Do you really earn more money because you went to college?

[300]

I'm currently going to University to be a pharmacist.. I hope I earn more money!

I once knew a pharmacist. He made really good money if I remember right. He didn't have a permanent full-time job, but he would fill in at various pharmacies in the area once or twice a week and still seemed to live really well.

Not a bad life. Working only 1 or 2 days a week and having the rest for yourself would be pretty good. Sort of like the opposite of what normal people have to go through. I wonder why more doctors, surgeons, bankers, etc. don't do this. I know a dentist who is 62 but is still working at his own clinic for the past 30 years. He even works on Saturdays and works until 5 o'clock. With that sort of income, I would have paid off my student loans and retired in my 30's.

[BitcoinHeroes]

I'm currently going to University to be a pharmacist.. I hope I earn more money!

I once knew a pharmacist. He made really good money if I remember right. He didn't have a permanent full-time job, but he would fill in at various pharmacies in the area once or twice a week and still seemed to live really well.

Not a bad life. Working only 1 or 2 days a week and having the rest for yourself would be pretty good. Sort of like the opposite of what normal people have to go through. I wonder why more doctors, surgeons, bankers, etc. don't do this. I know a dentist who is 62 but is still working at his own clinic for the past 30 years. He even works on Saturdays and works until 5 o'clock. With that sort of income, I would have paid off my student loans and retired in my 30's.

I don't think pharmacist only work 1 or 2 days per week, it should be 40 hours or more..

[leex1528]

Not a bad life. Working only 1 or 2 days a week and having the rest for yourself would be pretty good. Sort of like the opposite of what normal people have to go through. I wonder why more doctors, surgeons, bankers, etc. don't do this. I know a dentist who is 62 but is still working at his own clinic for the past 30 years. He even works on Saturdays and works until 5 o'clock. With that sort of income, I would have paid off my student loans and retired in my 30's.

I personally think a lot of people actually like work.  Like they are not happy unless they are working, or fear of doing nothing.  A good buddy of mine is like this, granted they will always bitch about how busy they are and it sucks they have no free time, but you can tell they really enjoy being busy.  You can tell these people apart because when they do have free time, they are constantly working on "side projects" and making sure they have no free time.

[spazzdla]

Yes, but I came out with zero debt as well..  I took Electrical engineering technology in Canada and it cost me probably 15k total for 3.5 years with 3 6 month paid co-op terms.  I currently work in my field making a lot more than minimum.

I would NEVER recommend spending a lot of money on school.

[haploid23]

Well just think if there was no such thing as school or education. Do you think anyone would be qualified for today's jobs that require a shit ton of education? If you needed surgery, would you want a random guy on the street to perform it on you? There's definitely a need to qualify people for certain jobs through education.

[CEG5952]

Well just think if there was no such thing as school or education. Do you think anyone would be qualified for today's jobs that require a shit ton of education? If you needed surgery, would you want a random guy on the street to perform it on you? There's definitely a need to qualify people for certain jobs through education.

Certainly -- there is some level of specialization that we want to see. I think the issue for many is more so the culture of everybody going to college, which means most people pursue non-specialized liberal arts degrees. I can understand from that perspective a bit more.

[boumalo]

I'm currently going to University to be a pharmacist.. I hope I earn more money!

I once knew a pharmacist. He made really good money if I remember right. He didn't have a permanent full-time job, but he would fill in at various pharmacies in the area once or twice a week and still seemed to live really well.

Not a bad life. Working only 1 or 2 days a week and having the rest for yourself would be pretty good. Sort of like the opposite of what normal people have to go through. I wonder why more doctors, surgeons, bankers, etc. don't do this. I know a dentist who is 62 but is still working at his own clinic for the past 30 years. He even works on Saturdays and works until 5 o'clock. With that sort of income, I would have paid off my student loans and retired in my 30's.

Maybe it's not money they are after, did you think of that?

[leex1528]

The big problem back 30 years ago was going to College gave you a leg up on another person, it wasn't mandatory but it definitely helped you out!


Nowadays by not going to College it actually hurts you because so many other people are going to college....so yes even a job managing a Mcdonalds may be a college grad vs someone who isn't, and they will go with the College graduate most of the time...

[wunkbone]

The big problem back 30 years ago was going to College gave you a leg up on another person, it wasn't mandatory but it definitely helped you out!


Nowadays by not going to College it actually hurts you because so many other people are going to college....so yes even a job managing a Mcdonalds may be a college grad vs someone who isn't, and they will go with the College graduate most of the time...

The problem is you might have to spend about $100,000 and above for a degree unless you get scholarship. The $100,000 can make good money from business or investment.

[leex1528]

The problem is you might have to spend about $100,000 and above for a degree unless you get scholarship. The $100,000 can make good money from business or investment.

Are you suggesting to invest the $100,000 into something else?  The problem with that is most people don't actually have the 100k, they take out loans about loans that they end up paying the rest of their life.

If I had 100k back then to invest I would have easily been fine, I didn't I went to college and took out student loans unfortunately.

[wunkbone]

The problem is you might have to spend about $100,000 and above for a degree unless you get scholarship. The $100,000 can make good money from business or investment.

Are you suggesting to invest the $100,000 into something else?  The problem with that is most people don't actually have the 100k, they take out loans about loans that they end up paying the rest of their life.

If I had 100k back then to invest I would have easily been fine, I didn't I went to college and took out student loans unfortunately.

Just curious, can the loan be taken out and use as something else then to pay for college?

