president of research strategy, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“Employers are increasingly relying on a candidate’s degree and GPA when making hiring decisions,” Schein stated. “There’s growing recognition among employers that they can be more strategic in their recruitment approach.”

The once-popular philosophy of “talent is everywhere” has lost favor among many recruiters for several reasons. First, widespread outreach is costly—requiring significant resources to host campus events and travel nationwide. Second, the proliferation of AI-generated résumés has blurred the lines between applicants, prompting some firms to default to university prestige as a screening tool. Additionally, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are no longer central to many hiring strategies.

This trend echoes pre-pandemic hiring practices during the tight labor markets of 2018 and 2019, when companies prioritized in-person interactions. Today, most firms limit their campus recruiting to about 30 colleges out of the nation’s 4,000 universities, beginning with top-tier institutions and expanding to schools near their offices as they seek candidates for on-site roles.

Major corporations are already adapting. GE Appliances, once visiting 45 to 50 campuses annually, now hosts four or five career events per semester at just 15 universities.

Financial technology company Bill focuses its recruiting efforts on colleges located near its headquarters in San Jose, California, and Draper, Utah.

McKinsey & Company, a major New York-based consulting firm, is “recommitting to a high-touch recruitment process,” hosting in-person events with alumni at a curated list of 20 universities. This follows the removal of language from its careers page stating, “We hire people, not degrees.”

College enrollment rises despite growing skepticism about degrees

This shift may provide a crucial advantage to elite institutions even as public support for higher education wanes. In 2025, only 35% of U.S. adults believed a college education was “very important,” down sharply from 70% in 2013. Similarly, just one-third of American voters considered a four-year degree worth the cost over the same period, according to NBC News.

Despite this skepticism, enrollment in higher education continues to climb. Institutions awarded nearly 2.2 million bachelor’s degrees in 2025—a significant increase from 1.6 million in 2010.

Some recruiters question whether a college degree remains worthwhile. Sander van ’t Noordende, CEO of recruitment agency Randstad, told he believes individuals should reconsider “taking on student debt, attending college, and training for a profession that changes rapidly—whether that path still makes sense.” Nearly half of millennials and Gen Z report viewing college as a poor financial investment, with Gen Z men being hit hardest: their unemployment rate now matches that of Gen Z men without degrees.

For others, however, the benefits persist. College graduates continue to earn significantly more than those with only a high school diploma. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the wage premium for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher stands at approximately 90%. While this gap has plateaued in recent years after decades of steady growth, it remains substantial.

“I’d rather be a graduate with a degree than without one,” said Schein.

Yet even among the nearly 4,000 accredited institutions across the U.S., a bachelor’s degree alone may not impress top recruiters—unless it comes from an elite school.

A version of this article originally appeared on .com on Jan. 6, 2026.

More on recruiting trends:

• “Reverse recruiters” charge up to $1,500 monthly just to assist job seekers
• The Midwest and South emerge as new hotspots for recent college graduate hiring
• Trump proposes cutting federal student loan funding for low-return college programs