College Degree Spreadsheet
Learning Objectives:
1. Familiarize students with the cost of a university education
2. Evaluate relevant and irrelevant costs of a university education
3. Determine the opportunity and actual cost of a university education
4. Apply payback concepts to a university education
5. Discuss qualitative aspects of the benefit of a university education
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Assignment:
The purpose of this paper is to quantify the total cost, payback and qualitative aspects of a university education. The first part of this paper is to identify the direct costs of a university education including tuition, fees, room, board and books
assuming you paid all monies out of pocket (e.g. no scholarships or student loans).
Once you determined these costs, you need to determine which are relevant in your analysis. There may be some direct costs you incur regardless of your university attendance. In addition to the direct costs of a university education, you need to identify the opportunity cost associated with a university education. Once you have quantified the total cost of a university education. The next step is to determine the expected payback of a university education by identifying the salary gap (e.g. $20,000 per year before & $30,000 per year afterwards) between what you could have made had you started working directly out of high school versus pursuing a university education.
Beyond the financial (quantitative) considerations of a university education, please discuss three qualitative (non-financial) considerations of attaining a university education.
In the word document, you should address the following questions:
1. Discuss all direct and opportunity costs of pursuing a university education. Be certain to detail what direct costs you determined to be relevant and those cost not relevant to your analysis.
2. Discuss three quantitative and three qualitative considerations in favor of pursuing a university education.
3. Based on your quantitative and qualitative considerations would you recommend pursuing a college education? Support your recommendation with quantitative and qualitative considerations.
Remember, there is no right or wrong answer. The intent of this assignment is to encourage you to think critically about quantitative and qualitative considerations before making a recommendation. These are skills that are essential for you to be a successful accountant and businessperson.
