Besides the monetary cost, you'd be investing a year of your life. When faced with a similar situation, I went for it not so much because of the future earnings

Besides the monetary cost, you'd be investing a year of your life. When faced with a similar situation, I went for it not so much because of the future earnings potential but because I thought it would be a valuable life experience (which it was, and I'm happy I did it). If you see it purely as an investment, you have to figure out what else you could be doing in the meantime that would give you the same return, both financially and emotionally.