Is The Cost Of College Worth It?

With college costs consistently on the rise, students and families may wonder if the holes in their pockets are really worth it.

President Obama is hoping to answer that question. In his weekly address on Saturday, the President announced the launch of a new database that aims to make the college selection process less of a guessing game for students who are often asked to make a very financially mature decision at a young age.

"The country with the best education workforce in the world is going to win the 21st century economy. I want that to be America," said the President in his announcement of the new tool, called the College Scorecard.

The College Scorecard is a website filled with data about every university in the country. Students can look up any university and find information about the cost, the average salary of graduates, the graduation rate - and even the typical monthly loan payment of alumni. 

Mellie Nolen, a junior at the University of Southern California, said she went into the college selection process without truly understanding financial aid distribution at USC.

She said if the scorecard existed when she was in high school, "It would have been a pretty hefty factor in my decision...I feel in a lot of ways that I kind of had the wool pulled over my eyes in terms of how generous the aid office really is."

Nolen's aid was completely taken away this summer, despite her mother being on welfare. Luckily, USC reinstated her full tuition grant. But she's still left wondering why she had to fight for the aid she believed she was owed originally.

"I love it here, so it was hard...You're wondering if it is going to be fully fixed or if I might even after having gone through all of this and coming back have to leave again." 

The USC Financial Aid Office had no comment on Nolen's story. While students like Nolen are praising the new scorecard, Patricia McGuire, President of Trinity Washington University, says the scorecard doesn't tell the story behind the numbers.

"It's really important to find out if you will fit in on that college campus...and that people will really care about you and none of those caring values are in the scorecard- it's just all about numbers that some people in Washington thought were important," said McGuire. 

The scorecard is one of several factors students should consider when deciding which college to attend. This will give students another tool they can use to decide where they'll be spending a lot of time...and, possibly, a lot of money.