Look, of all the reasons I went to university, the opportunity to earn more money that those that didn’t was barely on the list. In fact, thinking back, I don’t think it was on the list at all. I went for the freedom, the knowledge, the library, the experience, the parties, to meet interesting people and the opportunity not to have to work full-time for a couple more years. I sure as fuck wasn’t thinking about how I would be in a beater position when I entered the job market. Who the fuck goes into higher education for that?!?
Okay, maybe it’s a little different in the UK. The government paid my fees and I don’t have to start repaying my student loan until i’m earning a certain amount. But still, seriously? You went to uni to earn more money in the long run? You shallow, vapid, proto-yuppie consumer fuckwit.
Okay, that was totally uncalled for and not a true reflection of my thoughts and feelings on the situation. Sure did feel good to type though.
In recent years, the nonprofit College Board touted the difference in lifetime earnings of college grads over high-school graduates at $800,000, a widely circulated figure. Other estimates topped $1 million. [...]
Mark Schneider, a vice president of the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, calls it “a million-dollar misunderstanding.”
One problem he sees with the estimates: They don’t take into account deductions from income taxes or breaks in employment. Nor do they factor in debt, particularly student debt loads, which have ballooned for both public and private colleges in recent years. In addition, the income data used for the Census estimates is from 1999, when total expenses for tuition and fees at the average four-year private college were $15,518 per year. For the 2009-10 school year, that number has risen to $26,273, and it continues to increase at a rate higher than inflation.
Dr. Schneider estimated the actual lifetime-earnings advantage for college graduates is a mere $279,893 in a report he wrote last year. He included tuition payments and discounted earning streams, putting them into present value. He also used actual salary data for graduates 10 years after they completed their degrees to measure incomes. Even among graduates of top-tier institutions, the earnings came in well below the million-dollar mark, he says.
What’s a Degree Really Worth? | Technoccult.
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