ROI of University Education is at least 100%

I read a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) article today on student cheaters who use the services of custom essay writers for submitting course papers. Such writer charges $150 to $500 per paper, and one writer reported that there are 20 papers in one course. The $150 charge is for an easy paper, and it can go up to $500 per paper if it is difficult.

This piece of information is useful for estimating the value of university education because it is a real business transaction that happens between a university student and a custom essay writer. $150 to $500 is the cost a student is willing to pay to have his paper authored by someone else in order to get a good grade. Although it does not directly reflect the income the student will make after he graduates, the $150 to $500 cost reflects directly how much the student values his good grade.

The value of his university education can thus be evaluated in real dollar amount by the cost per paper as this cost reflects his salary expectation of a job he will have after graduation. After all, he won't be willing to part with his money if he believes he won't be able to graduate and makes enough money to pay back the cost.

The 20 papers per course is an extreme number for a course, I admit, but on average for an arts degree I estimate there may be 8 papers per course, while for engineering, in contrast, the number of papers goes down to 1-2. The difficulty level of paper submitted for an engineering course will be higher since it is more technical and there are not many custom essay writers who can plagiarize engineering papers easily. Thus, on average the price of a university course is

($150 × 8 + $500 × 2)/2 = $1100.

There are usually 10 courses per academic year, so the total cost is $11,000. $11,000 is the expected value of higher education yield in one year.

A Canadian student pays about $5,500 tuition fee (per year): this is the cost of university. Hence, the expected return of investment (ROI) of university education is at least 100%.

The ROI of university education is at least 100% since we do not put values into the network a student develops while studying at a university. Having a university degree is one of the best financial decisions one can make as it is quite rare to have a business with at least 100% ROI annually over four years.

Fisika 10 Menit di Youtube. Berbahasa Indonesia. Yeah!

Sejak Januari 2014 saya membuat seri video Fisika 10 Menit di Youtube. Selama ini sudah 7 video yg sudah saya upload:

1. Posisi, Kecepatan & Akselerasi: Video #1 memperkenalkan konsep posisi, kecepatan, dan akselerasi. Bagaimana arah dan besar kecepatan dan akselerasi berhubungan satu sama lain. Kecepatan adalah derivatif posisi, sementara akselerasi adalah derivatif kecepatan.

2. Gerak Percepatan Sama/Konstan: Video #2 membahas solusi posisi dan kecepatan untuk gerak yang dipengaruhi oleh akselerasi konstan. Kasus percepatan konstan ini kasus dasar yang melandasi hampir semua soal-soal ujian fisika SMA yang berhubungan dengan mekanika/dinamik. Aplikasi konsep posisi, kecepatan, dan akselerasi di Video #1 diterapkan untuk menurunkan rumus-rumus dasar di video #2.

3. Tiga Contoh Gerak Percepatan Sama: Video #3 membahas tiga contoh gerak yang berlandaskan rumus-rumus dasar untuk gerak percepatan konstan yang diperoleh di video #2. Contoh-contoh ini dipilih khusus untuk memperjelas aplikasi rumus-rumus dari video #2.

4. Hukum Gerak Newton: Video #4 membahas tiga hukum gerak Newton: inersia, F = ma, dan aksi-reaksi. Hukum gerak Newton ini melandasi hubungan antara posisi, kecepatan, dan akselerasi yang diterangkan di video #1 sampai #3. Hukum gerak Newton baru dikenalkan di video #4 agar subscriber seri Fisika 10 Menit bisa terbiasa dulu dengan rumusan gerak berdasarkan posisi, kecepatan, dan akselerasi tanpa harus berpikir mengapa mereka terhubungkan seperti itu.

5. Gerak Dua Dimensi: Video #5 membahas gerak dua dimensi karena gaya tarik gravitasi bumi. Saya bahas konsep horizon dan asumsi bumi datar dengan memandang bumi sebagai bola. Saya juga bahas darimana gaya tarik gravitasi bumi berasal. 

6. Gaya Hambat: Video #6 menggabungkan gaya tarik gravitasi bumi dan gaya hambat udara (drag force). Solusi persamaan dari hukum gerak Newton menjadi lebih rumit, tapi saya paparkan darimana solusi ini berasal. Contoh terjun payung menggambarkan bagaimana rumus fisika yang didapat bisa diterapkan di kasus nyata.

7. Gerak Koordinat Polar Silinder: Video #7 membahas gerak partikel memakai sistem koordinat polar/silinder. Sistem koordinat polar/silinder ini dibutuhkan untuk gerak berputar yang banyak kita temui di aplikasi mesin. Kinematik (hubungan posisi, kecepatan, akselerasi) memakai sistem koordinat polar/silinder diterangkan dengan jelas. Hukum gerak Newton kemudian dijabarkan memakai sistem koordinat ini.