THE VALUE OF A COLLEGE DEGREE

Associate’s degrees are a slam dunk. These two-year degrees seem to result in a massive payback compared to their relatively low cost, for a high school graduate.

Any bachelor’s degree you get at a public university is likely to pay off handsomely, as well. If you’re attending a private college, though, you might want to steer clear of education degrees. If you’re going to teach in a public school, you probably don’t want to blow $110,000 on an Ivy League education if financial calculations are your motivating factor.

Average Lifetime Gain On Bachelor Degrees
Average             $308,588
Liberal arts         $243,883
Business            $349,028
Social science    $210,080
Computers          $443,180
Science              $283,286
Engineering        $497,930
Education           $108,461

Some degrees are a step back. Thinking of a master’s degree in a liberal arts or social sciences field? Let’s hope you’re in it for the love of learning, because on average there doesn’t seem to be any financial payoff.

How Masters Degrees Pay Off
Average              $180,010
Social science     $0.00-
Business             $375,780
Science               $136,873
Engineering         $362,092
Education            $106,388
Liberal arts          $0.00-

You’ll notice two of the degrees have a present value of less than zero. How can this be? Well, the Census Bureau’s figures show that someone with a liberal arts master’s degree earned just $5 a month more, on average, than someone with a bachelor’s in the same field ($3,460 compared to $3,455). In fact, the average liberal arts M.A. earned about $300 a month less than the average bachelor’s degree recipient. Social science master’s degrees were slightly more lucrative, but still earned less than the average bachelor’s.

Professional degrees rule. There’s a reason why people borrow tons of money to attend law and medical schools. The return for a professional degree is huge.

Big Time Payoff For Professional Degrees
Average           $716,927
Law                  $748,865
Medicine           $977,601

The huge student loan debts are often the price of a law or medical degree. The good news is that it seems to pay off. The $100,000 or more you borrowed for med school pales next to the $1 million present value of the payoff.

The PhD Payoff
Average          $187,920
Science           $299,190
A PhD in the sciences pays the most.  Unfortunately, the Census Bureau’s sampling was too thin in the Ph.D. stratosphere to tell us much about payoffs other than the doctoral science degree is more valuable than the average Ph.D.

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