Deciding to attend a Maine college may be one of the best decisions you ever make. This is the favorite state of many Americans, with its picturesque harbors, rocky coastline, sparkling seafood, and pristine interior forests and mountains. The people of Maine are well-educated, if a trifle taciturn, and they remain loyal lifelong friends once you get to know them. The same can be said of their beautiful state: once you come to Maine, chances are you will never leave.
Studies have shown that Maine college graduates have a much larger earning potential than non-graduates. Attending a college or university in Maine and earning a degree is an investment in your future, and you need to think about a college education in those terms to justify the expense for a degree.
Maine government and higher/secondary education system has a stake in either helping offset the cost of a college education, or helping students prepare for the rigors of study for a college degree. A good measure of how much Maine government is helping subsidize a higher education is the percentage income it takes a family to send one of its members to school. The lower the percentage, the more Maine is helping its citizens pay for higher education. The percentage of young and working adults who go to school in Maine is also a good measure of how well Maine education systems are preparing its citizens for a higher education degrees.
In Maine, an average of 25% of a family's income is spent sending one of its members to school, which means that Maine ranks #34 among the rest of the states in affordability. In terms of higher education, ie. college participation, 28% of Maine's young adults and 3.40% of Maine's working population, ranking #43 and #29 among the other states, respectively, enroll in higher education.*