# What college is really worth in 2026 Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145/what-college-is-really-worth-in-2026 Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145/what-college-is-really-worth-in-2026.md Podcast: [The Excerpt](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145) Published: 2026-07-20T09:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/ecd8aa71-e953-44fc-ba72-582906c88ee2.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Audio file: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/ecd8aa71-e953-44fc-ba72-582906c88ee2.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-excerpt-742145/episodes/what-college-is-really-worth-in-2026 Duration seconds: 739 ## Resource The question of whether college is worth it has gotten more complicated as costs rise and students weigh other paths after high school. USA TODAY Personal Finance Reporter Daniel de Visé breaks down what new research says about the value of a degree and the factors that can change the math. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com .  Episode transcript available here .  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info . ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-excerpt-742145/episodes/what-college-is-really-worth-in-2026/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145/what-college-is-really-worth-in-2026.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.