Is college worth the money?
In a newly published article, my colleague Sarah Kaufman asks whether a $200,000 college education is a good investment.
The article suggests that students might try diving into a business venture out of high school rather than enroll in a pricey four-year university, rather like the alternate, somewhat shorter route on the Life game board, a quaint little relic of 1960s thinking. (Newer versions of the game penalize players financially for choosing business over college, rendering the option considerably less attractive.)
For parents who decide that college is, indeed, a worthy investment, I suggest another piece, a guest blog item posted to Political Bookworm: 15 colleges worth the price.
By
Daniel de Vise
|
September 9, 2010; 2:22 PM ET
Categories:
Finance
| Tags: 15 colleges worth the money, is college a good investment
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Scare tactics.
1. Only a handful of colleges actually cost $50,000 per year, all of them private.
2. The average percentage of sticker price covered by financial aid at private colleges is currently 42%, reducing the average cost even at these priciest schools to $116,000.
3. The average debt load isn't a scary $200,000, it's about $22,000 -- although some people certainly have more debt, and it's too hard to restructure student loan debt.
4. It's a lot easier for a high school graduate to get a loan to go to college than to get a loan to start a small business or travel the world. And the college degree is becoming the workforce entry credential; it's hard to get a good job with a HS diploma.
5. Sure, Bill Gates didn't need a college education. But Marc Andreesen did, Larry Page and Sergey Brin did, Robert Noyce did... to say nothing of countless military officers, lawyers and judges and elected officials, physicists, neurosurgeons, etc.
Posted by: drrico | September 10, 2010 10:32 AM | Report abuse
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