Want more money? Get the degree

HUNTINGTON -- It seems fairly obvious. People who get their college degrees make more than those who don't.

Still, retention rates aren't where Marshall University officials would like them to be, with 75 percent of freshman students returning for their sophomore year.

MU President Stephen Kopp has said more than once that he would like that rate to be above 80 percent, and has been outspoken about the value of a college degree and its impact on future earnings.

"The difference between having a college degree and not having one is $1.5 million in earnings over a lifetime," Kopp said.

He also said that just attending college without finishing doesn't typically help improve earnings.

"If you start and don't finish, you're no better off than if you never started," he said.

Sue Wright, a senior career counselor at Marshall, said she often has discussions with students who are experiencing burnout, or don't think college is working out and want to quit.

"With every student, the circumstances are different," she said. "But there's no question the difference in earnings right away between college and just completing high school is immense."

Wright said she tries to encourage those students to stay in school.

"It's usually a matter of talking them through the semester; just getting them through that," she said. "Every student has the semester from hell at some point."

Wright also said it's sometimes a matter of making sure students are in the right program.

"Some students select a major for all the wrong reasons," she said. "Their parents want them to be a doctor, so they go into the school of science. The thing is to find what they like to do, what they want to do and what they're good at."

Marshall tries to get that message across early. Nearly every freshman student takes a course called University 101, which simply works to acclimate the student to college life, the struggles they may find and the resources available to them.

One of those resources is the MU Career Counseling department, which goes to every University 101 class each year and makes a presentation.

"We talk to them about careers and internships and what we can help them with," Wright said. "Sometimes the goal of a student is just to graduate, but for a lot of people, getting a good job is the ultimate goal."