&gt; For reference, working 40 years at $30,000 a year<p>Why are you using 30K as the baseline? The median per capita income in the US is 56K [1].<p>40 years will earn you $2.24 million. Earning $640K or 29% more isn&#x27;t as substantial as you make it out to be.<p>Let&#x27;s also factor in 4 years lost income and cost of attending an institution.<p>(4 x 30K (starting salary)) + (4 x 40K (tuition&#x2F;housing&#x2F;food at a public university)) = 280K<p>$640K - 280K = 360K<p>360K is 16% of total earned income. That&#x27;s not that much. We&#x27;re also not factoring in interest, assuming you borrowed money to pay for that degree ... and let&#x27;s not forget I&#x27;m quoting prices for a public university while the $640K figure includes some very expensive colleges that might put you in the red.<p>If you&#x27;re going to attend a university, don&#x27;t do it for money. That&#x27;s a really stupid rationale.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Personal_income_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Personal_income_in_the_United_...</a>