Recently, on Facebook, I posted a list of small private colleges (not nationally known, but still good colleges) that offer full-tuition scholarships. I received this comment from a Facebook user: “ROI is low." "Not worth attending.”
I believe there are hundreds of thousands of happy and successful alumni from those colleges who would beg to differ. Seriously. There are about 400 highly ranked and popular colleges and universities in the United States. Are the other 1,600 colleges and universities not worth attending, even if the cost is minimal? Should we just shut them down?
Is it worth your time and effort to apply for a full-tuition scholarship at a “not as well-known” college? Does saving $200,000 or more really not make sense to you? Obviously, the college you are considering needs to offer majors and programs that fit your interests, right? So, if that is the case, why not apply for their full-tuition scholarship? What do you think the individual meant by ROI? Why do you think there was an assumption that the “investment” would not be worth the effort of applying for the scholarship? Is making lots of money and bragging about the college you attended the primary or only reason for going to a particular college?
I think it is important to note that people choose colleges for all sorts of reasons and for all sorts of potential careers. Yes, some want to be engineers or computer scientists (and other high-paying careers that have an immediate high income upon graduation), but there are others who want to be artists, college professors, anthropologists, accountants, teachers, social workers, musicians, journalists, and a myriad of other careers. Some want to be engineers or computer scientists but wish to blend those with the liberal arts. So if one’s definition of “return” is purely monetary, then, yes, one might think that the ROI is not high in some cases. However, plenty of graduates of these lesser-known colleges make good money and work shoulder to shoulder with folks who graduated from the elite colleges. (And in some cases, they are even their supervisors). A former president of the Chicago Bar Association tells me that the top three students in his law school, including him, were all from small colleges that are not nationally known.
Going to college is not like putting money in an investment portfolio and expecting a certain percentage return, or at least I hope that is not the case. You get a lot more out of a college education than just an income. You learn social skills. You develop all the soft skills that employers crave. You make friends. You get career advice. You have opportunities galore (internships, research, leadership roles, etc.). But would the ROI for all careers be higher if one went to an Ivy League or otherwise “elite” college? Maybe, maybe not. I’ve seen studies that make a case for either argument. In the end, the consensus by most is that it is not WHERE you attend, but what you DO at the college where you attend that determines the true value of your investment.
So let’s talk about the important part of ROI: Investment. Investment is not just monetary. Success in college comes from the investment of time, effort, and creativity. Just taking classes, taking tests, and getting a diploma from any college (elite or non-elite) is no guarantee of any kind of success (financial or otherwise). What makes for success is truly investing yourself in the process! Insist on internships. Insist on travel to another country. Insist on doing extra research and do your best to get your results published. Be a leader on campus. Get involved on campus in extracurricular activities that make you a more well-rounded and interesting individual. Develop all those “soft skills” that employers are looking for. Most employers will look to see what you did (what experience and skills you can bring to them) before they look to see where you went.
Most of the colleges I listed that offer some full tuition scholarships have over 90% placement of their graduates within 6 months after graduation. I worked for one of those colleges for 27 years, and I never saw a placement percentage less than 95. Graduates of these colleges often go to graduate school. Many of these graduate schools are Ivy League or otherwise highly ranked elite institutions. So, even though the undergraduate colleges may not be well known to the general public, the elite graduate schools do know them, and welcome their qualified graduates. And yes, the name of that graduate institution does have a bearing on the financial future of the student (ROI is a strong factor in choosing a graduate program), but these elite universities come with a hefty price tag. Why not save money on the undergraduate level so you won’t end up with huge loans? Some full tuition scholarships even come with “stipends” to pay for research or travel.
All colleges have value---but the value to YOU depends on what you do once you are there! So yes, if a college looks good to you from many perspectives, and you have the academic statistics to qualify for a full tuition scholarship, go for it! In the end, what you get out of a college (the “return”), will be determined by what you put into it (the “investment”).
This is an argument that will never convince the elitists who are driven by rankings and statistics. I totally get that. But, to me, there is more to a college than that. The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Choosing a college is not a mathematical formula. My advice is to choose a college that “fits” your interests, your personality, and your budget.
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