Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The ROI of a College Degree

A Fox Business article, last Friday, evaluates the long-term worth of earning a college degree.

While college graduates typically out-earn those with just high-school diplomas, the difference is highly dependent upon the specific career field.  For workers such as such as electricians, janitors and postal service mail carriers, there's actually no difference.  In a few job categories, such as carpentry, college graduates may actually have lower lifetime earnings.

Regardless of the choice of career and major, though, a four-year degree still hones leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving skills and the ability to see a long-term task through from beginning to end.  Sometimes, a degree can represent a level of credibility or help get your foot in the door.  Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell provide examples of those who built impressive empires without degrees.  Of Fortune 500 CEOs, however, 93% have bachelor's degrees and 50% have graduate degrees.  

The following career choices provide some examples where a college degree provides a seven figure advantage in median lifetime earnings:
     Chief executive officers and legislators: $1.9 million
     Securities, commodities, financial services sales agents:  $1.5 million
     Financial manager:  $1.3 million
     Miscellaneous manager:  $1.3 million
     Models, demonstrators, and product promoters:  $1.3 million
     Marketing and sales managers:  $1.3 million
     Salespeople in wholesale and manufacturing:  $1.3 million
     First-line managers and supervisors (non-retail):  $1.2 million
     General and operations managers:  $1.1 million
     Construction management:  $1.1 million

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