Calculating College

April 19, 2010 by Paul Richlovsky

Flexo of the Consumerism Commentary blog has a an intriguing new post about private education costing less than public education. In it, he explores some of the competing calculations about the value of advanced degrees and concludes that while college may not be for everyone, if you can get loan-free financial aid for a Harvard education (or other Ivy League schools, for example), you will secure a significant income advantage over the course of a lifetime.

As he notes, “At least fifty colleges include no or only small loads with their financial aid, in order to save their graduates from the burden of student loan debt.” A cited example of what Harvard tuition could cost a family with $80,000 annual income: $6,567 a year. By this measure, an Ivy-League education does begin to look more practical from a pure “numbers” perspective.

Another way to look at the “college return-on-investment” debate to which Flexo alluded is to consider the value of the skills and experiences that come along with whatever diploma you may have earned. Let’s assume, for example, that mastering a specific subject–and the disciplines within that subject–brings you a certain marketability specific to a given location.

Take biology: knowing how to conduct experiments and write about theoretical issues could bring a specific premium in the marketplaces that prize a person’s capacity to do natural field research. A host of employers–from governments to zoos to logging companies–prize these skills. Therefore, the experiences you had and the coursework you completed in order to get that degree makes you more equipped to handle whatever duties your job entails than the person who has an aptitude for biology but did not work at getting a degree or otherwise rigorously test their skills in order to grow them.  The value on the skills gained in a formal education and the very act of their achievement need to be entered into the equation.

So, next time you pull out a college calculator and start plugging in the ROI like a sales manager, remember the value of your cultivated skills as marked by the achievement of excellence within a specific degree program along with that piece of paper and the college behind it.

Photo courtesy of Horia Varlan via Flickr.