<p>I’m not sold on how meaningful this is, but I had fun doing the math:</p>
<p>Four year cost of attendance 1979-83 at LAC: $30,355
First year salary after graduation in 1983: $13,500
$13,500/$30,355 = 44%</p>
<p>Current four year cost of attendance at same LAC: $186,753
To have a first year salary equivalent to 44% of the current COA, new graduate would have to earn $82,171.</p>
<p>According to the inflation calculator, the $13,500 I earned in 1983 would have the same buying power as $29,870 in 2010. That’s a far cry from $82,171.</p>
<p>I don’t even know if the numbers are right, but it’s something like this:
4 years undergrad: $24,000
3 years grad: $18,000
1st year salary: $12,000</p>
<p>28% for the education - and I went to Harvard and Columbia!</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even factor in how long it took to find a job, getting laid off, and then rehired! However since my share of the rent was $35 a month, I actually had as much spending money then as I’ve ever had.</p>
<p>I was very fortunate. I had a total of $1200 in college debt for all of my schooling (including post master’s work) and ALL of it was forgiven because I worked in a priority school district for 5 years back in the 70’s. Good thing…because my salary was only $6800. I think each year of my undergrad schooling cost less than $1000…total (room board tuition) at a state school.</p>
<p>UG cost: $0. I had a full scholarship.
grad cost: $0. I had a full fellowship (but I was the stereotypical starving graduate student).
Starting salary: can’t remember clearly but in the region of 2.500 pounds sterling.</p>
<p>Yeah, it was a public school. $4000 for room & board, $2500 for tuition, $700 for books. Tuition and room and board went up a bit over the 4 years but wasn’t bad.</p>
<p>Four years of state school for UG (graduated in 1986) and then Masters (graduated 1989) = total cost out of pocket, $17,000 (for which I had an interest free loan until graduation)
Four years PhD at tippy top private school (grad 1993) = free tuition, and $12,000 year living stipend
First faculty position: $70,000 (1993)
So while I never really thought about it before, I earned back 4X my investment in the first year. I paid back the the entire debt the first year without a problem. </p>
<p>No wonder I am a huge family of big public relatively inexpensive universities for undergrad.</p>
<p>“I meant 2,500. My bad. I’ve been working with French statistical data today and commas and periods need to be transposed.”</p>
<p>Isn’t that still like… starving?</p>
<p>Assuming I graduate in 4 years, and a 5% increase in tuition each year, my total COA should be $60,087 (I commute, and I don’t plan on buying any books, so that’s just tuition). And assuming the average starting salary increases 5% a year, and I make that average starting salary, it should be about $75,000. So my ROI should be about 125%. Maybe it’s a little optimistic to think that tuition will only increase 5% a year, and that salaries will rise as much as 5% a year, so that’s probably a little high.</p>
<p>Download them, borrow them from friends/library, copy the problems down, something like that. Whatever gets the job done.</p>
<p>If a book is $35 and I’m going to be using it every day, I’ll buy it. If it’s $150 and I’ll use it 3 times, I’ll find a way around buying it. I figure when looking at $60K for tuition, the couple hundred I might spend on books is pretty insignificant.</p>
<p>Not for that time. H, who earned a bit more, and I were able to buy a 3-bedroom house (which we sold for double what we’d paid two years earlier when we moved back to the US.) We attended operas at Covent Garden and concerts at various venues for a couple of pounds each time; museums were free. We did not have a car and did not need one, health insurance was the NHS. We took trips to various places, went to Paris several times to visit my family and to Italy once. Those were the days…</p>
<p>4 yrs undergrad (public, UC): $14000 yes…total! 4 yrs! (tuition and fees were $760/yr)
4 yrs Grad school at large private U: fellowship (9000 yr) + tuition (free) + 10,000 loan
First yr salary: $35,000</p>
<p>Having said all this, I’m not a fan of this thread. We willingly paid full fare for both our kids who probably could have gotten very significant merit money at other schools. I always believed we should leave the merit money for other kids for whom receiving it would make a real difference. Economic considerations are not the driving force behind our choices.
S1’s starting salary was about the same amount as the COA for his first year of UG. With salary freezes, the COA at his alma mater is way higher than his current salary. He is not likely to make a lot of money in his line of work. But we’ll never regret paying full fare for him and his sibling, nor their career choices.</p>
<p>^I think this might be a good way to compare BBA, BSE, or some BS degrees, where a lot of the time, money is the biggest consideration. Though major and school would be important to know if it’s to be used as such.</p>