Josiah Bartlet (Jed) is a young man from Manchester, New Hampshire. He will graduate from high school at the end of 2017. He is considering two colleges to pursue his education at, the University of Notre Dame and the University of New Hampshire (UNH).
The regular Bachelor Degree in the USA is four years long. The tuition at the UNH is $ 13,672 a year. Jed, however, can take advantage of a 20% discount on the tuition at UNH, since he was born in New Hampshire.
Notre Dame has a considerably higher yearly tuition, $ 16,500 and is considered a more prestigious choice. Assume that the appropriate nominal interest/discount rate is 3%. ?Jed job prospects depend highly on his education.
If he goes to Notre Dame, he will most likely decide to continue to that school's prestigious law school for three years, paying a hefty tuition of 50,000 dollars a year.
The university of New Hampshire does not have a prestigious law school so, if Jed picks UNH, he will probably start working right away as a programmer. The average Notre Dame law school graduate earns $ 130,000 a year.
A programmer's average salary is $ 100,000. Assume Jed will work forever and that the salary as a lawyer stays constant through time.
What should the growth rate for a programmer salary be for the two careers to be equally profitable (after taking tuition fees into account)? ?