Sunday, February 10, 2008
Post for Febuary 11 - College
Right now I assume that one of the biggest thoughts in most of your heads is college. It is one of the biggest decisions we've had to make in our lives up to now. It is a huge decision in terms of direct cost and also opportunity costs. Obviously a large idea when picking the college is the education they offer and how it matches your goals for the future. I was wondering what everyones main factors were in picking their college, in terms of direct and opportunity costs, as well as where these factors have persuaded you to go next year.
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8 comments:
For me, I think I look at
A) how much is it gonna cost in $ (obviously, this is probably a factor in everyone's mind)
B) Is it worth it in terms of education and the experiences I'll have? For instance, if you're given the option of paying 50,000 dollars a year to go to Yale or paying 20000 a year to attend a college that is good, but not as prestigous as the ivy league schools, that's a tough choice for some people. Obviously the choice will differ on how much aide the person's gonna get from family, scholarships, etc. Pretty much, that's what I look at. Is the education and experiences that I get out of it gonna pay off?
hmmm top three things.
1)In terms of choosing colleges I focused more on the implicit cost rather than explicit:
for example: If I go to the cheaper school what will I be missing out on?: A bigger school with a more wide range of people etc.
2)I then looked at cost (which was fruitless because they were all about the same)
3) The third thing I looked at, that had little to do with economics, was the general vibe and feeling I got about the school.
I think different people have different opinions about what is important. The biggest factor my parents would like me to consider is the explicit financial cost, obviously because they will be helping me pay for college (until I can pay them back). However, my brother-in-law is vocal about how the cost is unimportant; instead I should look at the educational value and how well a school fits me. My sister-in-law would like me to consider my opportunity costs as well as other considered explicit costs. What will I miss out on if I go to one school over another? It's a very tough decision for me because I want to go to a good school (often correlated with an expensive school) but I want to volunteer after college, so paying it off will be tricky.
I think that for me explicit financial cost is one of the most important because eventually that cost will come back to me although not immediately. I am not too concerned with opportunity cost though because I feel that the things I miss out on because I am attending college are worth missing because college will make my life better later on in life, although one opportunity cost I may worry about is not being able to attend another college that may have been a better choice.
Have I got a thing to say or what...college is expensive, no crap, but the thing is that as of yet I haven't had word from any of the colleges I have applied at...so costs aren't even a worry right now, its getting in and staying in that is what will make the difference!
First off you go tony....but anyhoo I believe that the opprotunity costs do not effect anything here, however the explicit costs are a definite problem, because Dan and Beth (my parents) do not generate the greatest amount of income when Dan is unable to work. Therefore I am taking into consideration not only the costs of tuition and board, housing, but also things like gas, just in case I go out of state.
Great questions! It's a terrific look at how incentives vary from person to person.
"Is the education and experiences I get out of it gonna pay off?" Marginal decision making. We make decisions based on the payment we have to make for a projected payoff. When the payment exceeds the payoff (regardless of the nature that takes), we choose not to continue.
I love it when people say it has nothing to do with economics...it does! That "vibe" is your personal marginal decision. If it doesn't pay off for you, you choose not to do it.
I'm such a nerd.
Question for anyone who checks this: If explicit ($) costs were not an issue, does that change your decision?
If explicit costs were not an issue? like we could go anywhere iwthout paying? i think that would definately change my decisions. i think we may need to put a limit on the amount of stuff we wouldn't have to pay for, because if there were no explicit costs, i would definately be catching a jet out to USC for a semester or two and then flying back here to hang out with my family, hunt, and do the other things i like to do around here. however, if we do put that limit on there, i'm actually not sure if my choices would end up changing much. for any school in wisconsin, i've been able to find pretty good help for tuition and i don't really want to go to much farther away than a few hours just because i want to be able to see my family and still be around for my sisters. so, unless i would be provided with jet travel for no cost, as well as room, board, and meals for any university in the nation, i think my decisions would still be pretty similar.
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