It's hardly a surprise that college diplomas generate higher salaries than their high school counterparts.
But it turns out that they also generate more voters, non-smokers and community-service volunteers, a study says.
According to a College Board's report entitled "Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society," college graduates are more likely to be healthy, to volunteer, to vote - and even to be more tolerant of different opinions.
The report found that, in 2005, 61 percent of four-year college graduates aged 25 to 34 exercised vigorously at least once a week, as opposed to 31 percent of high-school graduates.
"It appears that education changes people's attitudes and behaviors," report co-author Sandy Baum said. "People are more likely to think about the future so that they are more willing to follow instructions of doctors, for example."
An updated sequel to the first edition, which was published in 2004, the report shows how individuals and societies profit from higher education, in both monetary and non-monetary terms.
It also emphasizes the differences in access to and success in college across demographic groups, Baum said.
"We thought that there is so much focus on the cost of higher education that it was important also to put a spotlight on the benefits of higher education - why it's worth it both for individuals and governments to be financing higher education," Baum said.
But not everyone is convinced that all of these benefits can be attributed to four years on campus.
Dean of School of Social Policy and Practice Richard Gelles said a college degree is not the sole reason for these findings, but that other factors, such as family background, also come in to play.
"A lot of the [report's] outcomes are dependent on the background of the kinds of students who go to colleges," Gelles said. "You have to take into consideration the socio-cultural differences between those who choose and can go to college versus those who choose not to or simply can't afford to go."
2004 College alumna Darcy Richie agreed, saying that college "opens the chances that you will be more tolerant, but it's not necessarily a correlation."
Still, others said that, though college life may not be a guaranteed stepping stone toward community awareness, it certainly doesn't hurt.
"As far as my studies [at Penn] go, it helped me to see the world differently," 2006 Education alumna Sarah Adams said.
