Thirty percent of the recent graduates of America’s public colleges failed to earn a positive ROI within 10 years of graduation, according to new findings from Strada Education Foundation, a nonprofit focused on student workforce outcomes.
The nonprofit’s State Opportunity Index explored the annual earnings of associate and bachelor’s degree graduates across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Bachelor’s degree graduates must earn an average of $55,000 a year to net a positive ROI, according to Strada’s framework. The percentage of graduates in a given state who satisfied that marker ranged from 82% to 56%, with New York, California and Washington, D.C. leading the country.
However, the percentage of associate degree holders who exceeded $47,000 annually was far lower, ranging from 76% to 41% across the country.
Clear outcomes, quality coaching, affordability, work-based learning and employer alignment were key metrics that Strada found could significantly boost the ROI of public college students.
States with high percentages of graduates who did not earn more than the cost of their credentials also failed to provide career support services suggested by Strada.
For example,
- More than half of states are not filling jobs in high-wage, high-demand jobs, such as business and information technology healthcare and manufacturing and engineering.
- Few states released data on employment outcomes for different academic pathways.
Only about one-fifth of graduates from public four-year colleges experienced career coaching. - Under half of recent bachelor’s earners and one-quarter of associate degree holders completed an internship.
- In states deemed the least affordable, college students working more than 30 hours per week during the school year and full-time during the summer could not cover their expenses.
“Students, institutions, employers, and policymakers need access to specific data—graduate earnings and career outcome information—to understand what their educational choices may mean for work, life and income,” the report read.
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