The hidden ROI of college degree and fees–for Indian parents and families
- family dynamics
- August 21, 2025
Return on investment of college fees and degree in India
We see some online tools to help us calculate the ROI of college fees and investments. However, there is a much broader context in addition to what these tools show.
Many universities share the ROI of their college courses and programs during the counselling sessions, assuming that it helps the students and the family to understand where they should invest for the college degree. If you are new to this, see this article by Preston Cooper, and this tool for the Indian audience.
To see the return on investment by using such calculators is a very limited-dimensional view of the role of college education. Steering is designed to address more holistic concerns in the families—for their deeper and long-term dynamics in the family as the student grows and makes a transition from the college to workspace, and to their own families.
Imagine a kid who completes their education, in the subjects of their choice, while enjoying the journey, with complete focus, and with absolute support from their family and loved ones. They have clarity about career path, have some industry insights and reports (an evolving library) and they get into their work of choice, and everyone is celebrating.
The kid might have faced some hurdles, a bad day in the hostel, or missing an exam because of being unwell—but that is part of the process, and is unavoidable. The gain is—they were completely in synch for what the kid was studying, why, and how it helped the family, collectively, for their common dreams and aspirations. No formula can capture this sentiment.
Isn’t it a dream ROI for all of them?
We often think of the moments when a student completes their college degree and starts planning for a job or their own work, an agency, or consultancy to build on that education.
Imagine that if it was a family’s collective and well-thought decision and they were together throughout the journey from day one, the family dynamics can be so positive and supportive for the career path.
They carry forward this sentiment for years, of mutual respect, support, and a stronger bond. The four years in college are a journey, and the pressure and grades and learnability in college are of course influenced by how the family thinks about it.
A well-steered career path for a college degree builds more opportunities for the civic engagement for everyone in the family. This is something that the students might not realize immediately, but their family certainly enjoys it.
Later after a few years in career, the student will also see how it helps them when their life begins to connect with the society for more use cases—for their own family, for work opportunities, and other real life scenarios.
The opportunities to get involved with the society, the local administration, the policy or practice, and with the environment play a massive role in how the family thrives for whatever their aspirations or goals are. The 2542% ROI showing on your screen will never show these gains.
You might have noticed it in your neighborhood or in your contacts that some people have a better quality of life. It is not only about the financial stability, it is a combination of many factors.
Finances help, and it means that those families can afford to have access to quality healthcare, safe and happy neighborhood, plan vacations, and the way they celebrate festivals or family events—it also speaks about their internal harmony, and the shared purpose of enjoying that lifestyle.
Education helps and when education is supported by the family during the entire lifecycle, it helps even more.
Traditionally, completing a college degree and then making a transition to the work life is a partnership with your family—parents, loved ones, siblings, and significant others. We take it as a given assuming this is how life is with its own set of challenges.
With Steering, you can build this transition for a more positive experience, where everyone feels proud, prepared, and committed and where it is not really a power-struggle, or a superiority complex, or “I told you so” statements.
While on Steering, students can build these bridges when they invest in the foundation—something we strongly believe in.
“When the students and their parents and family use Steering for the career counselling and guidance concerns, Steering considers education as family asset building responsibility, and not a personal competition among the family members.”
Investing in the college degree is a massive decision for students anywhere in the world. In Indian families and possibly in many other countries too, the ROI of college degree fees is much more than what the calculators show—it runs deep into the family dynamics, in their connected paths, aspirations, life-dreams as the family as a single unit, and it carries forward to the next generation.
Steering is happy to be working with the families.
We have a free trial for you.
Our analysis structure in the free plan helps you in thinking deeply about your life-dreams, aspirations, wishes, and in connecting the dots for what you want to do, what skills you should learn, how to apply those skills in real life work, and what brings joy in your life when you grow up.
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