The Price You Pay for College

November 1, 2020
Can you pay for college without being broke until long after retirement? Sure--and this book offers plenty of pointers on how to do so. Today, attending a top-flight school can cost nearly $350,000. Yet, as New York Times financial columnist Lieber asks, pointedly, "what is the return on investment going to be?" There are other questions: Which schools are better at which disciplines? What kind of financial aid is available? Is your child suited for college? One central question, of course, is why higher education is so expensive. The answers are several, ranging from the recent movement of cash-strapped states to reduce or eliminate education funding to the fact that highly educated people--the tenured professors whom students usually encounter only in their junior or senior years--expect to be paid a decent wage, as do the endless layers of administrators and support staff. Lieber counsels that there are remedies available, though not even a committed high school guidance counselor can possibly know how to navigate them all: A student can go to community college to satisfy basic requirements, for example, though he or she better do the homework to be sure all the credits will transfer to their university of choice. A student can join the military and get GI Bill support. However, writes the author, "anyone considering enlisting in the armed forces for financial reasons alone should please think hard about the uncertainty they're signing up for." Perhaps his most important point is that in most instances, college tuition is negotiable and that the worst thing that can happen if you ask for a break is to be told no. But is college worth it? Quite apart from the educational aspect, Lieber holds, the answer to his first question is that the annualized ROI "is about 14 percent." Given that the stock market is typically half that, it's not a bad bet. A revealing and useful guide for the aspiring consumer of higher education.

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March 1, 2020

"Your Money" columnist for the New York Times, Lieber takes on the knotty issue of what college is really worth now that a flagship state university can cost more than $100,000 for four years of on-campus living, and private colleges much more. First, he explains who pays what, how financial aid got so complicated, and how merit aid has become a new competitive factor among schools. Then he tackles the real question of what a college education is worth, asking questions of college presidents and financial aid gatekeepers that parents are afraid to ask. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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