The answer to the question "Is going to college still worth it?" is still yes, but it isn't a simple answer.
“What is the value of a college degree?” It remains near an all-time high of $300,000, while the time to recoup the costs of getting bachelor’s degree has fallen from more than twenty years in the late 1970s to about ten years in 2013.Pethokoukis quotes a Wall Street Journal article which in turn quotes Richard Vedder, an economist and the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity:
There is little difference in wages for the bottom 25% of college grads versus those high school-only grads, and “once the costs of attending college are considered, it is likely that earning a bachelor’s degree would not have been a good investment for many” in that bottom quarter.
Out of every 100 kids who enter college, 40 don’t graduate, and for the 60 who do, 15 are in the bottom quartile and don’t make any more money than if they hadn’t gone to college,” Mr. Vedder said. “What that tells me is that college is a pretty risky investment, and we may be over-invested in traditional higher education and under-invested in nontraditional, vocationally oriented programs like long-distance trucking and cutting hair."Parents don't get many bragging rights if their kid ends up cutting hair or working an auto parts counter. As we've said many times here at COTTonLINE, graduating is important but so is choice of college major - some pay much more than others, and are employed sooner, too.
