Is College Still Worth It? The New Calculus of Falling Returns [pdf]

Re:Is College Still Worth It? The New Calculus of Falling Re... by esotericn on Friday December 27, 2019 @06:00PM (#21895561)

Aren't you contradicting yourself somewhat here? The alternate universe version of you wouldn't have the same job - as you say in paragraph 1 you'd work somewhere else.

People on here earn top percentile salaries which warp the calculus, myself included, but $50K is approximately one year of the UK median income (I imagine the US figure is similar).

I'd be worried about making back hundreds of thousands in a low paid field. But a 50K degree in a well paid field is a no brainer to me.

Earnings increases are cumulative. I'm almost certainly 200% over what I'd have without my undergrad, and not just due to the piece of paper.

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Re:Is College Still Worth It? The New Calculus of Falling Re... by incone123 on Friday December 27, 2019 @10:19PM (#21896832)

UK median income in 2018 was GBP 28,400 which is at today's rate about USD 36,600. I don't see why you made the comparison though? The person deciding to start a 4 year degree can't assume they personally have an opportunity cost of 4*annual median earnings.

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Re:Is College Still Worth It? The New Calculus of Falling Re... by esotericn on Friday December 27, 2019 @10:29PM (#21896872)

My claim is roughly that making back ~1 median wage is not a high bar to meet. Over a working career I'd consider it below the error margin; it's 2-3% of lifetime earnings if you only earn median.

Like, flubbing a single negotiation on any job could have a higher impact than that over the rest of your career.

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