Many of those who enjoy a liberal arts education will tell you that a quality education is its own reward. True; very true. Nonetheless, pragmatists are also interested in the income boost typically associated with a college education. People with a bachelor’s degree earn more than twice as much as people with only a high school degree over a lifetime. Likewise, their lifetime earnings accumulate to 45% more than the earnings of those with associate degrees.
With age, Americans see increased income. St. Andrews students in their 20s bring home paychecks on par with workers in their 30s.
That being said, some colleges are associated with a bigger earnings boost than others. St. Andrews University, a branch of Webber International University, is one such college. Across seven different measures of earnings, people who attended St. Andrews consistently earn more than people who attended other Southeastern, baccalaureate colleges offering diverse majors. The increase ranges from six to eight percent as you study various ways of measuring earnings.
To put these earnings numbers into perspective, first consider the timeframes. Six years after entry means only two years after on-time graduation. Moreover, across the country today, six out of ten baccalaureate candidates take longer than four years to attain their degrees. These students are still young, with a median age of 28 six years after entry to college. Do these numbers reflect a worthwhile earnings boost? Yes. The median per capita income in North Carolina is $30,783. However, it takes the average American until age 37 or 38 to achieve the median income. By this measure, these college students in the Southeast are in their late 20s and already bringing home paychecks similar to those of workers in their late 30s.
Here, we consider earnings six, eight, and ten years after students enter college. We look at the mean, median, 25th percentile, 75th percentile, and 90th percentile. St. Andrews is associated with a bigger income boost across all those measures.
The U.S. Department of Education places St. Andrews in the region labeled “Southeast.” That includes AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, and WV. Using the Carnegie Classification system, the Department of Education groups St. Andrews in “Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields.” That’s Carnegie Basic – Label 22 for those of you following along in the raw data. This group excludes other types of colleges such as associate’s colleges, career certificate colleges, art schools, etc. Therefore, the comparison group used above is all the other baccalaureate colleges, with a variety of majors, in the Southeast.
St. Andrews Alumni Council Report (February 2024)
St. Andrews Students Have a Higher Chance of Graduating on Time, Take Home Higher Earnings, and Have Less Debt
What do you want from your life? And what is the best way to get there?
Kevin Buckley, MD – Distinguished Alumni
Nate Andrews – Athletic Hall of Fame
Corinne Nicholson – Distinguished Merit
Cristie (Patterson) Mitchell – Athletic Hall of Fame
Dr. Rodney Lyn (’95) – Distinguished Alumni 2022
Tags: Return On Investment
