Valuing education

By G.D. and K.N.C.

An interactive chart of the cost and return of a college education in America

THE examined life is priceless, but college comes with a price tag. Whether or not it is worth paying depends on who you are, what you study and where. PayScale, a research firm, has done a big survey of graduates and used it to estimate the financial return on degrees from different American colleges and universities. Our interactive chart below shows the total cost of a degree after financial aid (the beginning of the coloured bar) and the return over 20 years (the end of the bar). The return is defined as the amount that a graduate earns, minus what someone who did not attend college would earn, and minus the cost of attending college. Thus, a wider bar is good. The chart can be sorted by cost, return (annualised and over 20 years) or alphabetically. Of course the value of learning cannot simply be measured in monetary terms. But it helps to know, when taking out a student loan, whether there is a realistic chance you will be able to repay it. (See story in this week's issue here.)