Article - A college education may not be worth as much as you think

What's a Degree Really Worth? - interesting article -
A college education may not be worth as much as you think...The numbers appeared to back it up. In recent years, the nonprofit College Board touted the difference in lifetime earnings of college grads over high-school graduates at $800,000, a widely circulated figure. Other estimates topped $1 million...For years, higher education was touted as a safe path to professional and financial success...One problem he sees with the estimates: They don't take into account deductions from income taxes or breaks in employment. Nor do they factor in debt, particularly student debt loads, which have ballooned for both public and private colleges in recent years.

 

The article does not take into account other factors related to this difference.
For example in buying a home lenders take base salary into consideration - then much of the expenses become tax deductable.
It also depends on what degree you pursue in college - engineers for example earn a far higher average salary then that quoted above.

 

Table 1 of this page from US Dept of Labor
http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm
gives mean salaries for various jobs and related education/training.

 

There are probably "softer" factors as well --- the misguided notion that everyone should go to college, which means students who are mediocre or don't want to be there expect good grades (you know, that entitlement attitude), which has definitely led to grade inflation. It seems like the new standard is now a master's degree and not the bachelor's.

What do others out there think about all this? Was your college degree worth the effort? Are we valuing degrees strictly on their monetary potential? That seems pretty sad to me.

 

Mine certainly were - however I earned my US degrees later in life and by then I was already well known in my field so no meaningful increase in renumeration. Now as a consultant I list my qualifications which helps reinforce my experience.

All the college courses I have taken were to learn something - either for work and for personal satisfaction. Non-work related courses in a wide variety of subjects ranging from King Tut to meteorology to political science to music all helped me enjoy life better including being to discuss such topics socially (which I now do on a daily basis over coffee with friends).

 

This is really interesting - thanks. I work in the biomedical engineering field and have for the last 18 years. Nice to know the field continues to grow.

...Increased medical research and demand for new medical technologies also will affect biomedical engineers. The aging of the population and a growing focus on health issues will drive demand for better medical devices and equipment designed by these workers. In fact, biomedical engineers are projected to be the fastest growing occupation in the economy. However, because of its small size, the occupation is projected to add only about 11,600 jobs....

 

Ditto for me as well, almost the same experience. Bachelor of Liberal Studies completed, age 44. My thesis was about sea otters, giant kelp and sea urchins! I'd already been in the I.T./I.S. bidniz since I was 19. It did get me a 3.5% salary "educational incentive" addition and the local county government paid for the classes, seminars and books. Pretty cool. I really loved taking all kinds of non-business, non-I.T. courses.

So now I'm doing a little consulting and also have the benefit of that degree on my resume, plus still hope to finish the master's degree in 3-4 years. Like you, strictly for self-enrichment. So mine wasn't wasted either.

Learning for its own sake and enjoyment -- now that's what I'm talkin about!

 

Another thing don't they average all incomes low to very very high of a college age person so you include football stars, CEO's and those doing social work and ministry say religious monks that get a modest stipend who may hold advanced degrees.

Seems to me saying earning this credential WILL assure an average income a million dollars more in ones lifetime is crazy.

 

Yeah! But you know what they say: what is funded is what gets studied, and what they study is what gets funded. It's a self-perpetuating loop-back of justification for useless research.