Is a Computer Science Degree Still Worth the Debt?, with Ron Lieber

About this episode

Ron Lieber discusses the current value of a computer science degree and the implications of student debt.

#711: A computer science degree used to feel like a sure thing. Job placement rates topped 90 percent. Starting salaries cleared $80,000. You could do the math on your student loans before you enrolled. That math doesn't work the same way anymore. New York Times "Your Money" columnist Ron Lieber joins us to walk through what families actually need to know before borrowing for college. He covers how to use the federal College Scorecard to look up earnings by school and by major. He explains why the scariest student loan headlines are almost always about graduate school rather than undergraduate debt. And he makes the case that liberal arts majors tend to catch up to their STEM peers by mid-career - even if the early numbers don't show it. Lieber also makes a case that the financial return on college extends beyond salary data. Alumni networks, mentorship, and lifelong friendships all factor into the equation. He suggests asking schools pointed questions about reunion attendance and alumni giving rates as a way to gauge how connected - and how useful - a community actually stays after graduation. On the debt question, Lieber draws a clear line between federal undergraduate loans…

People in this episode

Host: Paula Pant

Guest: Ron Lieber

Topics covered

• computer science degree
• student loans
• college education
• financial return on college
• community college

Keywords

• computer science
• student loans
• college debt
• financial education
• alumni networks

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York Times, College Scorecard

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