Her Daughters Were the CEOs of YouTube and 23andMe. She Offers Parents This Simple Advice.
Should parents push their children to go to college? Esther Wojcicki, an educator known as “The Godmother of Silicon Valley,” has an answer.
Key Takeaways
- Esther Wojcicki argues that even in the AI era, parents should send their kids to college.
- She says that college develops interpersonal skills that online or AI-based learning cannot match.
- She adds that ages 18 to 22 are a critical time for growth, and college uniquely helps young adults learn how to interact with others.
Want to raise the next CEO of a major company? Esther Wojcicki, known as “” says it is important for children to go to college, even in the age of AI.
Wojcicki is the mother of Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, the late Susan Wojcicki, YouTube鈥檚 former CEO, and , an academic physician-researcher who is a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
On an of the podcast Silicon Valley Girl released earlier this month, host Marina Mogilko posed the question, 鈥淒o you think parents should be saving or pushing for college in today鈥檚 age?鈥澛
Wojcicki immediately responded by saying that college is 鈥渟o important鈥 because of the interpersonal skills it offers students.
“People think, ‘Oh, we don’t need college anymore, they can get it all online.’ College is an opportunity for you to hone your interaction with other human beings,鈥 Wojcicki said on the podcast.
She added that students between the ages of 18 and 22 have 鈥渁 lot of growing to do鈥 and college offers a way for that growth to occur.
鈥淚f you don’t interact with other people, you aren’t going to get those skills,鈥 Wojcicki said. 鈥淪o you’re never going to be able to substitute college with an AI education.”
College still matters
Research shows that, even in an AI-disrupted labor market, college graduates continue to have lower unemployment and higher long鈥憈erm earnings than those with only a high school diploma.
A 2025 by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that workers with only a high school diploma faced unemployment rates at least 2.3% higher than those with Bachelor鈥檚 degrees from 2000 to 2025. That gap persisted into the AI era.
from leading economists similarly conclude that a college education still opens doors to more adaptable, higher-paying jobs, even as AI reshapes the workforce.
At the same time, the value offered by college is shifting towards 鈥渉uman skills.鈥 McKinsey these skills as critical thinking, communication, judgment and collaboration, which are harder to automate and become more important as AI handles routine cognitive tasks.
A March from Western Governors University of more than 3,000 U.S. employers found that employers increasingly look for human skills over narrow technical skills.
Wojcicki isn鈥檛 the only parent advising the next generation to go to college. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said last year that college students today have 鈥渕ore resources鈥 available to them than 鈥渁nybody in the history of everything.鈥 In 2024, he said at going to college, even if they don鈥檛 end up getting a degree.
鈥淕oing to school isn鈥檛 about your major 鈥 at least not in the first two years,鈥 he said in a 2024 with social media star Jules Terpak. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about learning how to learn, and it鈥檚 about getting excited to learn and exposing yourself to all kinds of different people [and] ideas.鈥
Key Takeaways
- Esther Wojcicki argues that even in the AI era, parents should send their kids to college.
- She says that college develops interpersonal skills that online or AI-based learning cannot match.
- She adds that ages 18 to 22 are a critical time for growth, and college uniquely helps young adults learn how to interact with others.
Want to raise the next CEO of a major company? Esther Wojcicki, known as “” says it is important for children to go to college, even in the age of AI.
Wojcicki is the mother of Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, the late Susan Wojcicki, YouTube鈥檚 former CEO, and , an academic physician-researcher who is a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
On an of the podcast Silicon Valley Girl released earlier this month, host Marina Mogilko posed the question, 鈥淒o you think parents should be saving or pushing for college in today鈥檚 age?鈥澛
