Buying A College Degree: Did Aunt Becky Overpay?

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The Indicator from Planet Money Buying A College Degree: Did Aunt Becky Overpay? Buying A College Degree: Did Aunt Becky Overpay? Listen · 9:43 9:43

This week's news stories about corruption and cheating in the college admissions process is an eye-opening lesson in how much people value getting their children into certain schools.

Lori Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on the TV sitcom Full House, paid $500,000 to get her two daughters into the University of Southern California. That seemed like a lot to us... and raised the question: is a slot at a top-tier university worth that kind of money?

An impossible question to answer, you say? Well, Adam Brownlee, a finance professor at Western Kentucky University, has taken a stab at trying to answer it. He joins us today to talk about the economic value of a college degree.

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