Was Your College Degree Worth It's Cost?

[Scoop Snoop]

It had no financial impact as I ended up where I would have ended up had I simply written the FD test in 1984-5.    I am a better person, not a richer person.

Marquette was life-changing for me in a very good way. I really get what you said. While it was also worth it for financial reasons-way back then, almost any college degree was a ticket to a good job-without Marquette my life would have been very different, and probably not in a good way. I'll leave it at that.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Sadly, I believe that save for a few majors ,like Engineering, most degrees are not worth the tuition these days.

[MU1in77]

Met my wife in Spanish class. Both Journalism majors. Tall, thin woman from Iowa with a big smile and sharp mind. Caught my eye almost immediately.

47 years later, we've been married for 43 years.

She's still special!

I met my bride of 42 years at the Ardmore in 1978 and to this day she swears we never went on an actual date. I had friends and roommates who tended bar there so it was meet you at the Ardmore and we can drink for free.

[Pakuni]

Sadly, I believe that save for a few majors ,like Engineering, most degrees are not worth the tuition these days.

Tell that to a successful lawyer, CEO, accountant, etc.

[rocky_warrior]

Tell that to a successful lawyer, CEO, accountant, etc.

Honestly I think anyone that attends college with a specific career in mind would probably say yes.  People who get a degree without having a plan for after the degree, are probably more in the no camp.

Of course, it appears many here attended Marquette to get the Mr. degree, and are satisfied with that. 

[tower912]

Honestly I think anyone that attends college with a specific career in mind would probably say yes.  People who get a degree without having a plan for after the degree, are probably more in the no camp.

Great point.   


Look how much you've made moderating scoop.

[Scoop Snoop]

Honestly I think anyone that attends college with a specific career in mind would probably say yes.  People who get a degree without having a plan for after the degree, are probably more in the no camp.

Of course, it appears many here attended Marquette to get the Mr. degree, and are satisfied with that. 

Agree in most cases. However, I have known former attorneys who left their practices and went into different lines of work. One bought a company that has rock climbing walls. He loves it and has no regrets leaving his law career behind. I also know a couple who met in med school. He teaches at UVA med school, but she never used her degree. Although these are not MU grads, I wonder how some ex engineers, nurses, etc. might respond to the OP's question.

[Jay Bee]

Its cost vs. it’s cost

[rocky_warrior]

Agree in most cases. However, I have known former attorneys who left their practices and went into different lines of work. One bought a company that has rock climbing walls. He loves it and has no regrets leaving his law career behind. I also know a couple who met in med school. He teaches at UVA med school, but she never used her degree. Although these are not MU grads, I wonder how some ex engineers, nurses, etc. might respond to the OP's question.

Oh for sure.  One of my good friends (I also recruited him to my company) started in software (actually, math major, but no matta), decided he'd rather do IP Law, got hit JD, decided he hated lawyers, and came back to software.  At this point, his JD was not worth the money (though it did find him a wife...a common theme here).  Though recently he's considered going back to take the Bar - since his wife just launched her own practice.

Overall though, in his case, the education has "paid off" even if he didn't use it.

[dgies9156]

I actually did an analysis on the cost of my undergraduate and graduate degrees, comparing my actual compensation to an estimated compensation from a skilled trade. I did an annual cash flow analysis and estimated the IRR on my MU/Loyola degrees is 15.91 percent. I assumed a 45 year career, two promotions/job changes and 3 percent to 4 percent annual compensation adjustments.

The break-even on a discounted cash flow assuming a 10 percent weighted average cost of capital ("WACC"), was 17.5 years. That includes tossing in the cost of an MBA.

[Scoop Snoop]

I actually did an analysis on the cost of my undergraduate and graduate degrees, comparing my actual compensation to an estimated compensation from a skilled trade. I did an annual cash flow analysis and estimated the IRR on my MU/Loyola degrees is 15.91 percent. I assumed a 45 year career, two promotions/job changes and 3 percent to 4 percent annual compensation adjustments.

