Quote :

"If you check http://www.collegeboard.com, you'll find a reassuring study showing that education really does pay. Without considering the intangibles, the study shows that each additional level of education draws a higher lifetime income. While the median high-school graduate age 25 and older earns about $26,000, the median college graduate age 25 and older earns about $42,000. That's an annual income premium of about $16,000, or around 60 percent. Not bad, particularly when you consider that the difference also allows you to escape doing heavy lifting. Yes, the college grad will spend years paying off loans. But eventually the earnings net of loan payments will pull ahead of the high-school graduate's. So, case closed. It may hurt to write the checks, or borrow, but college pays. Well, maybe not. According to the College Board, it takes 14 long years before the college grad's income, net of loan payments, starts to beat what the high-school grad earns. During all those 14 years, college doesn't pay. High school pays. The real question is not which choice pays on an annual basis, but which choice pays on a lifetime basis? Which choice permits a higher lifetime living standard — a question the board conveniently doesn't ask or answer. The answer depends on the costs of borrowing and the amount you need to cover. Today's student-loan rates are really high if you need to cover the full ride. And the price tag for attending college is astronomical. The College Board approach to evaluating the economic value of a college education may overstate the benefits. If you take a consumption-smoothing approach, which you can do with financial-planning software such as ESPlanner, you can see how the cost of higher education interacts with factors such as your lifetime taxes, Social Security benefits at retirement, loan repayments, etc. And you can do it all in dollars of constant purchasing power. Economist Laurence Kotlikoff at Boston University, the prime mover behind the consumption-smoothing software, examined the cost of borrowing to attend a private college. He found a number of factors reduce the actual economic benefit: • When you earn more money, you pay more taxes and you pay at higher rates. • When you earn more money, you'll also get less bang for your buck from Social Security. Lower-income workers receive a much higher benefit as a percentage of their earnings than higher-income workers because Social Security benefits are more progressive than the income tax. • When you are eligible for Medicare, you'll be hit with the same progressivity. Starting this year, Medicare premiums are keyed to household income. So you'll pay more for the same benefits if you earn more by getting a college education. • Forgoing four years of earning power while in college on borrowed money nearly evens the playing field."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003930609_burns07.html

10/8/2007 8:35:29 AM

Quote :

"Forgoing four years of earning power while in college on borrowed money nearly evens the playing field."

What if I'm here for 5 of 6 years

10/8/2007 8:46:51 AM

[old]

10/8/2007 8:50:21 AM

if you have a technical degree from a public university and can't come out ahead, then there's something wrong with you. but, if you go to a private liberal arts school for a BA in classical studies, the odds might not be in your favor...

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 8:52 AM. Reason : ^god forbid]

10/8/2007 8:51:13 AM

yeh, i don't think this really happens all that much. you'd have to set yourself up for this, i.e., what you said.

10/8/2007 8:53:32 AM

probably does not apply so well to an in-state school. My loans will be about 1/3 that of an Ivy Leaguer

10/8/2007 8:55:15 AM

well, i think it's rare that people actually lose money over the course of a lifetime, but i do believe a lot more people are closer to the break-even point than "the powers that be" would have you believe

10/8/2007 8:59:04 AM

in soviet russia, you pay for COLLEGE!!!



...?

10/8/2007 8:59:19 AM

^haha I was thinking of that

10/8/2007 9:01:32 AM

^^is there a reason you are doing this in every thread?

10/8/2007 9:03:41 AM

because evan did it and it was funny for a second

psst.. it isn't funny anymore

10/8/2007 9:06:37 AM

too many boobies

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 9:20 AM. Reason : dlfkgj]

10/8/2007 9:08:37 AM

median

10/8/2007 9:18:33 AM

durrrrrrrrrrrrr


don't ask why I did that

10/8/2007 9:20:30 AM

Quote :

"^^is there a reason you are doing this in every thread? "

there really isn't, i'm just bored and want attention

10/8/2007 10:06:16 AM

the only reason I went to college was to earn more money

10/8/2007 11:00:13 AM

don't feel bad, that's the only reason i studied engineering

10/8/2007 11:21:03 AM

that's why I majored in Literature

making the big bucks

10/8/2007 11:22:43 AM

heh, it's better than communications

10/8/2007 11:25:25 AM

yeah it did for me, without the degree, would of been 10k less, with a masters would of been 10k more and a doctorate 10k more than that. However, almost 3 years later(after starting job) and I am at the doctorate pay level and in a year will be 10k higher than that.....It took me less than 3 years to get to it(hard work) which for me was faster than it would of been going to school for masters or doctorate...of course, the Fed's dont pay masters or doctorates like the private sector does, but still, i am happy with my pay.

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 11:27 AM. Reason : w]

10/8/2007 11:25:52 AM

^i guess things worked out.

congrats

10/8/2007 11:29:39 AM

RBC Centura tech dept loves asking for a BS.



i think it's the trend in the IT industry.




unless you can get CCNP or above.

10/8/2007 11:32:24 AM

I'm going to try to turn 10-12 years of education into an $80k/year job

10/8/2007 11:35:04 AM

im fully funded @ GT

my college is paying for me

10/8/2007 11:36:35 AM

Hope Scholarship?

10/8/2007 11:36:58 AM

i'll have a full ride soph-senior year if i get above a 3.0

10/8/2007 11:37:37 AM