At What Cost Do Students See Return On Investment?

Career College Central summary:

PayScale’s annual contribution to college bragging-rights lists — the College ROI Report — ranks schools based on their returns on investment under various scenarios. But the rankings don’t answer a key question that must cross the minds of prospective students, and their parents, as they peruse the total cost figures for top-flight schools, which exceed $200,000 in some cases.
Based on the Payscale data for the top ROI schools — factoring in a student’s on- or off-campus housing choice, not including living with the family, and financial aid choices — the best 20-year net ROI was with on-campus housing and financial aid included, at $1.09 million. The winner? Harvey Mudd College, an engineering school.
The best annual ROI was also with on-campus housing and financial aid included: 17.6%. The winner: University of Virginia 's main campus, for in-state students. To partake in those top ROIs, a student would have to pay $116,800 in costs at Harvey Mudd and $25,880 at Virginia.
According to the Economist, college graduates between 25 and 32 who work full time make $17,500 more per year than people in the same age group who only finished high school — but due to student loan debt and the overall cost of higher education, many college graduates are faring worse than if they had never gone to college at all.
The ROI for 46 of the 153 arts degree programs examined by PayScale had a ROI worse than 20-year U.S. Treasury bills, including 18 with returns of less than zero, the Economist reported.

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