Selling Dreams, Not Reality. Colleges are marketing possible, not likely, outcomes. That needs to change.

Choosing a college major is a life-altering decision, made millions of times a year by 18-year-olds with little exposure to higher education or labor markets. Colleges frame programs in terms of possibilities, not probabilities. They pitch degrees like products, emphasizing prestige and potential while downplaying the risks of dropping out or ending up underemployed. These institutions influence such decisions millions of times a year, but students make them only once. And while schools hold internal data on outcomes and labor markets, they rarely share what matters most. To the institution, the student is a sales prospect, not a learner they’re...