Is College Worth the Money?
If you are thinking about ways to save up for your child’s college education you may well be asking yourself if all the effort and money is worth it. David Leonhardt, editor of the New York Times Economix blog has a definitive answer: yes. Despite the high costs of college, numerous studies reviewed by Leonhardt show that you will make much more money throughout your career – even in a recession – with a college degree.
According to the most recent Census Bureau figures, median earnings for people with a college degree are $47,000 a year. Contrast that with people who have only graduated high school who earn a median figure of $27,000 a year. Those who have some college education but not a degree fall in the middle with a median income of $33,000.
Over the course of a 40 year career, the difference between going to college and not going to college is a whopping $800,000, not taking into account inflation. Moreover, studies show that the income gap between the college educated and the non-college educated is only growing larger every year.
One of the better-known studies on college over the last decade is a paper by Stacy Berg Dale and Alan Krueger which found that it was more important to go to college than which college you happened to attend. So if your child doesn’t make it into Harvard, don’t despair. Just make sure you have the money available to send him or her somewhere to get a college education.