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College is still the best investment you can make in yourself, even accounting for opportunity cost. Expected earnings increase by over a million for getting yo

College is still the best investment you can make in yourself, even accounting for opportunity cost. Expected earnings increase by over a million for getting your degree. That's a large reason why people are willing to pay so much.

nonethewiser 4y ago
>College is still the best investment you can make in yourself No it's not. Not without qualifiers. What if it costs $5M/year and the median income for graduates is 40k upon graduation? Clearly not worth it. That would utterly ruin your finances for the rest of your life. So there is some point where it becomes worth it. The question is where, which is going to be a little different for everyone. Is 240k for a liberal arts degree worth it to you? It's certainly not for me.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  > What if it costs $5M/year and the median income for graduates is 40k upon graduation? Then it wouldn't be the best investment you can make in yourself. For now it still is. Yes, paying 240k to make more than a million more inflation adjusted dollars over the course of your career is worth it. Now it's probably not a great idea considering you can graduate at a much lower cost, but on the margin, yea, that's a good investment.
stillbourne 4y ago
What you are excluding is the risk factors for if you fail to find entry into your specific profession, and the chances of finding a job in a given major. Saying college is the best investment is so generic a statement when degree selection and the barriers to entry into the job market are also variables to success. The question isn't if, as a generic or on the whole, college is the best investment you can make. It's more like, is the major I've chosen going to be profitable after I graduate? What is the degree to market conditions like? Will my job be robust enough to stand against automation? The way I see it the number of available degrees vs graduates entering into the market has a high enough risk that failure to enter the job market becomes enough of a risk as to not be rewarding. Your statement is what is wrong with the industry, because it doesn't preclude the other option, what if you fail? Even if you passed all your classes and graduated top of you class, what happens if you can't find a job? Your statement assumes everyone is a winner if they invest in college, but that is not the case.

nonethewiser 4y ago

>College is still the best investment you can make in yourself No it's not. Not without qualifiers. What if it costs $5M/year and the median income for graduates is 40k upon graduation? Clearly not worth it. That would utterly ruin your finances for the rest of your life. So there is some point where it becomes worth it. The question is where, which is going to be a little different for everyone. Is 240k for a liberal arts degree worth it to you? It's certainly not for me.

colinmhayes 4y ago
> What if it costs $5M/year and the median income for graduates is 40k upon graduation? Then it wouldn't be the best investment you can make in yourself. For now it still is. Yes, paying 240k to make more than a million more inflation adjusted dollars over the course of your career is worth it. Now it's probably not a great idea considering you can graduate at a much lower cost, but on the margin, yea, that's a good investment.

stillbourne 4y ago

What you are excluding is the risk factors for if you fail to find entry into your specific profession, and the chances of finding a job in a given major. Saying college is the best investment is so generic a statement when degree selection and the barriers to entry into the job market are also variables to success. The question isn't if, as a generic or on the whole, college is the best investment you can make. It's more like, is the major I've chosen going to be profitable after I graduate? What is the degree to market conditions like? Will my job be robust enough to stand against automation? The way I see it the number of available degrees vs graduates entering into the market has a high enough risk that failure to enter the job market becomes enough of a risk as to not be rewarding. Your statement is what is wrong with the industry, because it doesn't preclude the other option, what if you fail? Even if you passed all your classes and graduated top of you class, what happens if you can't find a job? Your statement assumes everyone is a winner if they invest in college, but that is not the case.