Late last night we presented a scathing report highlighting the extensive downside case [2] why a college education may be best described as a "waste of time and money." But surely it can't be all "cons" - after all, with student debt now well over an all time high $1 trillion (ignoring that a substantial amount of that notional is used for anything but) there must be a reason why year after year record amounts of young adults scramble into the warm embrace and soothing promises about the future of a college education... which has never cost more.
Why? In order to present a balanced view, on the chart below we show the conventional wisdom about the "pros" of higher learning. 
[3]
We leave it up to our readers to decide if the lifetime NPV of loan outflows is enough to make up for the increased weekly wages and so called greater career opportunities arising from having a piece of paper with some Latin scribbles on it.