Is a College Education Worth the Price?

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No, I think that the worst case scenario would be that you show up to your graduate school fully academically prepared but since they wish to profit from private loan kickbacks they cut your federal loan in half to force you to take out a private loan. But the joke is on them - you only make $25,000/yr and have no assets. You were using the loan to pay for your education in its entirety, since a 3.85 GPA, high GRE scores and enrollment in a high need health science degree apparently are not enough to score state or federal aid. Then, since you can't get blood out of a stone, you must drop out of college with a huge student debt and no degree. Be very, very careful of your friendly neighborhood financial aid office.

Julia of NY 6:42PM October 19, 2010

I hope you aren't signing up for a pile of student loans or encouraging your kid to do so. I have talked to so many that are working minimum wage jobs who did that and they have nothing to show for it except unpaid educational debt.

Laura of CA 7:50PM September 13, 2010

Watching young adults around me with great degrees and no jobs make me wonder, is college worth the risk? What I want to see in US News and Report is the ROI of the colleges. Who really gets there grads into jobs whose alumni really stick by new grads whose grads have longevity in their fields and whose grads are paying off loans with a part time job installing cable boxes.

vsheehan of GA 10:26PM August 17, 2010

I appreciate your willingness to propose alternatives to the traditional four-year college. At $50,000 in the middle of a recession that has no end in sight, college tuition is giving potential students and their parents some pause. It won't be long before the alternatives--distance degrees, two-year schools, cheaper four-year schools, early college, the University of Phoenix--start looking good to a large number of people. Will nonprofit colleges be able to respond? We'll see.

Jane S. Shaw of NC 2:53PM August 17, 2010

living in California and having just gone thru the process with our oldest who is now enrolled at University of Oregon, your college tuition and fees costs in the article are misleading to downright wrong. In order to gauge how much college is going to cost you need to factor in room and board. In the UC system the tuition cost for in-state looks small but UC's in the metro areas you have to add 15-20K for room and board. And out of state tuition (not including room and board) for UO for this year will be approx 26K (not the 17K you have listed). Add another 11-12K for room and board.

Lisa of CA 11:17AM August 17, 2010