The break-even on a discounted cash flow assuming a 10 percent weighted average cost of capital ("WACC"), was 17.5 years. That includes tossing in the cost of an MBA.

My Gawd dgies! You and my wife would make great business partners. She was a CPA (let it expire after retiring) and has a passion for spreadsheets and intricate, mind-numbing financial analysis. We are currently looking into buying another car. There are stacks of paper around the house analyzing the various options.

[Galway Eagle]

3 percent to 4 percent annual compensation adjustments.

This is a big assumption. there hasn't been a compensation adjustment in 3yrs at my job.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I actually did an analysis on the cost of my undergraduate and graduate degrees, comparing my actual compensation to an estimated compensation from a skilled trade. I did an annual cash flow analysis and estimated the IRR on my MU/Loyola degrees is 15.91 percent. I assumed a 45 year career, two promotions/job changes and 3 percent to 4 percent annual compensation adjustments.

The break-even on a discounted cash flow assuming a 10 percent weighted average cost of capital ("WACC"), was 17.5 years. That includes tossing in the cost of an MBA.

I bet you are fun at a cocktail party. Dear lord, your better half is more saintly than Mother Teresa.

[dgies9156]

I bet you are fun at a cocktail party. Dear lord, your better half is more saintly than Mother Teresa.

She’s the creative type!

And yes, I'm an absolute delight at any party!

[ATL MU Warrior]

My Gawd dgies! You and my wife would make great business partners. She was a CPA (let it expire after retiring) and has a passion for spreadsheets and intricate, mind-numbing financial analysis. We are currently looking into buying another car. There are stacks of paper around the house analyzing the various options.

Paper?!?!

[muwarrior69]

For me absolutely yes. Marquette was a great value and that was paying full freight (Tuition, Books, Lab fees and Room & Board 12k). Starting salary was 9K with a BS in Chemistry and Biology right out of school. It is my understanding full freight at MU today would be about 220K. Today a grad would have to have starting salary of about 160k to be equivalent to mine. So sad that college costs are so out of reach for so many and missing out on the college experience like so many here have had at Marquette.

I can afford to send my Grand Daughter to Marquette, but why when she can get just as good of an education here in New Jersey at a much lower cost.

[Scoop Snoop]

Paper?!?!

Printed out from the computer. She dumps the info on the table next to my favorite chair, even though she knows I do not want to read it.

[dgies9156]

My Gawd dgies! You and my wife would make great business partners. She was a CPA (let it expire after retiring) and has a passion for spreadsheets and intricate, mind-numbing financial analysis. We are currently looking into buying another car. There are stacks of paper around the house analyzing the various options.

Brother Snoop:

We're going through the same thing. The lease on my wife's car is up in September and I've already calculated the wholesale value of the car against the residual against an entirely new vehicle.

When we went into a dealer in Chicago to lease for the first time, I told them what I wanted to lease. They gave me a number on the lease payment and I told them, uhh, your money factor is X, your expected residual is "y" and over a three year lease, total depreciation is "Z", so you're wildly off on payment. The idiot sales manager said, "huh" and I told him for what he was proposing, I'm going to the BMW or Lexus dealer (the car we leased was a Nissan).

I showed him what he could "really afford" and, surprise, surprise, I got what I wanted.

See Doc, I'm a hoot at cocktail parties!

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I graduated and immediately went into a field that had nothing to with my major. So academically? Probably not. But I could not have been a successful adult without my four years at Marquette and I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today. In that sense, worth every penny.

[Scoop Snoop]

Brother Snoop:

See Doc, I'm a hoot at cocktail parties!

After Wednesday's fiasco, we need to have a little fun. I'm going to write a little fiction piece.

Rocky is throwing a great party and everyone is having fun. Unknown to Rocky, there are some scoopers in town and of course, they crash the party. The crashers include the Dgies and the Snoops. Rocky says "you're not going to believe this, but on the slippery roads this afternoon, Taylor Swift's limo rear ended me. She invited me into the limo for drinks and we chatted until the police arrived. What are the chances of something like that happening?"

