We’ve all heard it before: college students are more intelligent than everyone else. I’ll be honest. I’ve said it before. Their IQs are said to average between 115 and 130, well above the average of 100. This idea is repeated in popular magazines, academic publications, and even in the perception of employers. But are college students still smarter than average? Is it still valid? And yes, this is the right question.

Researchers Uttl, Violo, and Gibson dug deep into the data and came up with a striking conclusion: the average IQ of college students today is only around 102. In other words, college students are average, well… average.

Why did we think college students were more intelligent?

The belief that college students are exceptionally intelligent stems from old data. In the 1940s and 1950s, college education was a privilege for a small elite. Back then, college students’ IQ was much higher than the population average. But times change. Nowadays, many more people are graduating from university, and the average intelligence of students has logically declined.

In addition, the Flynn effect plays a role: IQ scores increase with the generations, but not everyone benefits equally from this. Old standards, therefore, give a distorted picture of how smart people really are today.

What does this mean?

The findings have major implications:

• Universities and teachers must realize that students are no longer an intellectual elite and adjust their teaching methods and expectations accordingly.
• Employers can no longer blindly rely on a diploma as proof of exceptional intelligence.
• Students themselves would do well to understand that a university degree is no guarantee of above-average intellect or success.
• Science and popular media must stop romanticizing the ‘exceptionally smart’ student.
• Psychological assessments should no longer be based on outdated data on IQ and educational level.

These findings raise some very interesting questions. If students are not more intelligent than the rest of the population on average, what does that mean for education and, by extension, the labour market? Perhaps universities and teachers should revise their expectations and approach. Employers may wonder whether a degree is still a good criterion for suitability. And students themselves? They may want to focus more on what they do with their knowledge instead of thinking that a degree automatically sets them apart.

In short, based on this meta-analysis, the image of the brilliant student seems to be a relic from another time. To be clear, this is not an argument to consider universities redundant or to state that intelligence no longer matters, but it does make us think about what a degree really says today.

Abstract of the meta-analysis:

Background:

According to a widespread belief, the average IQ of university students is 115 to 130 IQ points, that is, substantially higher than the average IQ of the general population (M = 100, SD = 15). We traced the origin of this belief to obsolete intelligence data collected in 1940s and 1950s when university education was the privilege of a few. Examination of more recent IQ data indicate that IQ of university students and university graduates dropped to the average of the general population. The decline in students’ IQ is a necessary consequence of increasing educational attainment over the last 80 years. Today, graduating from university is more common than completing high school in the 1940s.

Method:

We conducted a meta-analysis of the mean IQ scores of college and university students samples tested with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale between 1939 and 2022.

Results:

The results show that the average IQ of undergraduate students today is a mere 102 IQ points and declined by approximately 0.2 IQ points per year. The students’ IQ also varies substantially across universities and is correlated with the selectivity of universities (measured by average SAT scores of admitted students).

Discussion:

These findings have wide-ranging implications. First, universities and professors need to realize that students are no longer extraordinary but merely average, and have to adjust curricula and academic standards. Second, employers can no longer rely on applicants with university degrees to be more capable or smarter than those without degrees. Third, students need to realize that acceptance into university is no longer an invitation to join an elite group. Fourth, the myth of brilliant undergraduate students in scientific and popular literature needs to be dispelled. Fifth, estimating premorbid IQ based on educational attainment is vastly inaccurate, obsolete, not evidence based, and mere wishful thinking. Sixth, obsolete IQ data or tests ought not to be used to make high-stakes decisions about individuals, for example, by clinical psychologists to opine about the intelligence and cognitive abilities of their clients.