Shelling out the time and cash necessary to earn a degree is a sacrifice. For many, the question of “is college worth it?” has a simple answer: “yes.” But for others, the answer may not be so clear. A private liberal arts school may look more glamorous than the neighborhood community college, but it also … Continue reading “Are North Carolina Colleges and Universities Worth the Price Tag? “
House Democrats have released their draft plan to make free community college a reality across much of the country, at a price tag of over $100 billion. The obsession with a zero sticker price for community college is odd, given that community colleges are already one of the most affordable sectors of America’s higher-education system. … Continue reading “Why Free Community College Solves The Wrong Problem”
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts within the higher education policy space were projecting that four-year colleges could face a loss of up to 20 percent in fall enrollment. While these predictions never materialized, the political infatuation with college enrollment figures is not a new phenomenon. Barack Obama proclaimed the orthodox view of … Continue reading “Reassessing the College Wage Premium Payoff”
Recently, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced that he was in favor of a plan to make college education free–for most students at public institutions anyway. Why? Because too many students are supposedly being kept out of college due to its cost. Even though much of the expense of public higher education is already borne by … Continue reading “Still Believe That a College Degree Is a Great Investment?”
Too many North Carolina students leave their universities with too much debt and a degree that won’t pay off. A new tool released in January by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) reveals which programs give students the most (and least) return on their investment. The tool uses data from the College Scorecard as well … Continue reading “Did You Know? The UNC Degrees That Don’t Pay Off”
New improvements in the College Scorecard data from the U.S. Department of Education have shown some of the specifics for how well degrees pay off. With those improvements, the public can see the median debt totals as well as the median earnings after a graduate’s first year in the labor force. Since 2008, for instance, … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Law Schools That Pay Off for Graduates”
Editor’s Note: The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities will provide a rebuttal in the near future. I am counseling a young married couple experiencing serious financial hardship. Their financial problems revolve around $30,000 in student loans with a 13 percent interest rate. The debt was incurred after the wife attended a Christian college whose financial … Continue reading “Are Christian Colleges Worth the Debt Burden?”
With new data on student debt and earnings released by the Department of Education, high school graduates can make better decisions about which school and major they choose. Looking at the data for East Carolina University, most graduates get a useful degree without too much debt—but there are a few caveats. First, the data pertains … Continue reading “Did You Know? How Majors at East Carolina U Pay Off”
The College Scorecard, a Department of Education initiative that publishes data on student debt and earnings after graduation for thousands of schools, just got a major update. Previously, the Scorecard’s major shortcoming was that it only reported data at the institution level—so we could see how much a typical graduate from the University of North … Continue reading “The Majors that Pay and the Degrees that Don’t for Graduates”