Is college worth it?

Nobody will argue that the costs of a higher education are skyrocketing.  There's tuition, books, living expenses, administration fees, lab fees, student activity fees, student government fees, sidewalk beautification fees... well you get the idea.  The truth is that you need to consider more than just tuition costs when calculating how much you need to save for college.  Chances are that your school will also charge a bunch of weird fees for services you've never used or heard of in an attempt to extort every last penny from you.  So not only are you giving educational institutions a large chunk of your life savings, but they also want the pocket change you had saved up to buy a pop in between classes (from their pop machines of course).  You may even begin to ask yourself if college is worth your all of this investment of both your time and money.

Unfortunately, a college bachelor's degree is still the greatest dividing line in lifetime economic success.  According to the Census Bureau, Americans 25 years or older with a bachelor's degree (about 1/4 of the population) earn an average of $45,400 annually.  Compare this to the average earnings of a high school graduate of just $25,900.  Over a lifetime, this could add up to $2.1 million.  Now let's ask that question again, is college worth it?  Are you willing to invest $10,000 to $40,000 for a return of more than $1 million?


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