Half of college alumni strongly agree that their education was worth the cost, according to the 2015 Gallup-Purdue study published this week. An additional 27 percent of alumni simply agreed that their education was worth the cost.
Tucked inside the report was data that reveal how to make a student’s education more worthwhile.
For example, the odds of a student thinking his time in college was worthwhile are 1.6 times higher if the student is extremely active in extracurricular activities or if he has worked on a project that took at least one semester to finish.
Odds rise by 1.4 times if the student held a leadership position in a club or organization, while membership in a fraternity or sorority increases the odds by 1.3 times.
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Odds rise by 1.5 times for a student who held an internship or job that allowed her to apply classroom lessons, while simply having a paid job or internship increases the odds by 1.2 times.
The most important factors in whether a student will find his college experience worth the cost are largely out of his control. For example, the odds are 1.9 times higher if “my professors … cared about me as a person.” The same odds hold if a student has a mentor who encouraged her to “pursue my goals and dreams.” Of course, half of that relationship relies on the student seeking out a mentor. Odds rise by 1.8 times if a student had at least one professor “who made me excited about learning.”
“Supportive and motivating relationships with professors and mentors are crucial to undergraduates’ college experience,” the study authors wrote. “All universities need to strongly emphasize the quality of the interactions faculty members have with students to maintain their promise of a valuable college education to prospective undergraduates.”
The portion of alumni who either agreed or strongly agreed that their education was worth the cost was fairly consistent across various types of private and public nonprofit universities, at about three in four students. Private, for-profit schools, however, saw a smaller portion agree, with only one in two students saying it was worth the cost.
“Alumni from for-profit schools are disproportionately minorities or first-generation college students and are substantially more likely than those from public or private nonprofit schools to have taken out $25,000 or more in student loans,” the study explained.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
