Report: Is college worth the cost?

Tuesday, October 6, 2015 - 17:00 StudyHall.Rocks

Schools such as Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., are revered. But is the cost worth it? Image: StudyHall.Rocks.

The payments on that student loan have kept you from buying a car, forced you to shop for clothing at thrift shops and mean you have to live above your parents' garage. Given that, was the cost of college worth it?

    Despite the squeeze on their finances, nearly three-quarters of college graduates believe their education was worth the cost, according to a recent report from Gallup and Purdue University, “Great Jobs, Great Lives, The Relationship Between Student Debt, Experiences and Perceptions of College Worth.”
    On a five-point scale, with 5 as the highest score (strongly agree) and 1 as the lowest (strongly disagree), 50 percent of graduates said they “strongly agreed” that their education was worth the cost. An additional 27 percent said they agreed (a ranking of 4) that it was worth the cost. Roughly 23 percent gave a ranking of 3 or lower.
    But younger graduates still paying off college debt didn't feel the same.
    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has estimated that there is more than $1 trillion in outstanding debt from student loans. Among graduates receiving degrees between 2006 and 2015, 63 percent took out loans for their undergraduate education, the Purdue-Gallup report said. The median amount was $30,000. In this younger group, only 38 percent strongly agree that their education was worth the cost.
    Recent graduates put off making purchases, the report said. Among those with debt loads exceeding $25,001, 56 percent say they have delayed postgraduate education. Others report putting off buying a car or home or starting a business.
    To be sure, a good college education has long been considered a necessary step on the road to success. Ambitious parents and students comb through college websites to get a sense of whether they qualify for elite schools. Others want the experience of attending a public university. The survey, which involved a sample of more than 30,000 alumni, showed how grads perceived their education:

Attitudes were similar for alumni of private-nonprofit and public universities.
While private schools are far more expensive, alumni attitude was similar. For example, 52 percent of public university alumni and 47 percent of grads from private nonprofit universities thought their education was worth the expense. But only 26 percent of private for-profit university graduates thought the cost was worth it. “Alumni from for-profit schools are disproportionately minorities or first-generation college students and are substantially more likely than those from public or private nonprofit schools to have taken out $25,000 or more in student loans,” the report says.

    Alumni experiences in the job market impact the way that they view their college education.
   How alumni answered the questions depended, in part, on their circumstances after graduation. For example, graduates who were underemployed were less likely to say that their education was worth it. Those with higher salaries were more likely to say their education was worth it. Among those making more than $120,000, 51 percent strongly agreed that their education was worth it; while among those making $36,000 or less, 31 percent thought their education was worth it.
   Graduates who have been out of college since 2006 were more likely than recent graduates to say that the cost of college was worth it. “To some extent,” the report said, “older alumni might be more likely to say their education was worth it because they are further along in their careers and making more money.”

Professors make a difference.
Graduates were more likely to say that education was worth the cost if they had a mentor during their college years, found a professor who made them excited about learning or cared about them.

Spa-like environments probably don’t make a difference.
Schools invest in top-tier fitness centers, plush dorms and dining facilities to attract students. “While graduates might have appreciated those amenities at the time, in the long run, they may have been better off paying less money for college but having better relationships with those who could help them carve out a vision for their future and map a course for long-term success,” the report said.

Recommended:

Gallup.com: Is college worth it? (To see the “Great Jobs, Great Lives" report, you will be prompted to register.)
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Student Debt Swells, Federal Loans Now Top a Trillion (July 17, 2013).

Dream apartments out of reach for grads

Report: Student debt haunts graduates

Opinion: Digging out from under a student loan

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