Is College Worth it?

What do Richard Branson, David Geffen, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs have in common? Apart from the fact that they’re all billionaires, none of them graduated from college.

Granted it takes talent and genius to reach the heights that these men have reached, I have to question, financially, is it worth it to pursue higher education?

According to the US Census Bureau, on average high school grads earn about $28,000 while college grads earn about $51,000 and those with advanced degrees earn about $78,000 per year. Anyone hearing these figures could be convinced that unless you go to college you’ll end up poor and broke.

I was born outside of the US and migrated here when I was 17, just in time to go to college. My parents and other relatives spent a great deal of energy preaching to me about the importance of getting a good education and going to college if I wanted to be successful, financially and otherwise. In many other countries I think that it is very much the case that to have any form of success you have to get an education first.

But here in the United States – the land of opportunity – anyone can be anything, do anything, and have anything. There are successful millionaires with no degrees, and there are Harvard educated businessmen that have run good companies into the ground. It takes a while to realize that education does not necessarily mean success; I had already spent six years in college and grad school and earned a master’s degree before I began to question what it was worth.

According to the American Council on Education, student loan debt held by the average private-institution bachelors-level graduate was $17,000. For masters-level and doctoral level these figures are $29,000 and $71,000 respectively. For all levels, about 70-80% of students were in debt for academic-related loans. In the last decade the average debt for a college graduate has gone up 50% after inflation, according to the Project on Student Debt, a non-profit advocacy group.

In my last job I worked in an office 8am to 5pm, being a good blue-collar, widget-making, cog-in-the-machine worker. I was making about $45,000 a year, before taxes, with a master’s degree and about $50,000 in student debt. I did this for years before I woke up and realized that my life held much, much more potential than this.

I have a friend who is still in school racking up six-figures worth of student loans while he’s studying to be a doctor; I imagine that he may be able to earn $150,000-200,000 a year once he’s done. But, he lives in a very expensive city, has a taste for brand name things, and may, I suspect, struggle to spend less than he earns.

On the other hand, I also have another friend who didn’t go to college, got a job in the oil industry on an oilrig, works about six months out of the year, and makes about $150,000. He has no student loans, and was earning more money in his second year out high school that I was after grad school. He also owns his home, and recently bought several rental properties.

Student loans are burden that many people carry with them for decades, and it’s almost impossible to think about college without getting loans. According to the Center for Economic Policy and Research, college tuition has risen at twice the rate of consumer prices in the last twenty-five years. In the 1980s a student could work full time all summer at minimum wage job and earn about two-thirds of annual college costs; today, a student earning minimum wage would have to work full time for a year to afford one year of education at a four-year public university, assuming he saves every penny.

If I had to do it over again I’d get my undergraduate degree, but not my graduate degree; the benefits gained for the extra time and money spent are not equitable. I’m saving in a 529 plan for my two infant sons’ college education so that they don’t have to get into debt to get an education. But I’m also going to make sure to tell them that they can be just as financially successful on their own. While there’s a lot to be said for academic pursuits, there’s also no honor in getting into debt and working twice as much as others for the same dollar.

Also see, external link: long list of other very successful people who didn't start, or never finished college.