Is college worth it? Well, it depends on what degree you’re getting and where you’re getting it, according to a new paper from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), an economic opportunity think tank.
While more than three-quarters of all bachelor’s degrees have a positive return on investment (ROI), according to the paper, master’s and associate degrees are much riskier bets—with many costing students in the long run.
The paper, by Senior Fellow Preston Cooper, examined data from over 50,000 degree and certificate programs at thousands of American colleges and universities. Cooper’s analysis looked at how much students were earning immediately after graduation, as well as how much they were making 10 years later. The paper also took into account a student’s chance of dropping out when calculating a degree program’s ROI.
In all, Cooper found that 31 percent of students are enrolled in a program with a negative ROI—meaning that “the earnings benefits of the degree are unlikely to fully compensate students for the cost and risk of pursuing post-secondary education.”