The figures described seem to argue the opposite of the headline. If you get a 12% return on the cost of your education regardless of where you go, then that me

The figures described seem to argue the opposite of the headline. If you get a 12% return on the cost of your education regardless of where you go, then that means that more expensive colleges are providing a commensurate increase in returns. The fact that they can maintain 12% return is fantastic, and you should be spending every last cent you can afford on that. After all, if I offered you a 12 cents a year if you give me a dollar today, and someone else offered you $12000 a year if you give them $100k this year, you'd probably take the latter. And this is not even counting the fixed cost of the time you spend going to university. The cheap and the expensive both charge you the same in time. But the latter gives you a phenomenally higher return on that time.