USC vs. UCLA - Not What You Think

While completing my bachelor's degree at the University of Southern California (USC), one of my economics professors compared the costs associated with attending USC (a private school) and its major rival, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, a public school). USC is quite a bit more expensive than UCLA. However, it is difficult to complete a bachelor's degree in four years at UCLA, so for that fifth year at UCLA, one is still paying tuition and fees whereas the USC graduate is done paying for school and is instead out in the world making a living.

My professor illustrated this in dollars and it made a lot of sense at the time to look at the situations opportunity cost. Opportunity costs are the different costs (and potential earnings) associated with different choices; what you gain or lose based on different routes. I really appreciated that this exercise was a big picture approach rather than just taking into consideration the costs in that moment.

The awareness for today is to look at the big picture and examine your opportunity costs when making decisions.
~Paul