Does College Really Matter?

ROI - Return On Investment of a College Education

Return on Investment (ROI) of a College Education has become a heated issue recently and the findings are both varied and complex.  There is no single factor or issue that will determine the best institutional return on investment for a degree earned.  As a prospective college student, how do you determine the best college or university to attend so that your return on investment makes the time and money spent worth the effort.

For years you’ve been told that getting a college degree will assure you a good job, with good pay and a better life, and for many that still holds true.  But since the great recession of 2008, there are many college graduates who can not say that this long held belief that a college degree leads to a better job with high pay and a better life is true.  Many college graduates are underemployed, in debt and unable to pursue the life they thought their degrees would afford them.

So how does one determine the best ROI on their college education?  Well it’s not easy and requires great effort and determination.  But there are factors you need to determine such as your academic performance, your choice of major, and the selectivity of the school you wish to attend.  Plus many institutions of higher learning do not make it easy for you to extract the information you need to make a good decision.  Such things as graduation rates, starting salaries of graduates, salaries by major are bits of data that many colleges do not supply.

However, you have also been given some new tools to assist you in making the right decision and improve your ROI.  The President announced in his State of the Union address a new tool that can be used to best determine the rate of return on your college education, the College Scorecard.  This website allows you to search data on individual schools and see such things as graduation rates, net price, student loan defaults, median borrowing and employment.  It’s not perfect but a start.

There are also state databases that give you data elements such as recent college grads earnings organized by major.  These databases were initially introduced in 2012 by College Measures, a partnership of the American Institutes of Research and Matrix Knowledge, a consulting firm.  Five states are currently partnered with more expected to join.  It’s not perfect, but a start in the right direction.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has created a site called the College Reality Check.  This allows users to search for institutions on the basis of selectivity, location, net price and graduation rates.  One can also select from five income ranges to determine what the school might actually cost them.

I also suggest you read the blog post from the EDUCATIONSECTOR that discusses ROI on college investment at the following location:

http://www.educationsector.org/publications/degrees-value-evaluating-return-college-investment

Remember, it pays to be an educated consumer of education!

The Worst Professors at 25 Universities Nationally

Yahoo FInance posted a blog listing the 25 universities with the worst professors.  The Midwest and East Coast is where many of these institutions were found.  The Center for College Affordability and Productivity developed the list by taking student evaluations from the site called RateMyProfessors.com.  Forbes uses these rating of professors as one of the factors used in evaluating 650 colleges and universities for its ranking of America’s Best Colleges.  The blog can be found at the url listed below:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/25-universities-with-the-worst-professors-204146173.html

Do Not Worry About Getting In - Worry About Getting Out!

Jeffrey Selingo, editor at large at the Chronicle of Higher Education, wrote a blog that was posted on Linkedin discussing the issue of acceptance to your most wanted college. The title of this blog was taken from Mr. Selingo’s blog in attempt to stress the fact that the most prized institutions are not always the ones that give you the best chance at nailing that great job or that sought after high salary.  He mentions that some colleges have accepted more applications in order to deny acceptance and make themselves look more selective.  Why would they do this, because one of the most viewed rankings uses that as a criteria to rank the institution higher!   

It’s all a game and you just have to know how to play it.  What’s more important is how many students who were accepted graduate and what kind of jobs to they get and at what salary level.  Many schools will not release this information, or make it very hard to get.There is a web site that lists the graduation rates of 3800 colleges collegecompletion.chronicle.com.  Use it to find out just how good your prized school is.  Remember only fifty percent of those that enter a university or college graduate with a bachelor’s degree.  And…..not everybody that graduates from Harvard makes more money than those that don’t.  Be a smart consumer of education!

Colleges spend More On Althletics and Amenities Then They Do On Academics

Well it looks like the word is out according to Brookings, The New York Times, The American Institute For Research and Bloomberg that many colleges and universities are spending more on Athletics and amenities then they are educating their students!  This change in spending indicates a change in emphasis in what institutions of higher education believe attract students to their campuses.  Millions have been spent on athletic facilities, student activity centers with lavish exercise rooms, pools, rock climbing walls for example.  Many large public and private schools have shown a major shift in allocation of funds to improve amenities in order to attract students and impress their parents.

The American Institute For Research (AIR) indicated in a recent report that NCAA Division I schools spent more then six times per athlete then they did to educate each student!  A New York Times blog reported that “power conferences” like the Southeastern, Big 12, PAC-10, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Big East spent on average $100,000 per athlete in 2010.

So ….many colleges spend more on athletics, swanky golf courses, climbing walls and saunas then they spend on instructional costs.  And it seems that many parents and students are in favor of this shift in spending.

Ever Heard of Dual Enrollment?

A blog on the National Center on Time & Learning discussed the concept of Dual Enrollment.  More then two hundred schools across the country are offering collegiate courses to students while they attend high school.  Many of these students are ill prepared for the academic challenges of college and need the experiences they are exposed to through the dual enrollment programs offered by the school districts or private academies.  Students begin in the ninth grade and progress through to their senior year and can end up with an associates degree!  That means they can earn up to 60 credit hours tuition free!  I suggest if your considering college that you look into the possibility of dual enrollment, if it is offered by your school.

List of Top Ten Salaried College Degrees

Forbes online magazine published the NACE’s top ten salaried college degrees.  NACE is the National Association of Colleges and Employers which just completed a survey of recent college graduates employment and salaries.  Looks like engineering is not only in demand but paying very well!

             Degree                                                                     Starting Salary

(Source: Yahoo!)

Pilot Program in California Could End How Classes are Taught

A pilot program to utilize online classes to instruct students in basic freshman level courses and remedial courses could change the face of higher education if successful.

The dismal failure of in seat - face to face lecture courses for a large percentage of freshman and re-entering students has prompted the California higher education system urged by Governor Jerry Brown to change things.

I suggest you read this article, authored by Gregory Ferenstein, and look at the timeline the author has proposed to the demise of the higher education system as we know it today!

(Source: TechCrunch)