The newly developed UW-Madison Payback Calculator now allows students and families to find the financial benefit of earning a UW-Madison degree.
By simply plugging in personal information, the website gives the estimated financial payback after graduating UW-Madison.
According to Robert Haveman, the designer of the site and professor emeritus of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Payback Calculator targets high school students who fail to pursue education due to the fear of paying college tuition.
If [potential students] really understood what's paying off for college, [they] will be more likely to say 'I have to do things necessary to go to college and graduate,'"" Haveman said. ""The hope here is that it will encourage people, largely from lower-income families, who have trouble affording the upfront cost to say it's worthwhile for me to do it.""
Haveman said the site also aids high school counselors who talk to prospective college students about career planning and financial facts about college.
Former chancellor John Wiley, who helped to launch the site, said the Payback Calculator is a good assessment of the returnable investment and shows the value of a UW-Madison degree.
Wiley said the site gives ""discounted net present value,"" which is all the costs and returns from the college years. The discounted net present value considers many components, including the annual increases in earnings, the costs of attendance and financial aid gain.
""It will help anybody to figure out what you are going to get for whatever you pay ... There are quite sophisticated analyses, and it's not just back-of-the-envelope estimates,"" he said. ""It should give you a pretty good idea of what your degree is going to be worth.""
To use the calculator and find the economic payoff of your college education, visit www.payback.wisc.edu.
