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- The New York Times highlighted new data yesterday that once again beats the drum: despite skyrocketing costs, a college degree is a good investment. In fact, MIT economist David Autor writes in the journal Science that the value of a degree is rising. College grads made almost twice as much per hour in 2013 as workers without a four-year degree. And the lifetime value of a diploma is now around half a million dollars, even after you factor in tuition.
Well, we here at NPR Ed thought we'd play the skeptic and ask: When is college not worth it? Because, lo and behold, sometimes it isn't. Here are the three broad cases in which a college education, in fact, does not pay.