Can’t get exact match with meta_query

On a university website, I use ACF to classify pages for degree programs. I have a shortcode that lets me filter by program type.

`’meta_query’ => array(`

`’relation’ => ‘AND’,`

`array(`

`’key’ => ‘filter_program_type’,`

`’value’ => $atts_args[‘type’],`

`’compare’ => ‘LIKE’`

`),`

`array(`

`’key’ => ‘filter_area_of_study’,`

`’value’ => $atts_args[‘subject’],`

`’compare’ => ‘LIKE’`

`),`

Using LIKE to compare, I get “Undergraduate Programs” when I am looking for the value “Graduate.” I understand this is expected behavior using LIKE, but when I change compare to = I get no results at all. Is there some other way to specify an exact match here?