re: The ROI on college investment

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Depends what you study

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And where you go. I'd say the ROI for someone who graduates from an Ivy & a select number of schools is still pretty strong.

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Companies are not paying for 4 year degrees any longer.

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Way too universal of a statement here

Well depends on many factors. Hard to imagine becoming a finance professional without a finance degree or engineer without engineering degree.

Technology is/should be changing formal education, but got some good news for you...ROI on college investment is well worth it for many degrees.

This is not to mention the career progression curve withing a company once land a role in company, with a degree, is substantial. The future earnings potential is significantly different for professional degrees.

Rapidly changing technology and fields may make parts of degrees obsolete faster, so degree or no degree, recommend you work on a skills inventory that is ongoing and adaptable to change across a career.

Fact is that many companies are building their talent strategies, emerging high talent, and leadership succession plans squarely with degrees in mind. This is not gossip. Trust me.

Having a degree, like everything else exists on a spectrum.

Having an associates from Devry will probably peak you at assistant manager, but maybe thats worth it to get off the fry line.

Getting an MBA from HBS isn't going to have you stuck at a fast food joint as long as you're not lazy AF. You'll probably end up at a PE firm or something.

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if the the person hiring is from AU or aTm, you'll be getting that job

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Well, we can’t all engineer horse stalls for a living

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Mine has been the most valuable investment I ever made.

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Yep, I know it seems crazy, with tuition rates like they are now, but it truly was the best thing I’ve ever done. I had a full academic scholarship, so meals were the only thing that really cost my parents anything, and stuff like my car insurance, gas, etc. so no real investment on my part. I had a few tough courses, but mostly partied, made my best enduring friends, my most important friend ( wife), and parlayed those 4 years into a multimillion dollar career as a Surgeon. So, he’ll year, it was worth it for me….

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Damn near everyone has a four year college degree now.

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Roughly 35% of Americans have a four year degree.

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A degree was a requirement of my job, so yes. Do I need a degree to do my job, no.

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This

My daughter's graduating next semester. Total cost, with apartment, utilities, groceries, car note, insurance, gas, sorority, tuition, books, fees, out-of-state fees, student season tickets, parking pass, etc.. Will run about $225k +/-.

She has a job offer that includes a six-figure salary, four weeks vacation and personal days, up to 2 weeks of sick pay, paid medical/dental, matching 401k, $2400 year for phone and internet service and a $5k signing bonus as well as stock options.

Additionally, they will fully reimburse her expenses to get her master's degree and an automatic $15k boost in pay on graduation.

For her mom and I, who paid for it, the change in who she is now vs. who she was when she was trying to decide where to go to school made it worthwhile. It's our investment in the future of our family past our lifetimes. It's the intangibles of life. Sure, it cut into things we could have done to enhance our home or save for retirement, but we have given her a path forward, without her having to bear the burden of any debt to hold her back.

We can afford it, but we are very cognizant of the fact that the vast majority of people cannot. It is extremely expensive. It is very unlikely that she would be in an expensive sorority and going out of state if we couldn't. Likely going to a lesser school, too, and maybe two years in junior college. But she would be a different person on a different path forward and likely have debt.

Something has to be done, and soon, like in ten years or less, the vast majority of degrees will be earned online and colleges will be so expensive to attend that only those earning in the top 5% can consider sending their kids there.

A lot of corporations won’t hire non-degreed candidates to professional roles.

They don’t necessarily care what the degree is in, so long as you have one.

I have 15 years of engineering experience without an engineering degree. I get passed up on jobs, probably passed by some kid straight out of college with a degree and no experience. I can 100% do the job and better than someone straight from college. So yeah, a degree matters.