ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
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Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#2That is very scary if it's true. If a degree in the experimental sciences from a top-10 institution does not pay better than a degree from Tumbleweed State then the employment market for scientists is completely broken.
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#3That is very scary if it's true. If a degree in the experimental sciences from a top-10 institution does not pay better than a degree from Tumbleweed State then the employment market for scientists is completely broken.
It may pay better, but they are calculating the overall return, meaning the cost of that top-10 degree is a factor as well.
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#4In addition to the obvious 0 line, it's worth taking the article's observation that S&P has returned 7.8% and mentally drawing a line there too.
Also, for anyone in the position of deciding which to do, I'd add the observation that it is way easier to go to college and get a formal education in science, math, or engineering, and pursue an ongoing adhoc self-directed education in the arts and humanities in your remaining decades of life, than the other way around. Locally to HN's interests, this calculation is a bit distorted by the way that programming can actually be learned via adhoc self-directed education, but as science, math, and engineering goes, I'd suggest it's on the short list of exceptions, not the rule.
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#5That is very scary if it's true. If a degree in the experimental sciences from a top-10 institution does not pay better than a degree from Tumbleweed State then the employment market for scientists is completely broken.
It may pay better, but they are calculating the overall return, meaning the cost of that top-10 degree is a factor as well.
I agree this might indicate that top tier institutions simply extracted all of the value difference that separated them from the others.
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#6Do those ROI calculations include the cost of borrowing? I'd expect they don't - and if not, it means that most degrees are no longer worth it if you have to borrow a significant portion of the money.
With federal loans ranging between 6-8.5% (last I looked) it means that for the first 10-20 years, the government is the one capturing the gains from many people's college educations. There may well still be a positive ROI for some degrees but the loan picture means it comes on a much longer timeline, doesn't it?
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#7For MBA it depends on where you study
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#8I find it disheartening that the only way it seems we can think about college anymore is a sort of vocational school where we train for careers.
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#9That is very scary if it's true. If a degree in the experimental sciences from a top-10 institution does not pay better than a degree from Tumbleweed State then the employment market for scientists is completely broken.
Why is this scary? Experimental sciences typically don't pay well, regardless of where you go. Increasingly you need a masters to even get a lab bench job. PHDs very rarely pay well either unless you are in a few specific fields. People from the math and sciences who want to make money go into software or finance, its been this way for well over10 years.
Re: ROI on a college degree depends what you study, not where
#10I find it disheartening that the only way it seems we can think about college anymore is a sort of vocational school where we train for careers.
Unless you're lucky enough to already have enough resources to spend both time and money attending a school without any expectation of return, it seems to be the natural conclusion to me. Without the incentive of higher paying jobs backing colleges, something tells me they would be quite a bit less successful in recruiting students.