The True Cost of an Online Degree

we knew that

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2017-04-21/calculate-the-true-cost-of-an-online-degree

 

Is there a section on here for career advice?

 

Usually people just dump those questions in the main forum

 

I like the final takeaway portion:

I mean, is this to say that traditional students shouldn't (or don't) calculate opportunity costs when calculating the "true cost" of an online degree in order to understand how much money they're actually spending/giving up?

 

In 1975, Caroline Bird wrote, in her interesting book "The Case Against College" that if one could put the full cost of college into growth stocks at age 18 (borrowing it if necessary), the lifetime earnings would be greater than a lifetime of salary earned by a degree h older. Her numbers are long out of date, but her arguments are persuasive. http://tinyurl.com/kjxqegw

 

Interestingly, I was just having this conversation with my nephew. He doesn't want to go to college. He wants to work in the skilled trades. So we tinkered around with spreadsheets and looked at the merits of earning, say, $40,000 from the time you are 18 onward (with modest but regular COLA) versus not entering the worforce until say, 22-25 with modest earnings in the beginning eventually climbing up to the $40k level and beyond years later.

One of the problems, I think, is that we treat these decisions as binary. You either go to college or you don't. The reality is that it is much more nuanced than that. A B.S. in Accounting is likely to help you earn more than a welding certification. But a union carpenter is likely to make more than someone with a B.A. in Pop Culture.

The picture gets even fuzzier when you start throwing in other variables. I can tell you that, at my company, a welder who knows his/her way around Excel would likely advance to management much faster than one who doesn't know Excel. And that person with the B.A. in Pop Culture might make a fine living if they are also sporting a few IT certifications.

Degrees are separate from careers. Some align directly with careers. Others do not. The same can be said for trade education. Getting training as a welder has a clear path to employment. Furniture making? Well, not as clear.

I hit the workforce full time (30 hours for the first two years) at 18. I haven't stopped since. Today I'm debt free, well into my career and I have college degrees. Even when I had debt, I was putting away money as I could afford for retirement. I was told by numerous people that I was being stupid with my money. That I should use all available cash to pay off all of my debts and save for retirement later. Had I done that I would have significantly less. I would have lost valuable years with my money working for me.

For some individuals going to college is the dumbest choice they can make. They will end up saddled with debt and destined for career mediocrity. For others, choosing not to go to college could be the wisest decision. They may even earn that degree down the road.

We can look at national trends. That's a great idea for setting policy. But, for my own kids, I'll prefer the personal handling. If my son is an amazing baker and wants nothing more than to bake all day then sending him off to get a B.A. in Sociology would be silly.

We, as a society, got so worked up trying to develop this silver bullet that would fix all of our career woes that we forget, or ignore, that people are unique enough to be able to carve their own path if we provide the guidance to do so.