If you
are interested in grad school, make sure to see my related notes on the
NPV of college and the
increasing
numbers of millionaires in the USA.
What's a good grade
worth?
How much are good
grades worth? How much, in today's dollars? If a student makes a
decision to devote extra effort to improve their GPA, how much will they save
down-the-road? Admissions to professional schools (MBA, PhD, Law,
Medicine) are a ultra-competitive, and everybody wants the increased earning
power.
But
what are good grade worth in terms of grad school tuition costs? For any
professional-bound undergraduate student, this is a critical question.
It's ironic that some of the best professional schools (MD, PhD, JD) cost less,
while the low-quality professional schools charge a fortune for low-quality
learning.
The expensive low-quality professional schools serve an important market niche,
providing the only way for many lazy and unmotivated students to enter a
professional career.
Comparing the quality of professional schools?
There is no denying
that worthy scholars are rewarded for their high undergraduate GPA's with offers
to higher quality universities with lower tuition costs.
How do we measure the
"quality" of a professional school? Many professional schools publish the
average starting salaries of their graduates (get cite), hinting at the
cost-benefit of their hallowed institution. But it's easier to correlate
selectivity as a measure of quality.
Admission to a top Law,
Business and Medical schools is better than winning the lottery, with almost
guaranteed millionaire status by age 40. My research on the increased
earning power of a professional degree shows that professionals can expect
to earn $4,300,000 over their working lifetime, $3,200,000 million dollars more
cash than the average high school graduate will earn.
Will you be in the top
20% in 2050?
In fact, it appears
that almost all
graduating professionals in the early 21st century can expect to become
millionaires. This is largely due to normal inflation and less barriers to
entry for professional careers (i.e. more professional schools).
"The percentage of
millionaires will increase from 3% of the US population in 2015 to about 20%
by the year 2050."
I'll bet that they will
even come-up with a name for the one-in-five people who will be millionaires in
2050.
For
the purpose of this justification, let's assume that there is a high correlation
between selectivity and quality. We assume that the most highly-selective
professional schools (e.g. Harvard Law, Wharton MBA, Johns Hopkins, &c) are the
"best", and that they are a more lucrative investment of the candidates time and
money. Here is a list of the top Medical schools, all noted for producing multi-millionaire physicians.
Finding a bargain Law
School
There are 192
ABA-approved law schools, with widely varying costs and quality. Note that many
of the "top-rated" law schools are low-cost State schools, with subsidized
tuition. Here are the top-10
law
schools ranked by highest costs (tuition & R&B).
|
|
Law School |
State |
Yearly Tuition |
Yearly
Room & board |
Yearly total
law school costs |
|
|
|
Cardozo-Yeshiva University |
NY |
$32,950 |
$19,500 |
$52,450
|
|
|
|
New York University |
NY |
$35,710 |
$17,980 |
$53,690 |
|
| |
DePaul University |
IL |
$27,710 |
$17,114 |
$44,824 |
|
| |
Harvard University |
MA |
$33,120 |
$15,728 |
$48,848 |
|
|
|
Touro College (Fuchsberg) |
NY |
$25,210 |
$15,545 |
$40,755 |
|
|
|
U. of Maryland |
MD |
$16,253 |
$14,985 |
$31,238 |
|
|
|
Fordham University |
NY |
$33,216 |
$14,645 |
$47,861 |
|
|
|
Georgetown University |
DC |
$33,055 |
$14,500 |
$47,555 |
|
|
|
Stanford University |
CA |
$34,230 |
$14,500 |
$48,730 |
|
|
|
UC Hastings |
CA |
$20,919 |
$14,031 |
$34,950 |
|
Wow, $50k per
year is expensive! Many working people don't have $150,000 laying around
to pay for juniors' professional education. Fortunately, there are some
bargain law schools to be found if you take the time to do the research.
Finding law school tuition
bargains
When we examine the law
school ratings we are happy to see that private law schools do not dominate.
It's a happy fact that half of the top-10 law schools offer inexpensive
State-subsidized tuition for their in-state law students:
For cost comparisons of
law schools, we need look no further that where I live in North Carolina, and
I'll use NC schools for this study. This from the
top law school pages.
- University of
North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill Law School - UNC Law is rated as the
27th best law school, ahead of expensive private law schools such as Wake
Forest. Tuition is only $4,200 per year, a great bargain.
- North Carolina
Central University - Rated in the
top 200 law
schools by the Princeton review. Tuition is only $2,000 per year
in-state (out of state tuition is $12,000, still a good bargain).
For an example,
here in NC we have cheaper in-state law school tuition, with an amazing
bargain for UNC law school, rated in the top-30 law schools and with
affordable tuition:
|
|
NC Law school |
Yearly Tuition |
Room & board |
|
Yearly Total |
|
Total 3- year cost |
|
|
NC Central |
$4,291 |
$7,500 |
|
$11,791 |
|
$35,373 |
|
|
UNC Chapel Hill |
$11,118 |
$10,588 |
|
$21,706 |
|
$65,118 |
When we compare the costs to a school like Wayne State Law school, we see
that a comparable in-state law school is fully half the cost of out-of-state
tuition, saving the grateful parents $40,000 over the three year period:
|
|
Law School |
Yearly Tuition |
Room & board |
Yearly Total |
Total
3- year costs |
|
|
North Carolina Central
|
$4,291 |
$7,500 |
$11,791 |
$35,373 |
|
|
U Carolina Chapel Hill |
$11,118 |
$10,588 |
$21,706 |
$65,118 |
|
|
Wayne State,
MI |
$12,707
|
$11,888
|
$24,595
|
$73,785
|
We also see the same giant savings when we
include the expensive "offshore" professional schools and the expensive
low-quality professional university programs.
This relationship appears to exist in all
processional schools, where we see a super-expensive lower-tier waiting to
pick-up the slack and apathetic college graduates. There is a
lucrative market serving the children of professionals who are not good
enough to enter respected professional schools.
The best value
professional universities
If we consider both
quality and tuition costs, we can compare the selectivity of the university
with the tuition and arrive at a net present value estimate of the "value"
of the doctoral school.
The low-quality
professional schools include "offshore" Medical, Law and Doctoral schools,
plus unaccredited USA schools.
The are many professional universities who
cater to mediocre students and many of these schools are relatively more
expensive and of lower overall quality.
