I wasn’t looking for a lecture on strategy when I opened LinkedIn last week. Then a post from Kees Bol, the chief executive of 2U, stopped my scroll. The headline did most of the work: “Waiting Is a Strategy. It’s Usually the Wrong One.” I clicked expecting the usual executive throat-clearing. What I found was a tighter argument than I bargained for, and one I’ve been turning over ever since.

I write about how students actually pay for higher education, so I came in a little skeptical. Executives love telling the rest of us to be bold. Bol anchored his case in something concrete, though, and that’s what got me.

The change I’d been underrating

Quick backdrop, in case you’ve been as distracted as I was. As of July 1, the federal government stopped offering Grad PLUS loans to most new graduate students. Those loans used to let you borrow all the way up to the full cost of your program. Now there are hard caps instead, around $20,500 a year and $100,000 over a lifetime for graduate degrees, with somewhat higher ceilings for professional programs, as Saving for College lays out.

I’d filed this under “policy stuff to read later.” Bol’s point is that students don’t have that luxury. They’re deciding right now, this cycle, whether grad school still pencils out.

The number that stuck with me

Then he dropped a statistic I can’t unsee. 2U ran research this spring and found that 82% of prospective learners had heard of the new law, but only 40% actually understood how it would hit them. Once they did understand it, more than a quarter said they’d become less likely to enroll.

Sit with that for a second. Most students know something changed. Most of them are guessing at what it means. That is how people talk themselves out of school over a version of the rules that isn’t even accurate. I’ve watched plenty of would-be applicants vanish over money they misjudged, so that one landed.

The part I’ll be repeating

Bol’s real argument runs deeper than loans; it’s about the instinct to wait. Wait for the rules to settle, for the lawsuits to resolve, for the technology to sit still. His line, the one I keep coming back to: “waiting is a decision too.” The market, he writes, doesn’t pause while you make up your mind.

I wanted to dismiss this as CEO-speak. I couldn’t, because the evidence around it keeps piling up. Look at hiring. The share of entry-level jobs that now ask for AI skills has nearly tripled since fall 2025, according to NACE. Skills that were a nice bonus a year ago are turning into table stakes, quickly.

Where I’d add a caveat

In fairness to the skeptics, moving fast is no magic word. A Brookings analysis makes the uncomfortable case that retraining programs often don’t deliver what we hope. I think that strengthens Bol’s point rather than undercutting it. If action is unavoidable and even the safe bets are shaky, then being deliberate about what you teach, and why, matters more.

People clearly feel the pull the other way, too. Monster’s 2026 WorkWatch Report found that 57% of workers aren’t planning to job-hunt this year. Stability sounds smart when everything is wobbling. There is also a version of playing it safe that amounts to falling behind slowly.

What I took away

What I appreciated about Bol’s piece is that he never pretends to know the future. His pitch is narrower and more honest: watch the signals, act on what you can see today, adjust as you go. For 2U, that looks like turning real-time reads on student sentiment and enrollment trends into guidance its university partners can use this cycle rather than next year. Whether or not you buy the company’s role in it, the underlying advice holds up.

I closed the tab more convinced than when I opened it. The students in Bol’s data have already started rethinking their plans, and employers have already reset what they expect. The only people who get to pretend the ground is still are the ones who aren’t standing on it.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of 2U, Inc. or its affiliates. Readers should conduct their own research and consider professional advice before making decisions related to higher education, online learning, or career opportunities.