College ROI helps families, students, and counselors make smarter college decisions, backed by data instead of slogans. We treat college the way any serious financial decision deserves to be treated: an investment with real costs, real risks, and measurable returns.
How This Started
It started with a spreadsheet. More than a decade ago, when founder Leon Shivamber was weighing college for his own daughter, he could not find an honest answer to a simple question: is this degree worth what it costs? Drawing on his training as a McKinsey consultant, he built a model to evaluate college as an investment. Today that model runs on the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and covers nearly 6,000 institutions and more than 26,000 degree combinations.
The result surprised him, and it still holds. On recent data, at the median, once you account for costs, taxes, and the wages a student gives up while enrolled, the typical four-year graduate loses money compared with the typical high school graduate: about $82,000 at the full cost of attendance, and about $17,500 even at the median net price. That finding became the ROI calculator, a companion book, and this site.
What We Offer
- The model. Run your own numbers for a specific school, field, and price with our ROI calculator, built on federal College Scorecard data downloaded in March 2026.
- The book. The full analysis, evidence, and methodology behind the model. Read the argument.
- The guides. Dedicated companions for parents, students, and counselors, each built around this analysis, are on the way.
Our Analytic Approach
We begin with the best data available. Most of the facts and statistics in our models come from the National Center for Education Statistics and the College Scorecard. We then apply the full discipline that popular college-value studies use only in part: the time value of money, taxes, the full cost of attendance, and the opportunity cost of foregone wages.
Run the College ROI model now.
Our Content Integrity Promise
College ROI is committed to content integrity. The quality and trustworthiness of our analysis matter to us, and we hold every claim to a standard of accuracy and transparency.
We tell readers when an article contains an error, and we fix it quickly. If you believe we have published a factual error, please let us know at corrections@collegeroi.org and we will investigate and correct it.
Our analysis is independent and impartial. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content, and we maintain a strict separation between advertising and the work itself.
Our Policies
Connect With Us
We love to hear from our readers. If you have a comment, suggestion, or correction, email us at contact@collegeroi.org. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. For press inquiries, email press@collegeroi.org.
College ROI
Attn: Tom McKeefery
454 Elm Creek Drive
St. Augustine, FL 32092