Top 25 Colleges Return on Investment – 40 Years Later

Dear Commons Community.

A new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce calculates return on investment (ROI) on colleges forty years after graduation.  “A First Try at ROI,” ranks 4,500 two- and four-year colleges that primarily offer bachelor’s or associate degrees or certificates by their return on investment 10 and 40 years after enrollment. To measure ROI, the study uses net present value, which estimates how future earnings are valued in the present. The measure, calculated using data from the College Scorecard, essentially weighs the cost of paying for college against what students could potentially earn down the line.

The report offers detailed data about specific institutions: Colleges that mainly award bachelor’s degrees pay off over the long term, even though students typically take on more debt to attend four-year institutions than do those who go to two-year ones. And a credential from a two-year college or a certificate program has some of the highest return on investment in the short term, or a decade after enrollment.

If you go to the report website, you can enter any college in the study and find out its return on investment.

Give it a look!

Tony

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