It Costs Over $10 Million in Opportunity Cost to Go to College

[Jonathan Whatley]

A decent amount of college debt goes towards housing, meals, transportation, and other living expenses. Everyone will have incurred living expenses whether they went to college or not. Someone who completed an accelerated online degree at age 18 likely had their college study period living expenses paid largely or wholly by their parents.

Some well-paying jobs are available exclusively or generally based on on-campus study that aren’t available based on an accelerated online degree alone. No accelerated online degree you could expect to complete at 18 would lead to an entry-level job in nursing or mechanical engineering. A traditional – or a hybrid online, but not very accelerable – bachelor’s in each subject would.