I was using the figure provided by OP. The post has since been edited to note that was an older figure. Using the data on that page, it would be 981K over the lifetime of the worker.<p>Plug that into the formulas above and it&#x27;s still nowhere near half after all the costs are factored in, although it&#x27;s a far healthier percentage.<p>One thing that isn&#x27;t noted though ... there is a fundamental difference between causation and correlation. There is no evidence to suggest colleges add that value. Merely that people who earn more go to college.