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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the ROI studies are interesting data, but it needs to be taken in context.  We will Likely spend anywhere from $200k-350k on a humanities type of degree for our daughter over the next 4 years.  Full pay, don’t know where she will be going yet so the cost is a range.  We are DC residents so no great state school.  We are not wealthy but have planned for this.  We want her to have a certain kind of opportunity to go to a school that is the best fit for her.  If we had to borrow the money or she did, it would be very different kind of analysis.   I did not think of return on investment for all the money we have spent on many things for our child, this is the biggest thing, and important in so many ways, but we are not measuring its value with only that in mind.[/quote]

If you are rich enough, ROI doesn't really matter to you. Thanks for the great insight!  :roll: [/quote]

Exactly lol [/quote]

I hear what PP is saying. You don't look at every dime spent on the kid as an investment in need of a return. Sure, to have saved this much, they must be UMC, but they saved and have it and don't view it that way. We are similar though less affluent. We have one in college and another applying next year. We'll get need based FA from top schools or merit for other schools, will have about 100k saved and will plan to pay some as they go. I do want my kid to have options to support herself, which factored into university choice (cache/networks), but I am not looking at numbers on ROI. Part of higher ed is the ed, not just training to a certain income level.[/quote]

The main point of college is ROI. Full stop. And that's doubly true for your kids, who aren't wealthy enough to be from a full-pay family.[/quote]

ROI is not the main point of college if you are going to any kind of professional or grad school (which 50% of top 20 grads are).  College sets you up for the next academic choice (M.A., Ph.D. M.D. J.D. etc.). That second choice is where ROI will come in to play.  [/quote]

The ROI guy computed it for grad school, including cases where the undergrad degree was low ROI but paired with a high ROI grad school. One take-away is that low ROI undergrad degrees (eg English, History, Poli Sci) lock you into a high ROI grad program (law) if you ever want to see a payoff for the education dollars you spent. If you do a low ROI BA and then a low ROI grad degree (BA in English or History plus PhD) then as you would expect, you're screwed.

https://freopp.org/is-graduate-school-worth-it-a-comprehensive-return-on-investment-analysis-a84644f29f9[/quote]

Thanks for confirming my point.  Lots of low ROI college grads (heaven forbid!!) go on to high ROI grad degrees.  So with most top college kids going on for a second (or third) degree, the ROI for your undergrad college/major choice is clearly NOT the main point of college as the PP asserted. [/quote]

That’s not the point you made. You included MA and PhD which are not high ROI grad degrees. (MA can be if it’s the right field but generally not.)[/quote]

Meant to type MBA (which is a high ROI grad degree) not MA.  And some Ph.D's make great living in consulting, patent royalties, etc. Some don't.  Depends on the field.[/quote]

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