When Josephine Timperman arrived at Miami University in Ohio two years ago, she had a clear plan: major in business analytics, build niche technical skills, and graduate with a resume that would stand out to employers. AI changed everything.
The statistical analysis and coding she'd been learning — skills she once considered an edge — can now be automated with ease. So a few weeks ago, the 20-year-old switched her major to marketing, betting instead on the things machines still can't replicate: critical thinking, relationship-building, genuine conversation.
"You don't just want to be able to code," she said. "You want to be able to have a conversation, form relationships, think critically — because at the end of the day, that's what AI can't replace." She's keeping analytics as a minor and plans to go deeper in a one-year master's program.
Timperman isn't alone in her pivot. Across the country, college students are grappling with a disorienting question: what do you study for a job market that may look completely different by the time you graduate? About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 Harvard Kennedy School poll, while Gallup data shows U.S. workers are increasingly anxious about being replaced by technology.
A Moving Target
The anxiety is sharpest among students in technology and vocational fields, where AI is both a required fluency and a looming threat. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that the vast majority of Americans believe colleges should be teaching students how to use AI — even as Gallup data shows AI is already displacing work in tech-related fields at accelerating rates. Students in healthcare and natural sciences appear comparatively insulated, but for many others, the ground keeps shifting.
"We see students change majors all the time. That's not new," said Courtney Brown, a vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit. "But the fact that so many are doing it specifically because of AI — that is startling."
Adding to the uncertainty: the people students normally turn to for guidance — advisers, professors, parents — don't have answers either. "Students are having to navigate this on their own, without a GPS," Brown said.
That collective uncertainty was on full display last month at Stanford, where university presidents gathered to discuss the future of higher education. Brown University President Christina Paxson put the challenge plainly: "We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years. And none of us know."
Her instinct, for now? "Communication, critical thought — the fundamentals of a liberal education are probably more important right now than learning how to code in Java."
Even CS Majors Are Worried
Ben Aybar graduated last spring from the University of Chicago with a computer science degree and applied to roughly 50 software engineering roles. He didn't get a single interview. He's since enrolled in a master's program and found part-time work in AI consulting — helping companies understand and implement the very technology that displaced him.
"People who know how to use AI will be very valuable," Aybar said. But equally important, he's found, is the ability to explain complex systems in plain language and work alongside people who aren't technical. "Being able to interact with people in a very human way is more valuable than ever."
At the University of Virginia, data science major Ava Lawless is weighing a switch to studio art — her minor — not out of passion alone, but out of pragmatism tinged with resignation.
"It makes me feel a bit hopeless," she said. Some advisers tell her data scientists will be safe because they're the ones building AI models. Others paint a grimmer picture. She keeps seeing the gloomy job reports and can't reconcile them.
"I'm at a point where I'm thinking: if I can't get a job as a data scientist, I might as well pursue art," she said. "Because if I'm going to be unemployed, I might as well do something I love."