Many people ask, “What is the most valuable college education?” Well there are a lot of ways to answer that question. In the United States alone, there are some amazing facts that one has to consider before even filling out an application form.
Every year PayScale tracks salaries across the US and is the largest private firm to do so. The data they collect is useful in finding out which major and which degree is the most valuable in today’s market. Here are three amazing facts that the research uncovered:
- A Bachelor of Science from Harvey Mudd College is the most valuable college degree in America.
- The computer science program from Stanford pays off more than any single major in the United States.
- The University of Virginia has the best dollar-for-dollar investment in the US.
While it is very difficult to actually measure the cost and benefit of college, PayScale uses an effective method. They start with the cost which is the time and money spent to complete degree in college. For the purposes of the comparison, net price has been used as compared to the prices that colleges usually advertise.
There are two ways to measure the resulting benefit of a degree used by PayScale. The first is the calculated 20-year premium using self-reported income surveys, which is the amount the person will earn while working for two decades after obtaining A degree as compared to if they had no college degree. The second method uses “annualized ROI”, which shows us a dollar-for-dollar benefit of programs and colleges.
The charts and graphs below show the data that has been explained above.
This table shows that the most valuable degree is from the Harvey Mudd College as mentioned above. But the one with the most dollar-for-dollar value is shown by the ROI and that is the University of Virginia and Georgia Tech (shown below).
The graph below shows the most valuable degrees in terms of which majors are the tickets to richness and have the greatest demand in the market today.
If you’re interested in going to college in the States, and you’re having a little difficulty in choosing the right college and major for you, visit PayScale’s website and do some research to see what path suits you best. Be sure to visit the respective college’s website to clear anY ambiguities.