Katie: Welcome back to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at the BusinessMakers.com/overtime. So Esther and I are gonna jump into kind of a little hotbed of a topic here. All about getting your education on.

Esther: That's right.

Katie: And not just any education, but college education.

Esther: Ya' know you have to go to elementary school. You have to go to middle school. You have to go to high school -

Katie: Unfortunately.

Esther: Well you don't have - you could drop out of high school, but it's pretty uncommon for you to drop out, especially because it's free. Most of the time if you're in public school you're not paying for your education, at least not straight out of your pocket.

Katie: Right.

Esther: It's a little different whereas going to college is a big, financial decision.

Katie: It's massive.

Esther: Even if you go to state school.

Katie: Exactly. You can go to a public university, especially if you're an out of state student and you make this decision to go two states over, it's a tremendous, tremendous amount of money and loans are getting harder to come by, people are being more competitive for all these scholarships that are out there. So it's a big, giant wad of cash.

Esther: Well I read an article, came across this article in Bloomberg Business Week that college education in the last few years has been valued at $900,000.00, 1.2 million and 1.6 million; somewhere in that range over the last few years. New research is suggesting that the monetary value of that college education is widely overblown.

Katie: Wow.

Esther: Widely. So according to pay scale the value of a college degree may be a lot closer to $400,000.00 over 30 years and varies widely from school to school.

Katie: Okay. What schools are we talking about that are worth it then?

Esther: Well according to the pay scale study, the number of schools that actually make good on the estimates of the earlier research is vanishingly small. So you're talking the top tier schools here. You're not talking about Texas State. You're talking about MIT. You're talking about Harvard. You're talking about Stanford.

Katie: Princeton.

Esther: Even the smaller liberal arts schools that you maybe haven't even heard of, but they just have really incredible professors, really small, specialized educations.

Katie: I think a lot of that may have to do with, for instance, in the case of MIT, a lot of their graduates are going into these really crazy science and math. It's very tech, very can you say upscale industry. The pay grade for what these students are going into is pretty exceptional.

Esther: Oh, for sure.

Katie: So I guess that that makes sense. So what about the rest of them? What about the Texas States and the Pittsburgh Universities?

Esther: Well that's exactly right. This is basically asking is it worth it. Is it even worth it. Are you going to learn so much at the school that you get this amazing job? What is the purpose of the college education if it's not gonna get you that dream job that you grew up thinking you were gonna get. It's not gonna take you to that point, but there's a lot of research that shows that just being in this environment around creative people who are accomplishing things together as a group or individually, but just surrounded by each other also accomplishing and having to solve problems on their own -

Katie: Absolutely.

Esther: It's a life skill.

Katie: It is.

Esther: And they can teach you how to be a better worker, someone who can fit in better in the work environment.

Katie: Well the discipline that it takes to get through college. Not just the discipline that you get, but also the networks that you develop. We see all of these amazing captains of industry that really haven't fallen back on, but they've risen with a group of people that they were roommates with in college, that they've grown up with, grown into adulthood and just made amazing things happen.

Esther: And I always wonder the question of what you know versus who you know factor because how many people do you know that got hired for great jobs straight out of college or straight out of high school because they knew somebody or got a great job out of community college or got a great job out of whatever school because their dad knew someone or their uncle knew someone or whatever -

Katie: Yeah; get an internship -

Esther: Yeah and knowing me, I work for my dad so I'm certainly not knocking it. I'm just curious whether or not it makes a difference.

Katie: What is the value of that? I have an interesting relationship with getting an education, having a strong career 'cause I don't have a degree. I'm pretty darn close to having a bachelor's, but I still do not have it. The question lately has been sure, I could go after, get back to school. It's been about a year and a half since I've been back in at Boston University extension program, but at this point do I need it? A lot of it for me is a pride thing. I come from a background of I have relatives that are professors at Harvard. It's sort of a big deal that you have multiple degrees, but I have to say that in the work place the people that I am looking to hire a lot of times right out of school, even a few years out of school, their experience and their knowledge levels don't even remotely come close to mine right out of college.

Esther: No, of course not.

Katie: So it's a really tricky subject for me 'cause I can see both sides of it so well and I'm kind of in this limbo. Like what do I personally do. Do I wanna fork it over or do I wanna buy a house.

Esther: Well listen to this. Here's some alarming facts. Some factoids for you.

Katie: Ooh, okay; okay.

Esther: Every year more than two million high school students enroll in college. One in three drop out after their first year. That is a collective waste of $9 billion a year in tuition money.

Katie: Nine billion?

Esther: Mhmm. There's more. With the amount of money spent on getting an education at Sara Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York you could purchase a brand new Ferrari F430. I don't know how much that care is, but I think it's in the $250,000.00 range; somewhere in there.

Katie: Oh my gosh.

Esther: Yeah. My last factoid: the average college freshman spends about ten hours a week partying, over nine hours a day engaged with media and technology including cell phones and games, TV and social networks like Facebook and only eight hours a week studying. So, my question is are we paying for kids to go away to basically summer camp, camp with a little class on the side or is it really, really truly dollar for dollar a value?

Katie: Right. How much of an educational experience is it -

Esther: I'm not saying it's not a value. I went to college. I'm very glad I did go to college. My question is did I need to go to Boston University to go to college.

Katie: Oh, I totally forgot you went to Boston U. Oh my gosh.

Esther: Yeah; did I need to do that?

Katie: Actually you tell me because that's where I'm trying to go back to.

Esther: As great a school as it was, it's known, it's widely known as being one of the most expensive schools in the country. Whether or not it needed to be that expensive. I probably could have gone to Texas for a third of the price and gotten a better education or at least a similar education.

Katie: Yeah; I think to me it's more about the ongoing education. It's how much people invest in themselves out of the classroom. Talk about discipline to knock out a few books when you're working full-time, maybe you have kids, maybe you're starting this business on the side like Russ and moonlightin' in your garage -

Esther: That's right.

Katie: So I feel like college doesn't even hold a candle sometimes to what really driven people teach themselves. So how they rigorously educate themselves in whatever area suits them.

Esther: Well we wanna know what you think about this. Whether or not you think college is a big deal. Do you think you need it? Do you not need it? Are you a college graduate? Are you a Ph.D? Did you drop out? We wanna hear from you so go to the BusinessMakers.com/overtime and leave us a comment or of course you can find us on Facebook. Facebook.com/overtimeshow or Twitter.com/overtimeshow. Find us.

Katie: Yay.

Esther: Let us know what you think.

Katie: We'll be listening. We really would like to hear it.

Esther: I guess that wraps up this week's show, number 49. It's been fun, hasn't it?

Katie: It has been. It has been.

Esther: Thank you, Russ, for joining us and Katie, thank you for joining me as always.

Katie: Hey, ditto, kiddo.

Esther: You've been listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at the BusinessMakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: We'll see you next week.

Katie: See ya'.