January 05, 2026

Elite Colleges Are Back at the Top of the List for Company Recruiters

The “talent is everywhere” mantra adopted by U.S. employers when the job market was white hot is giving way to a more traditional entry-level recruiting strategy: hire from a few select universities.

A 2025 Veris Insights’ survey of more than 150 companies found that 26% were exclusively recruiting from a shortlist of schools, up from 17% that were doing so in 2022.

As white-collar hiring slows down and corporate DEI goals vanish, where you went to college matters again. Read the full article from Wall Street Journal examining recent labor-market shifts, featuring data from Veris Insights.