Is it advisable to pay $50,000+ a year for college since the chances of making that annual salary directly after college is slim?

Gabriella,

I think it really depends on what your looking to do after graduation, 50K per year for a top law school or MBA program is very justifiable in terms of impact on your lifetime earning potential. If on the other hand you want to work as a teacher or social worker it may be excessive. I have experience sitting on the executive board of a major private university and from my experience all of our best students were either receiving substantial financial aid or would have qualified for it. The 50K per year tuition price tag is common at this level of academia however so are the abilities for students to mitigate that expense with other aid.

I would think very honestly about the school you're choosing and how it will impact your future both in terms of personal wealth and growth. Best of luck to you.

I think that is very mature of you to think of this question . Yes, there is a certain appeal to have a degree from a top school . Having said that, after the first few years of working life, the school you graduated from rarely matters in most fields. For other fields that matters, you can always go for MS or PHD in those top schools to make the investment really count.

For most fields, the GPA that you have, the way you conduct yourself during interviews and your internship experiences are likely going to matter a lot more at the end of the school years when looking for a job as oppose to the name of the school.

Therefore, I will say unless you can come out debt free, the $50,000 a year ( $200K - $250K total) investment should be reconsidered. Coming out of school with low to no school debt is going to allow you a lot more freedom in making career choices and frankly allow you to be ahead of a lot of your peers.

Good luck!

Hannah

Gabriella,

I cannot directly answer that question. However, I want to point out that when you look at the $200,000 for this school, I know it sounds like a lot, but, the figure you should be concentrating on is how much more it is compared to the least expensive school you are considering. I personally would not pay that much for an education, but, a lot depends on your major, and how helpful it will be graduating from "that particular school." I know a lot of people want the full "college experience," but that comes at a very steep price. I still believe one can do the first 1.5 -2 years at a junior college. You are wise to be concerned about trying to control costs. I wish you the best as you try to make this important decision!

Kim

You are very smart to be weighing the cost of college with the value you expect to get out of attending college. The answer to your question largely depends on your goals, though for some, articulating goals can be a daunting task alone. I have found that many people considering college are uncertain of what they want to get out of college, so if you are in this camp, I would advise that you take your time figuring this out before committing to $50k+/year.

That said, college is actually a fantastic place to "figure this out". You will be surrounded by others going through the same transformations. You will also be surrounded by professors/instructors who have made their career helping people discover themselves. I strongly believe that you do not need to pay a lot of money for this. Consider community colleges or local universities that may be considerably less expensive places to do this self-transformation kind of work.

On the other hand, if you know exactly where you want to go beyond college, and you know college is a necessary stepping stone to getting there, then it should be far easier to know if $50k/year is an appropriate dollar amount to pay to get there.

Hellos,

If you ask me I will say no to 50000$ investment.

More than infrastructure,comfortability and faculty's, your life experience is important which you can gain when you go away from home and out of comfortability..that is the actual investment of the life.

Thank you.