ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A report from the center-left think tank Third Way shows several degrees at Cedar Crest College take 10-29 years for students to see a return on their educational investment.
Using data from the U.S. Department of Education, Third Way looked at individual programs within colleges and calculated their “Price-to-Earnings Premium.” That is, the time it takes graduates to recoup the cost of their degree.
Five out of the seven Cedar Crest degrees listed in Third Way’s data set are estimated to take a decade or more years for students to recoup their educational investment.
The report lists a bachelor’s degree in “Psychology, General” as taking the longest.
A Cedar Crest representative responded in a written response to WLVR about the report’s findings.
“There are several factors at play in this study, including the economy, job availability and personal choice of area of study. The data set does not include some of our most popular programs found in the sciences, such as biology, forensic science and genetic engineering,” they said.
Overall, Third Way’s report does point out that college STEM and healthcare degrees do provide the quickest return on investment.