ROI by major and college

[sanantone]

I'm not sure that you're missing anything.  You can decide if you agree with me or not.  I suppose that what I'm saying is that ROI, in the way that I think about it, is about more than just income.  When you earn a degree you invest more than just money.  You invest time, you invest effort and it could even be said that there's an emotional investment (in the sense that motivation, the occasional frustrating Professor, the occasional annoying cohort member are emotional costs).  There are also the opportunity costs involved, some of which involve things like time with your family, time having fun of different types, etc.  A more complete definition of ROI might yield different results when evaluating which college major one should choose.  I know that potentially, I could have earned a lot more money if I had studied Accounting.  I also think I would have been remarkable unhappy because I just don't like that kind of work.  Fortunately for us all, there are people who like that kind of stuff.  I think the relationships that exist between the various factors are complex.  Income is a part of it, for sure.  I can try to quantify the intangibles by bringing in states re mental health, divorce, etc.  Medical health is clearly a factor in people's lives.  What's the correlation between profession and stroke or college major and heart attacks? How about college major and obesity or diabetes?  It's difficult to quantify intangibles but I believe that intangibles should be included in ROI.  You are free to disagree.

I'm just saying that your link didn't support your argument about divorces because physicians and engineers are less likely to get divorced. Also, the article you posted on suicides doesn't source its information. They linked to the main page of CDC/NIOSH. According to the CDC, construction and extraction workers have the highest suicide rate. As a matter of fact, blue collar jobs, in general, account for most of the occupations with high suicide rates. Physicians have a higher than average suicide rate, but it's not as high as many blue collar jobs. Low-paying and high-paying jobs in the medical field have higher than average suicide rates for obvious reasons, but they're not dropping dead left and right from suicide. The article I posted is about bachelor's programs, so the ROI for medical school is irrelevant. Some medical specialties have a low ROI, especially in comparison to other six figure professions that only require a bachelor's or master's degree. Even a PhD is usually cheaper than going to medical school.  

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6903a1.htm

Construction and agriculture jobs have low life expectancies due to accidents, injuries, and the toll the physical labor takes on their bodies. Public safety jobs have low life expectancies because of the high stress, which leads to chronic health issues. They're also more likely to get into accidents because they drive more than the average person. Truck drivers also have lower life expectancies because of the nature of their job. In general, white collar professionals live longer than unskilled laborers. Blue collar workers also have more issues with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. Some blue collar jobs expose people to chemicals and pollutants that can lead to cancer and respiratory issues. Additionally, income affects one's access to quality healthcare and one's ability to live in safer neighborhoods.

https://gizmodo.com/jobs-that-kill-what-...on-5857406

It's ironic that you used the medical field for your example because medical professionals tend to have higher than average job satisfaction because they feel like their work has a purpose and helps others. 

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-a...bs-4163539