U. STILL WIN
Degree a good investment
CONNOR THACKER graduated from Indiana University three years ago and has been on a fast track ever since.
The 24-year-old, who lives in the East Village and has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the university’s Kelley School of Business, has been earning a lucrative salary as a salesman at Bloomberg LP.
College has proven to be his path to success.
“It was definitely worth it,” Thacker (bottom r.) told the Daily News. “What is really important is having the credibility of the university behind you and the network.”
Looks like the much-maligned college degree is worth it after all.
In fact, the benefits of college still far outweigh the costs, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
A bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree actually earned a healthy annual rate of return of 15% over the past decade, the study found.
The study assumes a bachelor’s degree cost about $122,000 in 2013.
With college tuition reaching record highs and total student loan debt hitting a staggering $1 trillion, there’s good reason to question the value of a college education these days.
“College remains a good investment, on average” Richard Deitz, coauthor of the report along with Jaison Abel, told the Daily News.
As you would expect, the actual payoff corresponds to the type of degree you choose.
Students whose majors provide technical training, such as engineering or math and computers, earn the highest returns: 21% and 18%, respectively.
Those majoring in the liberal arts or leisure and hospitality tend to have below-average returns.
Even so, every major earned a return of more than 9%, outpacing the benchmarks of sound investing, the study found.
The returns, which do not factor in the cost of student loans, remained high in spite of rising tuition and falling wages for college grads.
How is that possible? The wages of those without a college degree have also been falling. That has kept “the college wage premium” — the gap between what college grads and noncollege grads earn — near an all-time high.
At the same time, the opportunity cost — the wages lost by going to college — have come down.
Over the course of their working lives, people with a bachelor’s degree can expect to earn, on average, well over $1 million more than those with just a high school diploma, the report said.
Those with an associate’s degree can expect to earn about $325,000 more.
Earning a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin and an associate’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology helped jump-start the career of Maryann Samreth, 24.
The Chicagoan, who now lives in Astoria, Queens, recently scored a job as a design assistant at Marc Jacobs. She is earning a salary in the mid-$40,000 range and has $40,000 in student loan debt.
She pays $200 a month toward her student loans. To keep up with the payments, she has put herself on a budget.
“I shop less, I make sacrifices,” Samreth said.
While college was the starting point, working hard and scoring fashion internships have been critical to her career, she said.
“A lot of people who graduate from college think they will automatically get a job. That’s not the case,” Samreth said. “You need career drive. You have to fight.” pfurman
@nydailynews.com