by Tenebris

Created on: June 20, 2008

"A youth who had begun to read geometry with Euclid, when he had learnt the first proposition, inquired, 'What do I get by learning these things?' So Euclid called a slave and said 'Give him threepence, since he must make a gain out of what he learns.'"
- Stobaeus, "Extracts"

Like so many other things in life, a college education is an investment: in time, in money, in yourself. And like so many other investments, its value can rise, even skyrocket; or it can vanish entirely. It's up to you.

In North America, the cost of postsecondary education is a major issue. No matter how you look at it, to those families earning an average income or lower, it will often be prohibitive. It is very unlikely that tuition will be less than $8000 a year. At the private universities, this can easily climb to over $100,000 per year. On top of this base cost should be factored textbooks, lab supplies, any professional tools, possibly sports, possibly fraternity/sorority fees, possibly room and board. Scholarships and other financial assistance may be available to help defray the cost, and such assistance is increasingly tax-deductable - but remember, loans need to be repaid.

In exchange, various studies have suggested that a college graduate can expect to earn between $800,000 and two million dollars more than a high school graduate over the course of their lifetime: but it should be remembered that this is an average. Musicians, artists, writers all have average incomes far below the national averages for their countries ... and the highest incomes in the music industry often go to those bands whose members did not take the time out for a college education. If you seek the highest financial return for your education, focus entirely on one of a very few a few professional fields: medicine, dentistry, business, and to a lesser extent law and engineering, and be prepared to spend four years and more in school. You might recap your investment in nursing, especially if you are willing to take one of the lucrative positions in the Middle East. You will almost certainly not recap your investment in teaching.

If you do not study one of the professional fields, it might be better to view your future degree as a union card, without which you won't even be considered for many of the jobs which offer average to above-average salaries and have any kind of growth potential. Justly or not, many employers now require college degrees for jobs which don't require college-level skills. Perhaps the kindest

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>