Does college pay? Yes for nursing, engineering and econ, no for 31% of programs

Credit scores are crashing now that the government is trying to collect on student loans once again. "In the first three months of this year, 5.6 million borrowers had their student loans marked newly delinquent," reports the Morning Brew. It's no wonder young people -- and their parents -- are less confident that enrolling in college is worth the cost.

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College pays for most --not all -- students, concludes an updated FREOPP analysis of return on investment (ROI) for 53,000 different degree and certificate programs ranging from trade school to medical school. It looks at "the increase in lifetime earnings that a student can expect when they enroll in a certain degree program, minus the costs of tuition and fees, books and supplies, and lost earnings while enrolled," and includes the "debt but no degree" risk.

About 31 percent will see a negative ROI: They'll end up worse off than if they'd never enrolled in a postsecondary program.

Overall, the median ROI for bachelor's degree programs is $160,000, but "the payoff varies by field of study, the report concludes. "Bachelor’s degrees in engineering, computer science, nursing, and economics tend to have a payoff of $500,000 or more," while low-math majors such as "fine arts, education, English, and psychology usually have a smaller payoff — or none at all."

(Warning: The demand for computer-science graduates may be falling due to competition from AI.)

Certificates in technical skills "tend to have a stronger ROI than the median bachelor’s degree," data show. Two-year degrees in liberal arts or general education typically have no payoff.

The ROI of graduate school is "mixed." While degrees in law, medicine and dentistry are "extremely lucrative," MBA programs may not have a strong ROI. Overall, "nearly half of master’s degree programs leave students financially worse off."

"Around 29 percent of federal Pell Grant and student loan dollars over the last five years were used at programs that leave students with a negative ROI," the report notes. It's no wonder they can't repay their student loans.

ROI estimates for undergraduate programs are available here, and graduate programs are available here.

I earned a bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing at Stanford in 1974. If I was considering options now, I could expect a lifetime ROI of less $23,621, assuming on-time graduation, says FREOPP. A Stanford chemical engineering graduate can expect a ROI of $3,937,927.

Money isn't everything, Preston Cooper writes. But "high schoolers consistently tell pollsters that what they want most out of college is a good job that will help them earn more money."

Students who've done well in high school can bet they'll be able to pass their classes and complete their credentials. Those who are academically wobbly or going to college to drink beer and eat pizza with friends . . . You can "find" yourself without taking on debt.

Marginal students -- the ones who go because their parents pushed them -- benefit less from college than well-prepared students, writes Bryan Caplan. It's not just common sense. There's a study.