Gen Alpha, born between 2010 and 2025, is smaller than Gen Z (1997-2009) — and shaping up to be even more competitive to recruit. According to the Eduventures 2026 Prospective Student Brand Research™, 28% of Gen Alpha students plan to apply to 10 or more colleges, up from 17% of Gen Z in early 2020 (pre-pandemic).
A smaller and softer applicant pool raises the stakes. To compete, it is crucial to understand what this generation expects from colleges. So, what does Gen Alpha want?
According to our research, Gen Alpha is actively thinking about college. Over 3,500 of these ninth and 10th graders (the oldest Gen Alpha cohorts) responded to the Eduventures 2026 Prospective Student Brand Research, sharing their perspectives on college search.
To better understand these students, we focused on current high school sophomores and compared their responses to the Gen Z sophomores from the 2019-2020 research cycle. Here are four takeaways:
1) More Gen Alphas may need to be convinced to consider college.
Gen Alpha students differ demographically from their Gen Z counterparts. Only 22% of Gen Alpha students in our research live in low-income households compared to 34% of Gen Z in late 2019. Similarly, 25% of Gen Alpha students identify as first generation, compared to 32% of Gen Z.
This shift suggests that students who may have less access to financial resources or college guidance are entering the pipeline at lower rates. As a result, institutions may need to do more to engage and expand the pool, particularly among students who are less certain that college is within reach.
2) Gen Alphas want good careers but are not entirely transactional.
Gen Alpha students, like Gen Z, expect college to lead to a good job, but they place even greater emphasis on long-term career preparation and skill development. Figure 1 shows Gen Alpha’s top expectations for college and highlights significant changes from those of Gen Z.
Figure 1.
While Figure 1 shows that the top two college expectations are "Get a good job after graduation” and “Get a solid foundation for an entire career,” it also indicates that these students are not thinking purely in transactional terms. Compared to Gen Z, Gen Alpha shows stronger interest in friendships (+4 percentage points), living a meaningful life (+6 points), and making a positive impact on society (+6 points), as well as academic mastery (+8 points) and scientific, mathematical, and technical skills (+6 points).
How do you untangle the more career-oriented, transactional desires from the more purpose-driven ones when recruiting Gen Alpha? Perhaps you don’t have to.
3) Gen Alpha wants to make a difference — but not at all costs.
This generation’s career aspirations also reflect this balance between purpose and practicality. Many Gen Alpha students consider multiple career paths (an average of three), prioritizing those that offer both stability and impact.
Table 1 shows the top five career interests of Gen Alpha: the fastest growing, the most declining, and the steadiest.
| Category | Specific Skill | Percentage | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fastest Growing Career Interests | Nursing/Health care | 32% | 10% |
| Fastest Growing Career Interests | Medical/Dental professional | 25% | 8% |
| Fastest Growing Career Interests | Engineer | 23% | 7% |
| Fastest Growing Career Interests | Entrepreneur | 17% | 5% |
| Fastest Growing Career Interests | Natural/Life scientist | 14% | 4% |
| Top 5 Steady Career Interests | Psychology/Psychiatry/Counseling | 18% | 0% |
| Top 5 Steady Career Interests | Sports/Recreation/Athletic trainer | 13% | 1% |
| Top 5 Steady Career Interests | Technology/Computer scientist | 11% | 1% |
| Top 5 Steady Career Interests | Government | 10% | 1% |
| Top 5 Steady Career Interests | Physical therapist | 10% | 1% |
| Fastest Declining Career Interests | Social worker/Social services | 6% | -2% |
| Fastest Declining Career Interests | Performing artist | 10% | -3% |
| Fastest Declining Career Interests | Writer/Journalist | 10% | -3% |
| Fastest Declining Career Interests | School teacher | 9% | -4% |
| Fastest Declining Career Interests | Visual artist | 6% | -6% |
Table 1. The Eduventures Prospective Student Brand Research 2020 and 2026
Table 1 shows that health care and medical professions top the list of those with growing interests, offering both career stability and purpose. Forty-five percent of the students in our Gen Alpha sample can imagine themselves in a health care (32%) or medical role (25%) or both, up 10 percentage points and 8 percentage points, respectively, from that of Gen Z. Interest is also rising in Engineering (+7 percentage points) and Entrepreneurship (+ 5 points), fields that also blend stability with purpose.
Meanwhile, public service roles like psychology/counseling, government, politics, and the military (the latter two not shown in Table 1) held steady or ticked up only slightly. And interest is declining in fields such as education, journalism, social services, and the arts, which may be perceived as less financially stable.
The mindset of early members of Gen Alpha is coming into focus: they want to make a difference, but within careers that offer security and long-term viability.
4) Gen Alpha still wants a campus experience.
When the pandemic normalized learning from home, many speculated that Gen Alpha might never feel the pull of a physical campus. It turns out they still do — and demonstrate greater certainty about how they will learn. Figure 2 shows that just like Gen Z, Gen Alpha expects to have a campus experience.
Figure 2.
Figure 2 shows that three-quarters of Gen Alpha students anticipate taking all or most of their classes in person, slightly more than Gen Z prior to the pandemic. Peer interaction (62%) and clubs and activities (60%) remain central to how they define the value of college. Many also view college as a chance to grow personally — to learn to live independently (68%) and gain self-knowledge (54%).
Career preparation and academics take center stage, but Gen Alpha students see them as enhanced by the connections and experiences that happen on campus. While technology changes the way these students are engaging with their work in the classroom and beyond, they still see great value in the campus experience.
The Bottom Line
Career preparation is increasingly central to why students consider college. But for many Gen Alpha students opting out of the college pipeline altogether, college itself may not feel like a realistic path to that goal. The erosion of the belief that college is attainable for everyone, compounded by demographic decline, signals a difficult road ahead.
Institutions face a dual challenge of a smaller pool of students who are applying to more schools. To compete effectively, institutions should:
- Integrate career and purpose messaging. For this generation, tangible career outcomes and deeper goals — personal growth, meaningful work, societal impact — are not in tension; they're intertwined. Show how career outcomes and meaningful lives are connected and attainable.
- Make value tangible for skeptical students. For students weighing cost against return, concrete data points such as earnings by program, debt-to-income ratios, graduate employment timelines are more persuasive than general brand messaging. For students with financial concerns, data alone won't be enough. Expand early outreach to those from historically underrepresented backgrounds to widen the pipeline before skepticism takes hold.
- Revamp the campus experience. Technology will alter the ways students engage in the classrooms and social spaces, but it will not replace the campus experience. Blend technology with in-person experiences like campus visits and orientation to support connection, academic growth, and career readiness.
