...how do you even spend $1M on a religion degree that costs less than $10k/yr?!
Surely this is just actual straight-up white-and-black fraud, or some sort of weird data entry error, right?
This model definitely doesn't account for how compensation for clergy works, which typically includes parsonage and nontangibles. And the $1m isn't based on cost, but opportunity cost of missing working years, investing the money elsewhere, and more. It definitely doesn't work right for these and other outliers, and even some of the salary data doesn't make any sense. For instance: GA
Savannah College of Art and Design
Manufacturing Engineering.
Earnings at Age 25: $27,068 Earnings at Age 45: $30,387 ROI (Before Completion Adjustment): -$353,221
Yet salary.com shows salaries at $64-$153K, median $108K. The tuition is $38K / year for a bachelor's degree, so I could see how somebody would be in the red for a while, but it also seems that it would have a positive ROI if one were to stick with the field for their career.
https://www.salary.com/research/salary/general/manufacturing...
The ROI for many degrees is abysmal. There's been some really great research on in this area, including my favorite report here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/7583742/
The worst cases from that data approach -$1M ROI. Ouch. Those institutions deserve to be held to account, they are doing a disservice to their students and society for putting people into such economic peril. The term leach seems to apply. I'll even concede that prescribing classical liberal education for all is somewhat paternalistic, even overly anglo-centric. We can do better. Still, I think education is critical for democracy to be functional and as a society its worth investing in.
We're generally on the same page as far as I can tell. But yes, I will become quite cranky if you call journalism useless :)