Colleges & Universities are under attack from a lot of directions lately. Conservatives attack their focus on DEI over merit, and Progressives attack their historical white patriarchy. Students are protesting on campus, taking over school buildings, and making a mess of things during commencement season.
Here’s more bad news. The ROI of a college degree is increasingly looking bad. Especially for a graduate degree. A new report that looks at career success of 50,000 graduates over 10 years suggests that 23% of bachelor’s degree graduates have a positive ROI on their college costs. A whopping 43% of master’s degree graduates have a negative ROI.
I received a fellowship from MegaCorp to get my Master’s Degree in the early 1990s. They had a tuition reimbursement program that I was lucky enough to receive. I went nights and weekends for more than two years, wrote (and defended) a Master’s Thesis on Business Ethics, and actually learned a lot.
Since I didn’t pay tuition for myself, my ROI was very positive. I also worked my way up the MegaCorp corporate ladder over 24 years to reach Corporate Officer. I’ll assume that meant MegaCorp also had a very positive ROI in their investment. The study said that this experience is unique – most MBA programs actually have a “low or negative ROI”.
The best returning degrees in the study are nursing, law, and engineering. Those are all quite positive. The negative ROI majors include the fine arts, sociology, and the humanities. I think anyone who has paid attention to the news wouldn’t be at all surprised by those results.
In addition to major, the study found a significant benefit in ROI attached to the top tier universities. There is a much better ROI in going to Princeton than going to a state school or community college.
The study’s authors note that the federal government funds about 29% of a bachelor’s degree students college costs through loans and grants. One might think there is a political opportunity to push for a better ROI on the public’s dollars.
One might start by looking at what students are studying. This time study I ran across shows that the average student spends less than 3 hours per day going to class or studying. It seems there are enough hours in the day that one could double that number and get better results.
How was the ROI on your college / grad school costs? I’m guessing with this group of successful FIRE devotees the return would be quite positive.
Image: Pixabay
MrFireStation 
I got BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the same University you went to. In the late 70s, tuition, room and board were low enough that you could cover everything working during the summer; six twelve hour days per week over thirteen weeks. Graduated debt free in four and one-half years, so I had a good return.
UW Madison is one of only three public universities that ranked in the Top 10 for having graduates become CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. Back in 2006 they were tied with Harvard for having the most. I would contend that UW Madison was not attended by students who were born on third base like most of the Poison Ivy League schools.
https://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-ranked-highly-in-list-of-universities-that-produce-top-ceos/
Here is a warning to all universities. They need to start looking at ROI and DEI. Their wokeness is wrecking them. I am attaching a link about UCLA’s Medical School, which dropped its ranking for Medical Research from 6th to 18th in three short years. The article attributes the drop to Associate Dean for Admissions Jennifer Lucero who was hired three years ago. She is placing students based on diversity instead of meritocracy. 50% of the students she has placed have failed to pass board tests. Besides being back for a University’s brand, it is illegal discrimination.
https://www.breitbart.com/education/2024/05/24/report-troubling-ucla-medical-school-rankings-drop/
More students should be going into the skilled and inspected trades. They are making good money, that elevates them solidly in the Middle Class lifestyle. They are going to not get replaced by H1-B’s or AI either.
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I didn’t go to UW Madison. For undergrad, I went to lowly UW River Falls – the system school closest to the Twin Cities. I paid by own way, but that included a few thousand dollars in GSLs and credit card debt. I majored in beer drinking. I received a fellowship / tuition reimbursement for grad school from MegaCorp.
(I did serve on the UW Madison Brand Center MBA Board for nearly 15 years – so I definitely have some roots there, too.)
Agree – trades pay very well and are under appreciated. I have a nephew who is a skilled welder. I understand he does very well.
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Don’t discount the UW’s. I went to UW – Eau Claire my first two years and finished in Madison. Surprisingly the teaching was probably better at Eau Claire, because they didn’t have TA’s teaching.
Here is a trick question I ask people. Where did the wealthiest person in Wisconsin go to university? It was John Menard who went to UW – Eau Claire.
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I look on the completion of a masters degree either full or part time basis prior to the year 2000 to be far superior than post 2000. You are to be commended. I recall co-workers going to class Tuesday and Thursday evenings and at least one Saturday a month to get an MBA and that was after returning to Community College for a few semesters to brush up on the required math.
My only have a BA but from a state school that made you work for the grade and due to starting the engineering program and struggling I still made it out in four years with heavy class load and one summer class in the evening for two summers.
I also took many industry certifications both class and self-study on airplanes. This led me to teaching those courses where I really learned the material…..especially trend analysis.
The ROI on my education was very high but then my degree was earned in 1985 and certifications between 1985 and 1991. Those certifications are valuable with my part time consulting including expert witness work.
College was about $9,000 annually including room and board and funded by my parents who planned but required a contribution of $1,000 per year from me and I covered any fun activities. I earned the full amount of my contribution for the year that I was a resident assistant in a dorm where I learned how to handle difficult people.
I will add that a portion of each day was spent at the library reading the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Barron’s and the local paper which was the Bangor Daily News.
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Our experiences are alike in a couple ways: First, “self-study” and spending time at the library were huge for my education. I was a library “rat” since I was in grade school. While other kids were deep in sports, I was deep in the Dewey Decimal system and Encyclopedia Britannica. Second, I too was an RA in the dorms. Like you say … teaches you quite a bit about difficult people. It was my first real leadership role and helped me build a lot of confidence.
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Here are some numbers from UW – Eau Claire 1977 school year. Tuition, room and board, and books included was $1,650 per year. I cleared $2,400 over the summer working six twelve hour days per week for thirteen weeks at Regional Tourist Attraction. My job only paid around 10% over minimum wage and it was enough to pay for everything. There were other really rural students who worked at least 72 hours per week over the summer picking green beans for the canners or de-tasseling corn.
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UW-RF prices weren’t much different in 1984, when I started. I too, detasseled corn, worked at Target, and a bunch of college jobs.
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Well you know me, so yes I had an ROI as megacorp paid my way as well. Interesting though is my sister who graduated from New Mexico State with an BA in English Lit and an MFA in poetry, wondering how pay for all of this she took up with the State of New Mexico and earned a License to teach High School English and if she taught in a public school for 5 years they waived all of her student debt! She taught for 25 years! Win, win! At the time, New Mexico was thee poorest state in the USA, I think Mississippi is now? While teaching,she also got health insurance for her children up to age 24, long before Obama/Romney care! She is retired from teaching and has a summer job as a fire tower ranger out in the Gila desert, a quiet place to write poetry while scanning the landscape for $15/hour 😉. Be safe on your road trips,I make more than that to show you to your seat at the theatre.
Have fun in Celebration!
Carol
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My niece has a similar deal with the State of MN that your sister had: work in MN for 10 years / for a city or county – as a lawyer and they erase her law school loans. She must be pretty close to satisfying that by now.
Fire Tower Ranger – that’s quite a job. My grandpa was in the CCC in the 1930s and did that in Northern WI. He said the heights scared him a lot – especially when thunderstorms would come at night. Those were the times the lookout told was most important as many forest fires break out from lightning. I think he got paid about $15 a month!
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