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Two out of three Americans are so totally over Michael Jackson news coverage. This has been an amazing event, the whole nation and over 500M people watched the Memorial ceremony.

michael jackson memorials

But if you checked out the social networks on even a day before Jackson’s public memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles, this one fact becomes obvious: A whole lot of Internet users — American or otherwise — sure aren’t sick of discussing it themselves.

By the time those who won lottery tickets to the memorial had taken their seats, Jackson’s official Facebook fan page closed in on almost 7 million members. Prior to the self-proclaimed “King of Pop’s” death, the page hosted only 80,000.

Questioning whether you should go to college? Here are five ways that a college education will make you a better person:

1. It will likely make you more prosperous.
2. It will give you a better quality of life.
3. It will give you the power to change the world.
4. It will be something you can pass on to your children.
5. It makes you a major contributor to the greatest nation on earth.

First things first, because I know you’re thinking “Show me the money.” The lifetime income of families headed by individuals with a bachelor’s degree will be about $1.6 million more than the incomes of families headed by those with a high-school diploma, according to the Postsecondary Education Opportunity Research Letter. The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that in 1999, average income for a male age 25 or over who holds a bachelor’s degree was about $61,000, compared to about $32,000 for a male with a high-school diploma — so the college graduate’s income was about $29,000 more annually than the high-school grad’s. And incomes of those with only a high-school education are sinking steadily lower.

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Now, unfortunately, women still make less money than men do, but the news for females who choose higher education is truly phenomenal: In a 1997 study, young women who had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher earned 91 percent more than young women with no more than a high-school diploma or GED.

A college education is an extraordinarily profitable investment. Every dollar spent on a young man’s college education produces $34.85 in increased lifetime income. Any Wall Street stockbroker would envy that kind of investment yield — especially these days. You say you can’t afford to go to college? The Postsecondary Education Opportunity Research Letter says you can’t afford not to.

College may be expensive, but the only thing more expensive than getting a college education is not getting one. The income differential empowers you to make choices that enrich your life.

Next year, my cousin Chrstine Lotmajer a native of Nashville, Tenn., will complete his law degree at Oxford University, and he’ll qualify to take the New York State Bar exam. Assuming he passes, he’ll become a practicing attorney at age 22. She didn’t skip grades in high school or overload on his college coursework. Instead, he chose to attend college in England where most undergraduate programs — including law school — are three years long and where students begin their major on the very first day of classes.

“I knew since high school that I wanted to be a lawyer,” says Schuller. “Once I realized that the Oxford law degree could get me straight to the Bar exam, going there seemed like the obvious choice.”

In addition to skipping four years of traditional undergrad education, Schuller saved big bucks. Tuition for U.S. students at Oxford costs about $20,000 per year — or $60,000 to get a law degree. If Schuller had attended the University of Chicago, which was his first choice in the U.S., he’d pay more than $93,000 for an undergraduate degree, and then have to pay for a three-year J.D. to boot.

As college tuition costs continue to rise at nearly double the rate of inflation, many parents and students are faced with the tough decision of taking out thousands of dollars in loans to attend a private university or choosing a more affordable state school. But another option that students should consider is pursuing their undergraduate degree at a college abroad, says Tom Conger, founder of Social Technologies, a research and consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., London and Shanghai. International tuition fees at top universities in the U.K. and Canada trim anywhere from a quarter to half the price of tuition at U.S. private universities and come neck-and-neck with tuition paid by out-of-state students. And, in many cases, these undergraduate programs are significantly shorter, saving students both time and money.

“As tuition costs continue to increase, more college-bound students will look for educational opportunities outside the U.S.,” says Conger. “In many cases, it’s in their favor to look at colleges abroad that have a world-wide reputation but cost just a fraction of most elite U.S. universities.”

Universities in England are particularly well-suited to students who are certain of the major they want to study and especially for aspiring lawyers. Unlike the American educational system, English universities don’t offer a core curriculum of arts and sciences, which means that prospective students must declare their major during the application process. (Otherwise, if an enrolled student has a change of heart, he or she will have to reapply for the following year.) After three years at a British university, law students qualify for the Bar exams in the U.S. and for specialized courses in any European Union country, if they choose to practice law there.