Although there have been studies on the rate of return to quantitative educational investment and on the effect of college’s qualitative investment, there remains no precedent research on the relationship between students’ qualitative choice and rate of return. Using the four-year college graduates’ educational information and job history data from the class of 1982, 1992 and 2002, this study analyses the rate of return of students’ qualitative selection.
The result suggests that the long-term rate of return of graduate school diploma were at the level of 10~13%, showing a higher level compared with the latest cohort. The rate of return of doctorate degree were higher than master’s degree by 2~2.5 times, and the rate of return decreased by about 2%p when individual ability was controlled. The rate of return of graduate school diploma was reduced as time went by in the labor market. In addition, the rate of return of double major and high grades showed significantly positive effect overall but did not have a significant influence on the wages of the 2002 graduates.