What's a college degree actually worth?

In 1783, Thomas Jefferson was in Annapolis, Maryland, serving as a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress. At the time, he was still grieving the death of his wife Martha, who had died soon after giving birth to their sixth child a year before.

Aspiring engineers might want to consider Florida’s public universities for their education.   The state is considering a three-year tuition freeze for students studying engineering and other “strategic areas” such as science, technology and health care, even as prices for other majors could rise.  

A pair of interesting articles on MarketWatch highlights the plight of those graduating from college deep in debt and little prospects of landing a good job in their field.

The cost of higher education has exploded while its value has increased. Your lifetime earnings could be 84% higher if you graduate from college. This leaves many young people debt-wracked. In America, the percentage of households, headed by under-35 year olds, with education debt increased from 17% to more than 40% between in 1989 and 2010. The figure below shows their average debt:

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has produced a new report looking at the value of different college degrees in the USA. I have seen a great increase in discussions of the “bubble” in education. Those articles often say a college degree doesn’t assure the success it used to.

IN RECENT decades, researchers have documented a rising wage premium for college educated workers, and economists have theorised that recent increases in income inequality may be due to rising demand for skills combined with lagging supply of skilled workers. University, it would seem, is more important than ever. But some critics contend that the better earning performance of those with college degrees primarily reflects the higher skill level of those who attend and complete a college degree, and others indicate that the main benefit of university is its signalling power to employers.

Sixty percent of U.S. college graduates cannot find a full-time job in their chosen profession, according to job placement firm Adecco.