The Best Private College in Every State with the Most Bang for Your Buck
By
Meagan Drillinger, Stacker News
On 6/16/21 at 8:00 PM EDT
The value of a four-year college degree has changed a lot since the 1940s. In fact, it's changed quite a bit in the past 10 years. From 2010 to 2020, the number of people 25 and older who hold a bachelor's degree or higher jumped more than 6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A college education has long been considered an entry point into the American middle class. College graduates can earn more than $30,000 more per year than someone with a high school degree, according to a 2019 report. But there's a catch—college doesn't come cheaply. In fact, the cost of a four-year college education averaged $25,864 per year for in-state students at public universities and $53,949 per year at private, nonprofit universities, according to 2019 reporting from EducationData.org. Taking student loan interest into account, the cost of a four-year degree can be more than $400,000. As the national student loan debt crisis shows, the cost of attending college is so high it has resulted in catastrophic debt levels. This is all to say that attending college is an investment. And as with any investment, it's important to make sure that you will receive a high return.