- Whether to invest in college is a choice that numerous young adults make each year – is it worth it?
- We are also going to assume that the average starting salary is $43,367 for college grads and $30,000 for people with a high school diploma. Let’s also assume: 1) in-state 4-year college costs $22,690/year; and 2) everyone gets a 3% raise every year.
- Using a standard “net present value” financial calculation (see below), we can look at the value of a college investment. Remember, for the 1st 4 years high school grads are earning money while college students are spending money and this has a big impact on the value calculation.
- As we can see above, using our metrics, the high school grads come-out $60,000+ ahead of the college students over a 25- year time frame.