Is your college degree worth the cost?

For myself, YES. As a nurse, I MUST have the education. The advanced degree was mostly TA, but TA did not cover all, so about 33% was out of pocket and i am still paying on the student loans. Even with that being said, I am setting myself up for good employment options when i retire.

For my WIFE, unfortinately, no. She racked up a bunch of student loans, we are still paying (only about 50K to go?), and the income potenial that she is has is MUCH MUCH less.

Daughter is in 8th grade, so not an issue YET, but I hope that she can find a school AND a degree path that will be cost effective AND have good earning potential in the long run. She likes animals, so I am HOPING to guide her to Vetrinarian....

Yes. Even though my Masters was paid for by the Army, in my field if you don't get an advanced degree, your career is going to go nowhere. Even if I had to pay for it out of pocket, the earning potential that was opened up by my grad degree is well worth the cost of it.

Definitely not, if it's going to put an individual into debt that lasts years! There are so many ways to help offset costs; however, students need to be shrewd in order to take advantage of those benefits. Whatever you do, don't rack up student loans that you're still paying off decades later!

My undergraduate degree was simply a means to an end... to get a commission in the Regular Army of the United States of America.

Although I am sure I used some of the "knowledge" I gained in pursuing my degree (BS in Marketing), it did not really matter what I majored in, as all I was after was a commission. I could have majored in Home Economics, Education, Communications, or a myriad of other disciplines and it would not have mattered.

Although I now have two Masters degrees, I can't say that any of the degrees have helped me in my career in any way, except, as I stated, the original BS degree that allowed me to be commissioned as a Regular Army officer.

As far as being worth the cost (which, honestly, I did not pay for .. my dad did) ... Absolutely. It enabled me to get into the career I wanted. When I ended that career, upon retirement, my military experience allowed me to get into a very good civilian career.

My undergraduate degree was only good to get me into medical school or grad school. I would never recommend my degree plan to someone who wasn't going to graduate school unless they wanted to be a bartender with a fancy degree.

That's a loaded question. No and Yes. I think college can be worth it, but I did not end up with the degree I wanted or needed for my goals. The program I ended up in happened because of poor goal planning and advising. I encountered the poor goal planning as a combination of factors including being the first in my family to attend college. I had a general career path I wanted to take, but not knowing what different colleges offered, I went to my hometown college that did not offer the degree I wanted and attempted to get something similar. When I ended up dropping out of that program for a liberal arts degree in conflict analysis I tried to justify the choice by calling myself a "well rounded candidate" when the job I wanted needed a very specific, scientific degree and my advisers didn't tell me no. I then job searched so much, the only job left to me was to become a professional job searcher (that's not sarcasm). Had I gotten my A&P license while I was in the military I could have saved 8 years of low wages and $20,000 of college loans (yes, I used my GI Bill) and gone right back to work. I have just now gotten back to my bachelor E-5 pay with BAH, but now I have 3 dependents and the civilian world does not care if you have dependents.

I was lucky enough to have a full time job while I went to college at night. My wife also was working so I was able to pay for all of my education excepting the first year or so that the GI bill assisted me. Back then it mainly covered tuition. Today's system is much better. Ending up owing maybe $60,000.00 or more for your education makes it hard to live and pay it back so i feel for those in that situation. If you end up working in the field of your education you can never stop taking classes to keep abreast of new information.

By getting creative with TA and the GI Bill I was able to get two different UG degrees without really going out of pocket. I don't think either of those degrees was worth much "on the outside", but I knew as I going to grad school and I needed a Bachelor's degree to check the block.

My BS, yes. My MS no. I have had my MS for 10 years and have not seen one tangible return on it, but I do see the Car payment going towards the Student Loan every month.

No just because you have a degree means nothing. Plenty of people have degrees and are still paying them off. Plus when you retire your supposed to be debt free what's the point of retiring and your still in debt?