" If they want you to be financially successful, they will find the numbers staggering. If they gave you the difference and you invested it at average stack market returns you’d have a Berkeley degree AND $2,000,000."
Not a big fan of this type of analysis. IMO, college is MUCH more than a monetary return on investment (ROI). If you really wanted to save money you could go to a community college, as a junior you transfer to your cheapest local university/college, live at home, never study abroad, never eat out, or join a club or sorority/fraternity, etc. and save and invest all of that money. As a ROI, probably a “good idea”. As an enjoyable full college experience, a very bad idea. Remember you can lose money investing in the stock market (hello 2001, 2008) and your “$2,000,000” return will take 30+ years to accumulate, will be taxed (in most states both by the feds and state) and won’t have the same purchasing power (inflation) as if you had that money in today’s dollars. A degree and the education you get from a top college can never be taken away.
@socaldad2002 agreed, and the big elephant in the room is hopefully there’s no big crash when you are ready to retire or cash out ala 2008 - 2014. You can bank 7% returns annually on average, but the severity of recession is an unknown. With the recent advent ot tech and the massive returns (and likely proportional downturns) as of late, looking at historical empircial data is not always the best predictor of the future.
@socaldad2002, that seems logical on first glance, but it’s really a specious argument. We aren’t talking community college. We are talking Berkeley. The absolute worst case scenario is that the OP can have a Berkeley degree including all of the opportunities you allude to AND $140,000 when he is 22 to 23 years old.
As for the market, I’ve ridden through both of those and the 25% drop in 1998 fully invested, buying all along the way. Stoking fear based on short term downturns, even severe ones, really misses the basic fundamentals of long term buy and hold investing.
@stevensPR, no one can predict the future. No one. The bottom line though is that the money has opportunity cost. We are talking equivalents in prestige and opportunity. Worst case, as mentioned above, not choosing Berkeley will cost the OP $140,000 more. What they do with it is their business.
I digress though. We are drifting pretty far off topic. Sorry i took us there.