Gingersnap
09-21-2010, 11:02 AM
Cost of college: Grads break even by age 33
Updated 16h 9m ago | Comments 17
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
For the typical student attending a four-year public university, the financial investment in college begins to pay off at about age 33, a report says Tuesday.
Compared with a high school graduate, the typical four-year college graduate who enrolled in a public university at age 18 has earned enough by then to compensate for being out of the labor force for four years and for borrowing enough to pay tuition and fees without grant aid.
Unemployment rates have increased faster among people with a high school diploma but no college degree, the report says, and college grads are more likely to exercise, volunteer, vote and read to their kids, and are less likely to be obese or smoke.
"Questions have intensified about whether going to college is worthwhile," says Education Pays, released by College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. "For the typical student, the investment pays off very well over the course of a lifetime — even considering the expense."
This is the third such report since 2004; the 2008 report was criticized by Charles Miller, former chair of a higher-education commission under President Bush, as being a "cheerleader" instead of giving "a clear and accurate picture of the dangerous financial deterioration of our higher-education system."
This year's report says the solution is not to advise students to skip college but to provide better information and advice — and more generous financial support.
"If it wasn't clear before, it should be abundantly clear now that a college graduate is far more competitive in today's workplace," College Board president Gaston Caperton says.
I'm not too sure about the stats at the link. While it's true that science, technical, and certain business degrees pay off very well, I'm less certain about soft degrees right now. The days are long gone when any degree automatically bumped you into a management track. What I see is that soft degrees today put you where skilled labor was 20 or 30 years ago. You can have a nice life and support a family in working class style (1 wage earner) or middle class style (dual income).
Basically, college is the new high school in some ways.
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-09-21-educationpaysONLINE21_ST_N.htm)
Updated 16h 9m ago | Comments 17
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
For the typical student attending a four-year public university, the financial investment in college begins to pay off at about age 33, a report says Tuesday.
Compared with a high school graduate, the typical four-year college graduate who enrolled in a public university at age 18 has earned enough by then to compensate for being out of the labor force for four years and for borrowing enough to pay tuition and fees without grant aid.
Unemployment rates have increased faster among people with a high school diploma but no college degree, the report says, and college grads are more likely to exercise, volunteer, vote and read to their kids, and are less likely to be obese or smoke.
"Questions have intensified about whether going to college is worthwhile," says Education Pays, released by College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. "For the typical student, the investment pays off very well over the course of a lifetime — even considering the expense."
This is the third such report since 2004; the 2008 report was criticized by Charles Miller, former chair of a higher-education commission under President Bush, as being a "cheerleader" instead of giving "a clear and accurate picture of the dangerous financial deterioration of our higher-education system."
This year's report says the solution is not to advise students to skip college but to provide better information and advice — and more generous financial support.
"If it wasn't clear before, it should be abundantly clear now that a college graduate is far more competitive in today's workplace," College Board president Gaston Caperton says.
I'm not too sure about the stats at the link. While it's true that science, technical, and certain business degrees pay off very well, I'm less certain about soft degrees right now. The days are long gone when any degree automatically bumped you into a management track. What I see is that soft degrees today put you where skilled labor was 20 or 30 years ago. You can have a nice life and support a family in working class style (1 wage earner) or middle class style (dual income).
Basically, college is the new high school in some ways.
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-09-21-educationpaysONLINE21_ST_N.htm)