{"id":8310,"date":"2014-06-27T18:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T18:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neit.edu\/how-college-is-like-sunscreen"},"modified":"2021-03-18T14:30:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T14:30:56","slug":"how-college-is-like-sunscreen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neit.edu\/blog\/how-college-is-like-sunscreen","title":{"rendered":"How College Is Like Sunscreen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The moral of this story is simple. Don’t put on sunscreen and you are going to get fried in the scorching hot afternoon sun. When it comes to your career and\u00a0earning potential if you don’t get a degree, your job opportunities and earning potential is\u00a0going to get fried.
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From: How College Is Like Sunscreen – Derek Thompson – The Atlantic<\/a><\/p>\n

College students are paying more. They are taking on more debt. They are accepting worse jobs after they graduate and earning less than they did just five years ago. So how could it possibly be true that college is more important than ever?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer is sunscreen.<\/p>\n

College in today’s economy is like sunscreen on a scorchingly hot afternoon: You have to see the people who didn\u2019t apply it to fully appreciate how important it is.<\/strong> The same way a blistering sun both makes sunscreen feel ineffective and makes it more crucial than ever, recessions can both make a college degree seem ineffective and make it more important than ever.*<\/p>\n

One of the confusing things about college is that it\u2019s hard to keep straight its price, cost, and value. The sticker price of college\u2014that is, the published tuition\u2014isn\u2019t paid by most middle-class students, who receive grants, tuition breaks, and tax benefits.<\/strong> The average net price of a bachelor’s degree is still 55 percent lower than the sticker price today. For many students, tax benefits eliminate the full cost of an associate’s degree. College is much cheaper than advertised.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Published vs. Net Tuition: Bachelor\u2019s, Associate\u2019s Degrees<\/p><\/div>\n

The upshot is that, shockingly, the New York Fed found that the average “total” cost of a four-year degree isn’t much higher than it was 40 years ago.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, what about the payoff? This is where the story gets even more complicated. But thinking about sunscreen can help.<\/p>\n