Earnings of College Graduates – Public Colleges Lead the Way in Payback Ratio
Smart Money magazine’s January 2009 issue offers its ranking of the “best colleges for making money.” Coming on the heels of a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Any College Will Do,” students now have a sixth reason to give careful consideration to choosing a state university.
PayBack Ratio
The magazine created a ratio it calls payback. It is a simple calculation that compares the average salary earned by a graduate to the actual cost of attending a school.
The magazine’s top five are not those one normally sees on top of the US News and World Reports school rankings. Public colleges lead the way: the University of Georgia with an average payback of 338%; Texas A&M (315%); University of Texas, Austin (306%); Georgia Tech (263%); and University of Washington (225%).
Ivies Pale
A look at the best Ivies yielded Princeton (132%), Dartmouth (131%), Yale (127%), Harvard (124%), and University of Pennsylvania (124%). Those numbers led Smart Money to add a real jab with its sharp subtitle:
“Is an Ivy League education worth the money?”
Smart Money acknowledges the rankings are not based on the quality of the educational experience, just on who makes the most bread based on investment.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Its all about cost…the variance in pay between one institution to the next does not justify the differentials in cost. The truth is that once you get in the workforce, you long term earnings have more to do with your performance on the job. A degree gives you the credential you need to get into the workforce or gain that next promotion – so its necessary – but at the end of the day, its what you do with the knowledge you gain that counts. If you consider that most colleges and universities use very similar textbooks and curriculum, then their is not a big difference in what students are taught…so go for high quality at low cost, to really get that bang for the buck.
Check out this article:
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=82538
and http://www.takeeducationanywhere.com