New report details the link between Ivy League degrees and future earnings
- Elite private colleges underperform compared to flagship public institutions
- The University of Texas at Austin had a higher return on investment than USC
- But the very top colleges - the eight that make up the Ivy League - are worth it
Most expensive private universities are not worth the money, a surprising new report shows.
The analysis ranked 1,500 colleges and universities by comparing graduates' earnings with what they paid for their degrees.
Those with an Ivy League degree easily got their money's worth even though they paid top dollar for their education - as such qualifications land graduates the very best paid jobs.
But if they weren't admitted to an Ivy League school, they should think twice about going to what are often considered the next best.
That is because below those eight top-tier colleges, splashing the cash on a degree from prestigious non-Ivy private schools like Tulane, Oberlin and the University of Southern California does not guarantee the same 'return on investment.'
Instead, the study found that 'flagship' public colleges offer better returns on investment ten years after enrollment than the prestigious and selective private schools - sometimes known as the 'Hidden Ivies.'
Flagship public schools include those like UC Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia.
The analysis by Bloomberg used calculations from Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce - and publicly available tuition and earnings data of graduates who accepted federal financial aid.
To work out a return on investment, the report looked at the average cost of a degree at each college. It compared that with the average total earnings of graduates from that college over the ten years after they had enrolled.
The difference - subtracting fees from income - was called the return on investment.
Ivy League (e.g. Princeton University)
Return on investment - $265,500
Price - $75,000 - $80,000 per year
Degrees from Ivy League colleges had by far the highest return on investment despite their very high costs.
The Ivy League consists of the following eight institutions: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale.
Elite privates (e.g. University of Southern California)
Return on investment - $135,000
Price - $70,000 - $80,000 per year
Prestigious private colleges like Fordham, Rice, Duke and Northwestern by comparison cost in the region of $70,000 and $80,000 a year but only offer returns of about $135,000 compared to the $265,500 Ivy League degrees generated.
While they may offer quality education and good earnings, in many cases that is offset by their steep price.
The authors of the study defined elite private schools based on a list provided in Howard and Matthew Greene's book The Hidden Ivies, of which there are 63.
The University of Southern California had an average annual cost of attendance of more than $77,000 a year. Its return on investment was $170,000 after ten years, according to the analysis.
Going to university does almost always pay off, separate recent research shows. It found most college degrees offer better returns than the stock market.
Flagship public (e.g. University of Texas at Austin)
Return on investment - $148,000
Price - $20,000 - $40,000 per year
A better option may therefore be big-name public colleges, which were worth on average $148,000 despite costing between $20,000 and $40,000 a year.
These are the most prominent public institutions in various states. They include the University of Florida, Pennsylvania State, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
'If you get into an Ivy, the ROI is going to be great. But if you're part of the 99 percent of students who don't get in, regional and state flagship schools can punch above their weight and allow a strong return on investment,' Michael Itzkowitz, founder of HEA Group and the former director of College Scorecard, told Bloomberg.
The University of Texas at Austin had a return on investment of $176,000 and an annual cost of attendance of around $27,000.
Public (e.g. Iowa State University)
Return on investment - $118,000
Price - $5,000 - $40,000 per year
The same trend was even observed between non-elite private and non-flagship public universities - public colleges Auburn in Alabama and the City University of New York outperformed their private counterparts.
In general, they cost in the region of just $20,000 a year but still generated promising returns well above $100,000.
For example, Iowa State University cost only around $22,000 a year yet its degrees on average offered a return of $153,000 after ten years.
Some of the highest-performing colleges in this category were the Missouri University of Science and Technology, the University of Connecticut and various maritime academies.
Private (e.g. Syracuse University)
Return on investment - $82,000
Price - $10,000 - $80,000 per year
The private category ignores the eight Ivy League schools and the list of 63 elite and expensive Hidden Ivies.
The cost of attending regular private colleges varied tremendously, though the bulk were more than $40,000 a year. Syracuse in New York had a return on investment of almost $115,000 and a cost of almost $73,000 a year.
Meanwhile, Southwest Baptist University in Missouri had an annual cost of attendance of around $35,000 and a return of $75,000.
It is worth noting that because the study only considered students who took financial aid, it ignored the future earnings of those who paid out of pocket. It also does not consider lifetime earnings, only those around five or six years after graduation.
Some private colleges argued that this distorted the results against their favor.
'It is impossible to distill the excellence of any given college into one ranking, particularly one that only looks at success in terms of dollars and cents,' Andrea Simakis, a spokesperson for Oberlin, told the outlet.
She noted the school's graduates are well-represented among Grammy winners and MacArthur genius fellows.
Generally, many schools dedicated to the arts were expensive and generated poor and even negative returns. Examples are the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Berklee College of Music and California Institute of the Arts.
Conversely, schools that offer more science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses had higher returns.
'Not only does this study not capture the lifetime ROI of these individuals, it does not begin to capture the ROI to the world,' said the Oberlin spokesperson.
Recently, another report showed the salaries Americans make after graduating varies dramatically depending on their major. After five years, those who studied engineering earn more than double those who pursued the arts.
Meanwhile, there have been concerns that college degree costs are spiraling - with the annual cost at Vanderbilt University hitting almost $100,000 a year. Students at the private college face a $400,000 bill for a typical four-year course.
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