Dgies and Mrs. Snoop immediately insist in determining what the chances are (and Rocky quickly realizes that he never should have told his story) and they team up. Mrs. Dgies and Snoop know what's coming....hours of cross-referencing statistics on spreadsheets by the two number crunchers. At 2:00 AM, Rocky lies and says "I really enjoyed meeting you, but umm...it's kinda late" They reply "But we'fe almost finished. Give us a couple more hours, OK?"

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I was doing FAFSA with the younger daughter today.  When I logged into my account that I need for her, it told me my student loans were paid off as of some month in 1993.  I guess it took me 2 years to pay off my loans.  I was surprised the student loan data goes back that far.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Sadly, I believe that save for a few majors ,like Engineering, most degrees are not worth the tuition these days.

There are a lot of things that you believe that are wildly inaccurate

[Plaque Lives Matter!]

I have a semi-unique perspective from the common Millennial college experience cause I nearly got booted from my Alma Mater after my freshman year due to academics and was rewarded with a much needed and deserved “semester abroad” back home in the Milwaukee suburbs.  I wasn’t a big partier, I actually partied more often and harder later in my college career when I did MUCH better academically. It was just the downtime of playing video games with friends, watching movies, shooting the sh** when I should have been reading or studying.

 worked basically full time between a catering/bartending job and running youth soccer camps/teams while I took a couple community college courses. My best friend from childhood was a freshman at Marquette so I had a social life and overall it was 6 months that would be pretty indicative of what life would have been like if I didn’t go away to a 4 year school.  It tremendously motivated me to go back to the same school, not to start over at a new university, and commit myself like I should have from the start.

At that point, I became a completely changed person.  Maturation wise, emotionally, confidence wise, found myself intellectually, etc… What I gained over the next 3.5 years was worth every penny.

Graduating in 2008 into a BLEAK job market, my degree didn’t do much in finding me a quality well paying job, but the person I became in achieving that degree certainly played a huge part in getting through it, building a network, and then allowing me to blossom when I finally got into a good position professionally.  I only have 1 friend my high school days, only actually regularly speak to 1-2 friends I made organically in my decade living in Chicago, but have at least a half dozen friends from college that I speak to at a minimum once a week and see a few times a year despite not living within 2 hours of any of them anymore.

I think the cost benefit value of college has greatly changed.  Even though I did it, I think there is very little value in paying big-ish premiums for going out of state for a non-“prestige” university.  I don’t think my experience was unique to my school, and I could have certainly gotten it at other schools.  So I absolutely see the value of learning and growing while away at school, but also acknowledge and realize it should be done in a financially feasible and responsible way.

We had an eerily similar start and ending to our college experiences minus the sabbatical. Working a summer at a restaurant made my grades skyrocket and my planning and organization got way better when I wanted to have free time to case race.

[tower912]

courtesy of my friend, lurch 91

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F72CmcZq0JM


Marquette bars, circa 1986

[JWags85]

Oh for sure.  One of my good friends (I also recruited him to my company) started in software (actually, math major, but no matta), decided he'd rather do IP Law, got hit JD, decided he hated lawyers, and came back to software.  At this point, his JD was not worth the money (though it did find him a wife...a common theme here).  Though recently he's considered going back to take the Bar - since his wife just launched her own practice.

Overall though, in his case, the education has "paid off" even if he didn't use it.

So it’s interesting, obviously YMMV but in terms of law school/lawyers/unhappiness, in my experience the majority of people who saw law school isn’t worth it are unhappy lawyers.  Conversely, off the top of my head I know 3 lawyers who left practicing.  One went to a decent West Coast school, the other 2 went to an Ivy and another top 10 law school. All left law firms/practices between 5-12 years out of law school.  One works for a family office cause his speciality was financial law.  Another works in management for a company.  The third is actually a sales lead/GM of Asia for my company.  All didn’t like being “lawyers” and working in law firms.  But all have at some point raved about law school, the experience they gained during it/becoming a lawyer, and how fundamental it is to their success after leaving practice