[leex1528]

Just curious, can the loan be taken out and use as something else then to pay for college?

No, you can't take a student loan out and not use it to pay for college.  Usually you don't even touch the loan, however I know I was sent a little extra during tuition time for books and stuff.  So I was technically able to spend that money on other stuff....

[CoinsCoinsEverywhere]

The big problem back 30 years ago was going to College gave you a leg up on another person, it wasn't mandatory but it definitely helped you out!

Nowadays by not going to College it actually hurts you because so many other people are going to college....so yes even a job managing a Mcdonalds may be a college grad vs someone who isn't, and they will go with the College graduate most of the time...

Very true.  At least in some disciplines, a bachelor's is the new high school diploma, and a master's is the new bachelor's.

The problem is you might have to spend about $100,000 and above for a degree unless you get scholarship. The $100,000 can make good money from business or investment.

This doesn't have to be true.  If you go to one of your state's public universities, you'll probably pay no more than half of that for tuition.  If you need to cut costs further, you could go to a community college for the first two years and then transfer.  Community college shouldn't cost you more than a few thousand a year for tuition.

[leex1528]

This doesn't have to be true.  If you go to one of your state's public universities, you'll probably pay no more than half of that for tuition.  If you need to cut costs further, you could go to a community college for the first two years and then transfer.  Community college shouldn't cost you more than a few thousand a year for tuition.

It is slightly cheaper if you go to a state college in your state, but you will still rack up easily 50k in just tuition, and then top that with books, room and food  you probably will hit 75k....

School is a sick sick idea of buying a piece of paper for a lot of money, then getting a job with that piece of paper so you can pay off the loans in which you took to acquire that piece of paper...stupid cycle!

[ahri]

Just curious, can the loan be taken out and use as something else then to pay for college?

No, you can't take a student loan out and not use it to pay for college.  Usually you don't even touch the loan, however I know I was sent a little extra during tuition time for books and stuff.  So I was technically able to spend that money on other stuff....

What are you talking about, I seen people who pull out the loan stating they go to school, but end up buying a car.

[CoinsCoinsEverywhere]

This doesn't have to be true.  If you go to one of your state's public universities, you'll probably pay no more than half of that for tuition.  If you need to cut costs further, you could go to a community college for the first two years and then transfer.  Community college shouldn't cost you more than a few thousand a year for tuition.

It is slightly cheaper if you go to a state college in your state, but you will still rack up easily 50k in just tuition, and then top that with books, room and food  you probably will hit 75k....

That is likely true.

School is a sick sick idea of buying a piece of paper for a lot of money, then getting a job with that piece of paper so you can pay off the loans in which you took to acquire that piece of paper...stupid cycle!

True for some fields, but necessary for others.  Although I'm also biased because I got my degrees over a decade ago when prices were a lot cheaper.  I was able to get a BS for around $40k for everything, including books and R&B.

[leex1528]

What are you talking about, I seen people who pull out the loan stating they go to school, but end up buying a car.

I am assuming they took out a Bank loan.  If you take out a FAFSA loan and purchase a car with it, I can't imagine that would end well for you seeing as it is 100% illegal in the USA. 

[tabareseduardo]

there are just some situtions when people left the college and even so earnt a lot of money, but the is more successful people who dedicate a lot of years to study. Study hard and you will get the results, the problem is the education system, in USA the college is the more expesive on earth, but why the ''richest'' country on heart cannot do something about it??? just leae the young people without giving the chance to have decent college studies, but in other case Sweden the tuition is free, because they know the valuable recourse on a country are the people and the students.

[ahri]

You should go to school if you cant become an entrepreneur.

Its simple as that, cant make cash flow  you need work for someone else.

[ProfMac]

People that go to college are in average brighter, harder working, more ambitious and for more affluante families and they are meant to make more money (as a group) than people that don't go to college

If you factor in the cost of going to college will you really make more money because of the diploma you will get?

Support : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbUFBk3477o (few minutes video debating the subject)

As a scientist, I wonder what data exists.  I have found this on the web.

Using table P-16 from the link.

For men aged 25 years and older, the median 2012 income was:

Code:

$18,002  Less than 9th grade
$19,780  9th through 12th grade
$31,064  12th grade graduate
$41,730  Associate degree
$56,656  Bachelor's degree
$71,364  Master's degree
$91,472  Doctoral degree

I have seen a table where this is broken down into annual age bins, instead of totals for everyone over age 25.  I have not found that this morning.

I can play a bit with these numbers.  Assume that someone will work from age 25 to age 65, or 40 years.  Assume that they can borrow money at the prime interest rate of 3.25%.

Then play a bit with the numbers.  For illustration only, pretend that using the median income and projecting out for 40 years gives good guidance.

($56,656/yr (bachelors) - $31,064/yr (high school graduate) ) / 12 (month/yr) = $2,132 / month income difference for Bachelor's.

Next, find how much money you can borrow, with a 40 year payoff of $2,132/month and 3.25% interest.  This is how much money you can pay for the degree and come out financially neutral, but still enjoy the other benefits of education, such as better health, higher home ownership, and lower involvement with law enforcement.

Code:

$572,288  highest profitable cost of bachelor's degree.
$451,076  interest paid to lender on this amount.

I view this analysis as guidance for public policy, e.g., should the government support student loans or even free college education.  This numbers are real data for groups of people, individual results will vary.  A more detailed analysis would take into account unemployment, life expectancy, family size by age, and income tax obligations.