The Fast and the Curious
Every so often, my family gets in the car and whatever was playing on my phone starts coming through the speakers. It’s usually a podcast or audiobook, and always at 1.5x speed. This experience is jarring for everyone else in the car and I was surprised to learn that I’m in the minority in doing this. Only 8% of people 45 and older listen to audio faster than 1x. But among people 18-29, that figure rises to 31%.
This makes sense in light of what we observe in students today: a growing desire to speed things up.
Just last month, I toured a campus where students were sitting in the hallway outside a classroom while a lecture was underway. When I asked why, they said they wanted to ask the professor questions after class but preferred to watch the lecture later…at 1.5x speed.
That mindset—more, faster—is showing up across higher ed:
Three-year degrees are gaining traction. Johnson & Wales University became the first in the country to gain accreditor approval for a three-year degree that wouldn’t just be a condensed four-year experience but a truly shortened degree (90 credits vs. 120). Universities from Utah to Iowa to Maine have followed suit, driven by student demand to complete their studies faster and enter the workforce sooner.
Shorter graduate programs are outperforming longer ones. In a recent analysis of professional master’s programs for a national research university, we found that 10- or 12-month options vastly outperformed 18- or 24-month competitors.
Hare > Tortoise in admissions. In a recent study on undergraduate students’ college choices, we found that the first school to respond with an offer held top position in students’ decisions even if it wasn’t originally a favorite. Sometimes the winner isn’t the one who does it best, but the one who does it first.
Consistent across these examples is that students want to get what they need efficiently so they can move on to what’s next.
Good or bad, this trend toward acceleration is likely to speed up (pun intended). Here’s what that might mean for how colleges respond:
Streamline admissions operations. Speed is a differentiator. Institutions that respond faster—whether with application decisions, transfer credit evaluations, or financial aid appeals—gain an edge. Each “advancement point” is an opportunity to move students along in their decisions, and move them toward you. Sophisticated enrollment operations are responsive, anticipatory, and frictionless.
Frame career readiness as acceleration. Students fear their job search reading like a telegram: complete my degree (STOP) search for jobs (STOP) begin career. Instead, they expect college and career preparation to overlap with internships in multiple years, employer touchpoints across the experience, and a job offer before the cap and gown. Colleges that make career preparation a throughline—rather than a capstone—will attract students who see momentum as ROI.
Rethink academic architecture. Acceleration isn’t just about pace; it’s about precision. Students want to move faster because they want to eliminate what feels irrelevant or inefficient – they dislike “filler.” Institutions should evaluate which requirements genuinely build competency and which persist mainly by tradition. Time is a form of currency, and students are spending it more selectively.
Market “speed” thoughtfully. Not every audience wants fast. For some, speed signals shortcuts or lower quality. The art is in framing efficiency as intentionaldesign. Institutions that pair speed with depth—“faster to what matters most”—will resonate with both pragmatic and purpose-driven students.
The impulse to accelerate isn’t going away. It’s part of a broader cultural shift in how people learn, work, and measure progress. Colleges can’t change the pace of the world, but they can decide whether to fight it or design for it. The question isn’t how to slow students down, but rather how to make sure what they’re racing toward is worth the speed.