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College is probably worth it but that's not what this graph is really showing. It really should be entitled 'Is Private College Worth It?' because it appears t
by Zimahl 13y ago
College is probably worth it but that's not what this graph is really showing. It really should be entitled 'Is Private College Worth It?' because it appears that the only significant cost:wage value is to 'Private Engineering' and even then arguments could be made that state engineering is good enough.
- wmf 13y agoDo you realize that the axes have different scales? Even a state school returns ~$400K with a cost of only ~$75K. I'd like to see the returns converted into net present value, but it still looks like a win.
- Zimahl 13y agoI'm not sure what you're saying. Of course I see that the axes have different scales but both are linear. State schools (blue/purple/green) are at about $75k in cost but span the same '30 Year Wage Premium' as the private schools (yellow/orange/red) with the only significant difference being in the highest of high-end engineering schools (MIT, Cal Tech, Carnegie Melon). I sincerely question the data however after looking at it more closely. My alma mater (Washington State) apparently costs more than University of Washington. From a purely tuition perspective this is not true since I've compared them many times. If you add in room and board this should be quite different due to UW being located in a major metropolitan city, and WSU being located in rural eastern Washington. Who knew BYU was such a good deal? All my cousins I guess (had 4 who went there, with a child of one cousin (second cousin) now attending).