College Guide: Is college worth it?
Welcome back to the Essential Guide to College in New York. It’s Week 5 of our eight-week newsletter course that teaches families what they need to know about the college search.
But first, is it even worth it to go to college?
It’s a question more families are asking lately.
And it’s actually possible to get answers about which degrees are worth it, at least from a financial perspective. (The intellectual, social and other benefits of college can be enormous, but it’s harder to gather data on those.)
How much does the typical college student spend on their education, how much do they end up earning after 10 years — and does college pay off for them? Those are the crucial questions researchers at Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, or CEW, set out to answer, as my colleague Arielle Martinez reports.
For students pursuing bachelor’s degrees at New York schools, the answers vary widely.
BIGGEST WINNERS 🏆
The biggest winner is the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, where students come out ahead by $492,000 a decade after enrolling, CEW found. (The researchers added up students’ median earnings over the years, less the typical cost of their education.) A close second is the public U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, which adds $453,000 to students’ bank accounts over the 10 years after enrolling in the Kings Point service academy.
Students at Columbia University get a typical return on investment of $364,000 a decade after enrolling, CEW reported.
And 40 years after enrolling, those schools offer an ROI of more than $4.4 million, $3 million and $3.4 million, respectively.
The Georgetown researchers also pinpointed the programs with the worst financial outcomes.
FINANCIAL IMPACT 💰
A data chart shows New York colleges with the lowest 10-year returns on investment, meaning how the amount that students paid to attend factors into their earnings.
For those called to pursue careers in the arts, New York schools offer some of the world’s most sought-after degrees. But it’s important for students to understand the potential financial impact, so they're not taken by surprise.
At the famed Juilliard School, typical students have earned $51,000 less than the cost of their education in the 10 years after enrolling, CEW found. The financial outcomes were even worse at two other New York arts-oriented schools, the Manhattan School of Music and the School of Visual Arts.
Educators at the schools point out that careers in the arts take time to develop, with earnings growing significantly once students gain experience, and offer benefits far beyond financial returns. An official at SVA disputed the CEW analysis, saying it has “significant” flaws in its methodology, Newsday reported.
In the 40 years after enrolling, a typical student at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music and SVA earns a median $1 million, $639,000 and $1.46 million, respectively, after the cost of attending.
In addition, Newsday’s Robert Brodsky examined data on typical earnings by major, from early-career engineers earning in the $80,000s to those earning roughly half that amount as recent grads specializing in pharmacy, religion, social services and performing arts.
GETTING INTO THE WORKFORCE 💼
Not all students want to pursue bachelor’s degrees, of course.
With artificial intelligence reshaping the job market, among other disruptions, some students opt for two-year degrees at community colleges, which cost less and can get students into the workforce faster.
New York’s community colleges offer a typical ROI that ranges from $215,000 to $280,000 in the decade after enrolling, my colleague Michael Ebert reports.
Long Island’s Suffolk County Community College and Nassau Community College, both part of the SUNY system, offer 10-year ROIs of $280,000 and $273,000, respectively. After 40 years, typical students at both schools have earned roughly $1.7 million, Michael found.
TRY THIS 🗂️
Dig into the CEW data on post-college earnings at more than 4,500 colleges here. The Georgetown center also reports on whether college graduates are underemployed.
SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS 💬
What questions do you have for Newsday’s staff and our network of experts? From selecting schools and seeking financial aid, to increasing your odds of admissions and many other topics, email your thoughts to collegeguide@newsday.com.
NEXT WEEK ✅
We’ll offer college application tips and take a look at New York’s most selective colleges.
Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.
