Family & Parents

Value of a College Degree

"If you think the price of education is expensive, try the price of ignorance. You pay for ignorance everyday for the rest of your life."
- Anonymous

As college costs continue to grow at rates exceeding inflation, parents wonder about the real value of a college education. It is clear that a person can enjoy success, financial or otherwise, without necessarily completing a degree program. For a moment, and putting the "education of character" argument presented in chapter 1 aside, what is the real value of a college degree?

A recent study published in USA Today reporting on an American Council on Education study documented an average degree-holder gain of over six hundred thousand lifetime dollars about the high school-educated worker. This is the bottom line. I believe a stronger case can be made for character development, life enrichment, ability to work collaboratively and in diverse community, and personal enrichment. But on a purely financial basis the rewards of a degree are substantial. It should be noted too that a professional degree-holder, M.B.A., Ph.D., J.D., M.D., etc., on the average will make four to five times the monthly income of the person without degree preparation. Education is expensive but pales in comparison to the cost of ignorance.

One colleague remarked to me, "You know, it costs more money to send someone to the State Pen than it does to send them to Penn State." Frontloading the investment in education is a positive first step toward personal satisfaction and happiness.

And as Jefferson so aptly posited, "A nation’s best defense is an educated citizenry." If you think the price of education is expensive, try the price of ignorance. You pay for education once. You pay for ignorance every day the rest of your life.

--from The Truth about College, by Dr. Will S. Keim