Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280143
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
COLLEGE PAYS OFF ON PAYDAY
That college diploma hanging on the wall is worth $1,039 a month in extra pay.The monthly bonus is enough to pay off a typical four-year graduate's tuition bills in just under two years.
On average, people with bachelor's degrees earn $2,116 a month, a Census Bureau study said Wednesday. High-school graduates earn $1,077 a month.
Tuition, books, room and board for four years at a public university averaged $19,880 in 1990, a survey by the College Board found. The cost of education has since risen to more than $23,000 for the four years.
Prestigious private universities cost far more.
Is it worth it?
"As my job search threatens - I've gotten four rejections already - it's kind of depressing, especially considering how much education costs today," said Don Modica, 21, a senior who pays more than $18,000 a year to attend Notre Dame.
Despite the cost, Americans increasingly prize a college degree.
In 1990, one American in four had a bachelor's degree or higher, the Census Bureau said. That's up from one in five in 1984.
But a diploma doesn't always open the doors to high pay and security.
"It isn't like it used to be," said Susan Miller, president of the Annandale, Va., job-placement firm Susan Miller and Associates Inc. "You have an edge to start, but it's not the guarantee it used to be."
People with degrees in engineering, computer science and other technical fields can get well-paying jobs when they graduate, Miller said. Everyone else is "out there in the job market competing with the high-school grads."
"If someone comes through college and they have no work experience, they're clueless," Miller said.
"We see college grads starting as receptionists."
The universities say the payoff comes several years later, as college graduates are promoted past their less-educated colleagues.
Whatever the field of study, colleges and universities try to teach their graduates to work smarter, said Pat Riordan, dean of admissions at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
"We are teaching them a way to synthesize and communicate at a much higher level than a student that just graduates from high school," Riordan said.
"How is your money better spent?" Riordan asked. "I could have spent the money buying a fancy car and some more vacations . . . but I think in the long run spending the money on education is investing in me."
The bachelor's degree worth the most money is engineering; holders make an average of $2,953 a month, according to the Census figures.
Social science graduates trail at $1,841 a month.
A liberal arts or humanities degree is worth $1,592 a month in earnings.
But the biggest money goes to people with professional degrees, such as law or medicine. On average, those people earn $4,961 a month.