OPED: Shopping for the best college deal

Ripon College President Zach Messitte and Ruth Vedvik, principal at Minnesota-based enrollment counseling firm Hardwick-Day, penned an opinion editorial that appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press today on the value of a four-year liberal arts degree.

“The value of a four-year liberal arts degree is still worth it, and high school graduates are voting with their applications, but they are also shopping for the best deal,” writes Messitte and Vedvik. According to the pair, many of the private liberal arts colleges in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, of which Ripon College is a member, are seeing significant increases in applications this year despite a shaky economy.

The reason?

“Apparently, parents and their children still want to attend a residential college and are willing to pay, borrow and apply for scholarships in order to get a degree.

“…College is worth the price, and there is a return on investment for the money,” adds Messitte and Vedvik. “Study after study shows that college is on average 60 percent more expensive than it was in the early 1980s, but the increase in lifetime earnings that a college degree brings is 75 percent higher than it was 30 years ago.”

Click here to read the full opinion editorial as published in the Pioneer Press.

Another OPED on the topic appeared from Messitte and Vedvik in the print edition of the Chicago Sun-Times on December 26, 2012.