Education plays an important role in most people's life. It is one of the necessary steps that everyone should go through. A good education can help people build personal identity and let them have a basic perspective of this world. Among education, college is one of the most critical experiences. It is the last phase of the education process for most people before they start a career. College students should learn what they are most interested in or what they are going to do for living after graduating. Therefore, college cannot be ignored when it comes to education. The education quality of universities has been discussed among parents and students. On the one hand, they want to, or they want their children to get the best education. On the other hand, they also have concerns about the tuition: is it really worth paying expensive tuition?

The tuition fee is a big factor that people would consider when they decide which university they should apply to because, for most families, tuition fees are huge expenses. Parents and students want to spend the money smart because it is an investment for life. Normally, money that comes from tuition can help universities to develop its campus and improve its education quality. According to the study, The average cost of attending a four-year college or university in the United States rose by 497% between the 1985-86 and 2017-18 academic years, more than twice the rate of inflation. ('https://www.forbes.com/sites/zengernews/2020/08/31/college-tuition-is-rising-at-twice-the-inflation-rate-while-students-learn-at-home/?sh=74fcdd632f98') The tuition fee increases so fast in recent years. Colleges always claim they will provide higher quality education than before when the tuitions are less expensive. However, is it true that universities with expensive tuitions can provide high-quality education? It is an important question to think about.

In the United States, there are two types of universities: public and private. Normally, private universities provide better educational resources but have more expensive tuitions. On the other hand, public universities are more affordable compared to private universities, but they admit a large number of students so each student will get comparatively limited educational resources. In this case, it is worth studying the percentage of these two types of colleges in the United States and how do they locate. Which state has the most private universities? Are these private universities more expensive than public universities as people expect?

In common sense, people always think that expensive universities are strict about admission since the expensive universities need to make sure that each student gets enough educational resources to charge high tuition. People also think that expensive universities normally have better performance on college rankings because they have a lot of money coming from the tuitions to support researches and campus development. On the other hand, expensive universities normally are considered to have high enroll rates. One of the reasons for this is people think expensive universities are more attractive because they have better rankings and higher quality education. However, are all assumptions above correct? What features would an expensive university have? Are expensive universities more competitive than non-expensive universities?

Moreover, since one of the main reasons people go to colleges is to find better jobs, it is important to know that will students who graduated from colleges with higher tuition get jobs with higher payments. Although companies indeed like to hire students who graduated from good universities, will these students have more potential to get promoted at work, and will they get higher payments as they start careers?

In addition to studying the relationship between expensive universities and incomes, it is important to know how is the major going to influence incomes. Stem majors have become popular choices for students in recent years. Anyone studying the humanities probably has a story of someone raising a skeptical eyebrow and asking: "What do you plan to do with that?" Students who major in science, technology, engineering, and math fields, however, are usually congratulated on choosing a dependable, lucrative path. Therefore, this research will also study what is the percentage of stem majors for each college? And are stem major helpful for students to get jobs with higher payments?