SCHWARTZ CROSSROADS

For What It's Worth: Is a Bachelor's Degree Worth It?

There has been quite a bit of discussion lately around the costs and benefits of getting a bachelor’s degree. With state and federal budget cuts, shrinking endowments and a lackluster economy, colleges and universities are dramatically increasing tuition costs. A lot of students have good cause to be frustrated; what other commodity or service increases its rates, on average, eight percent per year?

Late last year, Peter Thiel, co-founder of Pay-Pal, re-ignited the back-and-forth industry discussion by paying 20 (incredibly lucky) students $100,000 each to put off attending college. Instead of attending classes, seminars, club meetings and athletic events, the students were paid to enter the workforce years before some of their recently graduated peers. This was a win-win, right?

Not exactly. If you’d like to get a job in this economy today (and you didn’t make it into Thiel’s fellowship), having a degree is critical. Think about how many qualified or over-qualified applicants there are for an entry-level position these days.

In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau pegs your average lifetime earnings with a high school diploma at $1.2 million. Not too shabby. But, take a deeper look into the numbers. People with a four-year bachelor’s degree can expect an average of $2.1 million. Add on a professional degree later in your career and the amount doubles to $4.4 million over a lifetime. These are direct and tangible benefits of higher education. As a comparison, take a look at what people in your area and in your profession are making using SimplyHired.com's Simply Salary tool.

So what about the unquantifiable benefits of higher education? The new concepts, networking, social clubs, discipline and well-rounded outlook to solving the world’s problems today? You might not be able to see these things in the Greek and Latin inscriptions on your diploma, but they’re there.

Student loan debt is also an issue for students who have attended private and public universities. A graduate from a public university had, on average, $16,000 in debt; a graduate from a private school accumulated approximately $26,000 in debt.

There are resources out there to help pay your tuition and your debt. The first, of course, is FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov) – the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. One you might not have heard about is CollegeNET.com*, which has opened its weekly scholarship (up to $5,000) to anyone with student loan debt.

Taking four years out of your professional and personal life certainly seems daunting, but in a 21st century economy and with so much intense global competition for quality jobs, it’s not a luxury people can afford to lose. The bottom line is pretty simple: college is worth the time and the expense.

As a history major and a PR practitioner, I never thought I’d say this, but do the math.

Written by Tommy Owens