Don't Buy The Hype, College Education Is Not An Investment By George Leef Many studies claim that college is “worth it” and “still a good investment.” The technique of studies is to compare average earnings of workers who have college degrees with average earnings of workers who don’t and conclude that because the first group does significantly better, having gone to college was a good investment.
That analysis is misleading. The flaw is that it draws a conclusion about future conditions (earnings that people who go college now can expect) from data based on earnings for college graduates going decades back. The future won’t be similar to the past for many college graduates and telling young people that college will be a good investment is careless and irresponsible.
In truth, going to college isn’t an investment at all.