What is a cost of attending college that is not an opportunity cost?

The opportunity cost of attending college is?

• 1. the money one spends on college tuition, books, and so forth. 2. the highest valued alternative one forfeits to attend college. 3. the least valued alternative one ...show more

• Answer:

  The answer is choice #2 in your list. #1 is what you actually spend to attend college. But when you consider how much money you could have earned if you had been working for those four years instead of going to school, that's the opportunity cost -- #2 from your list of choices. There's actually a pretty good example in (of all places) The Simpsons!! There's an episode (link below) where Homer decides to make a business out of collecting grease and selling it to recyclers. After he's been at it for a week or so, Homer brags about how much money he made in his grease business. Marge lectures him about how much money he **could** have made if he had gone to work instead of spending all week collecting grease -- in other words, the opportunity cost.