It is commonly said that a college degree will generate more than $1 million in additional income during a graduate's lifetime. Indeed, that seductive statistic can even be found on the Department of Education's website. Unfortunately, I fear many students and their families have borrowed heavily, lured by this seven-figure "college premium."

Yet this premium is an average and varies widely by the choice of major. Capturing the premium depends on students graduating, and less than 60 percent do so, leaving many with the worst of both worlds: debt and no degree. In addition, it represents enhanced income, not wealth, and the wealth premium college graduates used to enjoy has seriously eroded, presumably due in part to student debt obligations interfering with their ability to save and invest.

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Consistent with that thesis, in the recent CNBC Invest in You and Acorns Savings Survey, when asked what kept survey participants from saving more money, the most common answer among college graduates was "paying off debt."

The question of whether college is worth it cannot be answered with an easy soundbite. It requires good information about the costs of financing college and the outcomes students can reasonably expect to achieve. Unfortunately, that information is simply not available to most students.