by Gerard Coulombe

Created on: June 12, 2009

Here is a way to figure out if the cost of a college education is cost effective. The formula is $=+/-{[college]+[education]}. Or the total, all-inclusive cost of a college education is equal to the value of the college's reputation plus the student's academic output over time in college. Go figure it out. It might not be worth the sum saved or borrowed. What was high school like? It might not be any different in college.

Is college education cost effective? The sum of money banked or borrowed to pay the college bursar over four years to acquire a college education for a son or daughter may not be cost effective. As parents of college graduates understand, and graduates themselves do or will at some point, the job in terms of wages may not be adequate for quite a long time before one is able to return the cost plus interest if any to the education underwriter.

College education is no longer cost effective. It is not cost effective for those students whose parents are paying he whole freight including all amenities for some. It is no loner cost effective for those parents or students borrowing all or a portion of the price of each of the four years of college education

Nowadays, the only college students for whom a college education is truly cost effective are those students who are attending college under full scholarship or those students guaranteed a sizable scholarship combined with assurances of continuing financial remuneration in exchange for service completed. The latter can range from waiting on tables to being lab assistants. But to truly earn the capital equal to the cost of a college education, one would have to have a job paying a salary in excess of any earned by many students who have long dreamt of earning their way thus assuring them of the ability to pay all loans without penalty or default.

If this is not disquieting to most high school juniors who know that they will have to pay their way if they truly want to attend college, then they should be told that they need to earn at least the average cost for a 4 year college education, $20,000, more or less, for each year in college. Figuring out how to do that in today's economy might substitute for work experience in lieu of educational credit for "How to Survive in College While Really Trying."

Fifty-five years ago, a Korean War Veteran, using the GI Bill college benefit could marry, attend college with children while living in campus family housing on the $140.00

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