According to the US college board the average out of state cost for a student attending a four-year college is $149,720 when including tuition, books, room and board. The prices are lower for community colleges and higher for private and for-profit colleges but the out of state four-year college is a pretty typical experience for most people taking this path.
$150,000 is a lot of money for a young adult to be playing around with especially when students are taking on debt to fund the expense, but most don’t look at a college degree as a frivolous purchase, it’s an investment that will produce strong returns over a working career.
The data still backs this up, the cost of a college degree has increased significantly but just by the numbers it is still a good investment with the typical college graduate earning $650,000 more than the typical high school graduate over the course of their according to Pew Research Center.
But just because something is a good investment doesn’t mean that there aren’t other better investments available.
