The education system was designed for a world where information was scarce. The lecture, the exam, the credential — all of it built around the assumption that knowledge was hard to access and that the institution’s job was to distribute it.

That world no longer exists. And yet the conversation most students are having before university is still almost entirely about getting in, not about what they are actually going there for.

What university is actually worth now

The content of lectures is no longer the primary return on a university education. Information is instant, abundant, and largely free. What a university genuinely offers today is something AI cannot replicate: proximity to people. The network you build, the social and intellectual friction of living and working alongside others, the soft skills that only develop through real human interaction — these are what compound over a lifetime.

The students who get the most from university are not necessarily the ones with the best grades. They are the ones who understood what they were there to develop beyond the curriculum.

The choice every student now has to make

Laurent Alexandre and Olivier Babeau frame something worth sitting with. AI is an amplifier — it reinforces what you already are. A curious, intentional student who uses it as a thinking partner will become sharper and more capable. A passive one who uses it to avoid effort will find that capacity quietly eroding.

They describe this as a choice between two figures. Jiminy Cricket — the voice that pushes you toward the harder, more rewarding path. And the Fox — charming, offering shortcuts, leading you somewhere you did not intend to go.

Every student is configuring their relationship with AI right now, consciously or not. The ones building something that lasts are the ones who chose the harder path early.

What this means before you apply

University is worth it. But approaching it the way students approached it ten years ago — choosing a program for the credential, attending for the content, leaving for the job — is no longer enough.

The questions worth asking before you apply are not just which university and which program. They are: what do I want to develop as a person, what environment will push me to grow, and what am I going to build while I am there beyond the degree.

Those questions are rarely asked. HOKO exists to ask them.