For decades, research has showed that earning a degree is almost always worthwhile.
Recent college graduates working full-time earn $24,000 more a year than those with just a high school diploma, according to newly released data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Additionally, finishing college puts workers on track to earn a median of $2.8 million over their lifetime, compared with $1.6 million if they only had a high school degree, according to “The College Payoff,” a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
In general, bachelor’s degree holders earn 75% more over their career, the report found — and, in many cases, the higher the level of educational attainment, the larger the payoff.
However, a lot still depends on the choice of major, research also shows.
College majors with the highest and lowest return
A recent study published in the American Educational Research Journal found that engineering and computer science majors provide the highest returns in lifetime earnings, followed by business, health, and math and science majors. Education and humanities majors and arts majors had the lowest returns of the 10 fields of study considered.
“Our cost-benefit analysis finds that on average a college degree offers better returns than the stock market,” said Liang Zhang, a professor of higher education at the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and co-author of the study. “However, there are significant differences across college majors.”
Overall, the researchers found that the benefits of higher education have held up, even as enrollment has declined and the labor market outcomes for those without a college degree have improved, Zhang said.
The analysis took into account wage differentials between college and high school graduates as well as other factors, including tuition and financial aid and the opportunity cost of deferring full-time entry into the workplace.
More from…
Read the full article here
