As Eliz­a­beth men­tioned, Feb­ru­ary is a month filled with oppor­tu­ni­ties for bud­ding rela­tion­ships (col­lege accep­tance let­ters) and heart­break. (sigh…rejection letters).

In some cases, these same let­ters may force some soon-to-be grad­u­at­ing high schools seniors to revisit a ques­tion they once con­fi­dently answered months before pen­ning rough draft per­sonal state­ments. What's more, the answer to this ques­tion may not arrive after one discussion.

The ques­tion is sim­ple: “What’s the value of a col­lege degree?” Using qual­i­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive analy­sis, Wall Street Jour­nal colum­nist Sue Shel­len­barger attempted to answer that ques­tion. Below you will find excerpts from her Decem­ber 2009 arti­cle as well as some great BetterGrads-inspired com­men­tary.

Find­ing work you love. Col­lege degrees can guide stu­dents' career choices in sub­tler ways. Jason Wot­man, 24, loves his work as a co-founder of Tail­wait­ers, a Great Neck, N.Y., startup that runs tail­gate par­ties for clients at sport­ing events and con­certs. "It's mine, it's my baby. Every step, every ounce of progress, feels good," he says.

His degree in human and orga­ni­za­tional devel­op­ment from Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­sity helped launch him as an entre­pre­neur, he says. His courses in mar­ket­ing, human-resource man­age­ment and lead­er­ship equipped him well to size up oppor­tu­ni­ties and run a startup. "Tak­ing it from an idea to an actual busi­ness, I felt like I had the tools," he says.

BG com­ments: Jason’s story illus­trates how col­lege is an incu­ba­tor for great ideas. On a sim­i­lar note, course­work, research grants, and vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties pre­pared our own Kevin Adler to run Bet­ter­grads.

Prepar­ing for a rich, well-rounded life: To Megan DeLa­mar Schroeder, Texarkana, Texas, plan­ning the col­lege expe­ri­ence based entirely on future income demeans its true value. "The intan­gi­ble ben­e­fits … can­not be reduced to some kind of short-term cost benefit-analysis, as though one is pur­chas­ing a piece of prop­erty or an expen­sive sports car," she says.

She bor­rowed $40,000 to earn an eco­nom­ics degree from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity in the 1980s, which landed her only an entry-level job at a bank upon grad­u­a­tion. She spent 10 years pay­ing off her stu­dent loans. But the expe­ri­ence was worth every penny, she says. The oppor­tu­nity "to 'mar­i­nate' for four years in an amaz­ing envi­ron­ment" served as a "spring­board to life­long learn­ing and inquis­i­tive­ness," she says. She will encour­age her 10-year-old twin daugh­ters to hew to sim­i­lar val­ues when they start their col­lege search, she says.

BG com­ments: What’s the value of “expe­ri­ence” and “intan­gi­ble ben­e­fits?” As Chris Ander­son, author of Free: The Future of a Rad­i­cal Price notes, “Tuition buys direct prox­im­ity to ask ques­tions, share ideas, and solicit feed­back from aca­d­e­mics like [UC Berke­ley Physics Pro­fes­sor Richard] Muller. It’s access to the net­work of other stu­dents and the idea exchange, help, and rela­tion­ships this pro­vides.” That sounds like value to me.

Click here to read the full arti­cle and feel free to share your thoughts below.