Academic

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: In response to yesterday?s post on Rick Perry?s $10,000 B.A. proposal, rea?

By Glenn Reynolds

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: In response to yesterday’s post on Rick Perry’s $10,000 B.A. proposal, reader Steve Schroeder writes:

While visiting with old college friends on New Years? Eve we did a back of the envelope calculation on the cost and value of our BA degrees in Accounting from 1981. We attended a small well regarded Midwestern liberal arts college from 1977 to 1981. Tuition, room and board was between $3,000 and $4000 per year so around $16000 for our BA. As entry level accountants in public CPA firms we earned a salary of around $17,000 per year. So we earned in salary an amount equal to the cost of a BA degree in our first year of employment. Now that same college, which my youngest daughter is looking at attending costs $42,000 per year. If she earned her BA in Accounting it would cost her $168,000. Her possible first year salary as a CPA? Not even close to $168,000. Maybe around $45,000. What a change in 30 years in the value of that BA in Accounting.

Indeed. Many degrees have seen a similar decline in their return on investment. It’s because the return has (more or less) kept pace with inflation, while the required investment has run wildly ahead.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 13, 2011 (boomark / email).