Not all degree programs are created equal. What students go through to earn a degree at one college can look completely different than the work required to earn the same degree at another, and it doesn't just come down to whether the university is prestigious or concrete elements, like what you can afford.
If you're going to plonk down a healthy amount of cash on tuition and school supplies, and a boatload of brain power to secure a diploma, it helps to be confident in exactly what you're paying for before you invest.
You could let luck decide whether you'll enjoy the four to six years it typically takes to get to graduation -- or you could outsource some of the research required to know for sure. Here's how to use AI to help find the right degree program for you.
Just make sure to double-check all the info AI spits out, since chatbots have been known to hallucinate.
The extras
No matter what anyone tells you, the social scene and the sights and sounds surrounding your college experience are often just as vital to overall school satisfaction as the work itself.
I asked three different AI tools -- Claude AI, Gemini AI and ChatGPT -- to generate a list of colleges for a person who wants to build a robust and active social life and network effectively during extracurricular activities.
Cross-referencing campuses
The grand campus tour used to be a rite of passage for high school seniors looking forward to admission at their dream college. If you don't have the time or resources to make the trek, AI tools can provide a strong overview of what students, staff and faculty say about the campus vibe.
I asked the three AI tools to give me a breakdown of what several campuses from the already whittled-down list have to offer, based solely on their physical locations, with an eye on what makes each a uniquely inspiring learning environment.
Be so for real
The first step in figuring out which degree will work best for you is understanding how you learn and what you're actually interested in learning.
Many a student doesn't know why they're studying communications beyond a vague desire to interview famous people at some point, and that vain hope can shrivel quickly in the face of a 50-page paper on the history of radio.
AI tools can help you discover the right combination of passion, purpose and outcome so you don't end up in a college or degree program that isn't serving your best interests.
I asked the three AI tools to generate a list of degrees for a person interested in working in media who also hates writing.
The classes
Few things feel as aggravating as having to take a class you don't want to take just to meet a requirement to graduate.
I asked all three AI tools to look for degree programs with general education courses that will be immediately applicable in the real world and factor that into their final decisions.
The educators
Rating professors has become a matter of course for students in colleges across the country, much to the chagrin of sticklers and strict attendance-keepers in the modern era.
Although it can be tough to discern between an embittered student with an axe to grind and a genuinely irritated scholar who feels wronged by a professor on a power trip, AI tools can provide a general consensus on a teacher stripped of emotion.
Here are the final two picks for a student who likes friendly teachers and is looking to go into a media career with minimal writing involved, who prioritizes who they know and maximizes potential for earning and personal enjoyment. Both ChatGPT and Gemini agreed on the first.
Here's how ChatGPT summarized it:
Surprisingly, Claude AI was the only outlier in degree recommendations, naming Tulane University as the best bet over ChatGPT and Gemini's suggestions of the University of Southern California.
Mardi Gras with a side of media chops doesn't sound too shabby, but you should try your own prompts just to be sure.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)